A press release from the New Zealand First party. I am not in New Zealand and know little about this party, but Winston Peters, the party leader and a member of the New Zealand Parliament, raises a good point in this press release: will New Zealand live under one system of laws, or declare Muslims exempt from them? From the New Zealand First site, with thanks to Paul Nilsson:
Rt Hon Winston Peters has suggested that a veiled Muslim woman who told a judge she would rather kill herself than reveal her face while giving evidence in an upcoming fraud case might be better off living in a Muslim country.A hearing was held in Auckland yesterday to determine whether two Muslim women have to remove their burqas in the upcoming case. They claim that to do so would be embarrassing and against their religion.
Mr Peters said it was a simple case about whether New Zealanders lived under one set of rules for all or whether these rules could be bent or broken to fit in with newcomers.
“We have a system of open justice and that means the demeanor of witnesses in court cases can be seen by the judge, jury and counsel. Only in truly exceptional and serious cases can a witness be seated behind a screen or barrier.
“Most New Zealanders would be disturbed that a person prefers suicide to complying with reasonable court rules was living in their midst.
“People who come here from countries with extreme religious views and customs should seriously think about resettling where practices of covering up faces are the norm.”Mr Peters said he was also concerned that Muslim women were permitted to wear veils when photographs were taken for drivers’ licences.
“This is ridiculous. How do police identify people wearing what amounts to a mask?
“If people come to New Zealand they should fit in with our systems. If they prefer to kill themselves, we say that they would be better off living somewhere else.
“You only have to look at Europe to see the chaos caused by importing people with extreme religious views,” Mr Peters concluded.
That's for sure.
At last some plain common sense! Hurray Winston Peters.
Re: " a veiled Muslim woman who told a judge she would rather kill herself than reveal her face while giving evidence" . . .
Very well then,
Call her bluff.
I just e-mailed the Right Honorable Winston Peters to congratulate him on his stand. Now he just has to stick to it and forget about being PC. I think Mr. Peters is an indigineous New Zealander, so maybe he will escape the "racist" namecalling.
Yes, why does she think this is a "threat"? We are more than happy to oblige. . .justice is more important than some stupid cow's irrational clothing fetish.
“People who come here from countries with extreme religious views and customs should seriously think about resettling where practices of covering up faces are the norm.”
Yes!!! We should have people like Mr. Peters in the US.
Very encouraging response. So normal and yet so rare. Europeans, too, have a lot to learn from people like him.
NZ First appears to be the New Zealand version of the UK Independence Party. A quirky sort of populist-but-not-racist immigration restrictionist party.
Scandie, yes, I was also taken with the normality of what he said. It's so refreshing to hear some-one talk like that.
good job Mr. Peters- Perhaps New Zealand won't follow Europe's bad example afer all.
Too bad the Canadian Government doesn't have this type of spine to stand up for the 99 percent of non-Muslims in Canada.
A recent protest by CAIR forced the Customs and immigration workers at Airports to exempt Hijab wearing persons to remove it to prove they match the photo on the passport. A while back the complaint was to have female Customs agents
take the Hijabbed person to a room for it to be removed,now any one of the 1.2 billion Muslims
outside of Canada can dress up to hide their identity and get into Canada if they want to
commit Jihad on Canadians or board a connecting flight to the USA.
Just wait until Al-Qaeda does what they do in the MiddleEast,they take short thin men and strap
on a C4 belt and then fully cover the suicide
bomber with a female gown and veil. This tactic works when security workers fear violence by Muslims for offending Islam by asking for the removal of the hijab or veil,the right to wear a religious headpiece shouldn't over rule my right
to being protected.
Maybe the Government respects costumes as a Right,but in this case they may prove to be "Dead right" and we will be sacrificed on the alter of political corectness. Ironically though,I heard a Muslim say that if any relative is injured by terrorism because of a lack of security efforts,they will sue the Government for not doing enough to stop Islamic Jihadists from entering the Country.
You just can win when dealing with Muslims.
NO ISLAM - KNOW PEACE
I would also like to e-mail mr.Winston Peters and congratulate him for his courage,integrity and clear thinking.
Anyone has his e-mail adress?!
Bravo, Mr. Peters
This is a good question to ask indeed. If they are so inconvenienced by the rules of the coutries that were kind enough to accept them, they might as well just stay home (sweet home). They just sooo ready to come into someone else's home and demand, demand, demand, demand. Guess what - New Zealand will not announce a national day of mourning if you decide to go back...Try and complain of mistreatment there and see what happens..
They say removing the burqa is against their religion. But you see Muslim women wearing all sorts of varying modes of coverups, from a simple headscarf to this walking letterbox outfit. So which is it? Does Islam require women to cover up their faces, or just their hair, or both, or what? Why do some wear Western dress and a headscarf, while others wear a chador, and others a jilbab, an abaya, a dishdish, a hijab, and on and on and on. I saw a website that showed at least a dozen types of Islamic gear for women, and I see varying examples on the streets. Seems to me this is more personal preference, not about religion. Or a case of a backward, ancient tribal custom which should be given no place in modern society. Time to move with the times, people!
The accused, judge and jury have the right to face the accuser, to see the expression on their faces & body language when they speak. All this is not possible while your accuser is wearing a sack. They make rape victims sit there, in full view of their rapists, give evidence, and recount their horror and degradation with the eyes of their rapist on them the whole time. Yet this twit is all hysterical about even being in the same room with other males, over a fraud case. One of the two women is the sister of the defendant. If the women can't testify properly and satisfactorily to judge and jury, then it might mess up the case. Maybe that's what they want.
Mr. Peters: “If people come to New Zealand they should fit in with our systems. If they prefer to kill themselves, we say that they would be better off living somewhere else."
Or better yet, "If they prefer to kill themselves, we say they ______"
Fill in the blank.
For a start how will the court know if the person who is testifying is the right person or not. Anybody could come in and testify in her name. This is ridiculous. Our justice system has moved on since the Middle Ages. I’m sure that people who immigrate into western countries know this. The problem is that they don’t care. They come into western countries, yet they expect to live exactly the same way they did in their home countries, just better off. They view the laws, customs and people in their new country as mere inconvenience.
For a start how will the court know if the person who is testifying is the right person or not. Anybody could come in and testify in her name. This is ridiculous. Our justice system has moved on since the Middle Ages. I’m sure that people who immigrate into western countries know this. The problem is that they don’t care. They come into western countries, yet they expect to live exactly the same way they did in their home countries, just better off. They view the laws, customs and people in their new country as mere inconvenience.
The headcover issue is also causing a problem in Canada for Police Officers,Islamic groups want to deny the Police the right for a female Muslim driver to prove she is the one in the photo.
Not only do they want men banned from dealing with female Muslims,now the Cops can't even have a female officer check the face to match it to the photo.
Why even bother using photos if Muslims get a exemption from it,imagine trying to track down a potential suicide bomber that's dressed up a a female and has his Sisters License to fool the Cops,hundreds of people get slaughtered and CAIR
along with other smug groups with again blame the security forces for failing to stop it and in turn causing harm to the image of Islam.
Maybe when the Jihadists start attacking western
Muslims by blowing up Mosques in America,then they'll warm up to profiling and demanding females remove their head coverings BEFORE entering the Mosque.
Islams defence of human rights and justice appears to be for only Muslims,the rest of us can rot in the streets while they scream "Islamophobia" .