War Is Deceit, after all, but I can’t help but wonder about the implications of stories like this for the West. Multiculturalists are in a tizzy about attempts to ban the burqa in France and elsewhere, and American officials apologize profusely for asking a Muslim woman to remove her hijab (which is, of course, a far cry from a burqa) for a driver’s license photo — but what about the security hazards posed by the nature of the burqa itself? “Bombers dressed in burkas kill 41 in Pakistan: Officials were distributing food to refugees when explosions went off,” from The Associated Press, April 17:
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Two suicide bombers dressed in burqas blew themselves up Saturday in a camp for refugees fleeing military offensives in northwestern Pakistan, killing 41 people and wounding 62, officials said.
The blasts occurred at a food distribution point, but there were conflicting reports whether the victims were lining up for food or being registered. The camp is sometimes used by foreign humanitarian groups, including the World Food Program, to deliver aid.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani army admitted that civilians were killed in an airstrike last Saturday in the northwest that supposedly targeted militants. It did not say how many had died, but apologized in a rare acknowledgment of an error that could help reduce anger among local tribes, whose support it needs to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida.
The two suicide bombers struck six minutes apart at a camp in the Kacha Pukka area of Kohat, a tribally administered region close to the Afghan border. They were dressed in burqas, the all-encompassing veil worn by conservative Muslim women in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, local police official Abdullah Khan said….