The Swiss government has opposed a “grassroots campaign for a nationwide ban on facial coverings in public that will prompt a binding referendum.” As an alternative, the Swiss government has suggested adopting laws that “would prevent people from covering their faces when dealing with officials and punish anyone who forced women to conceal their faces with up to three years in jail.”
Muslim women who wear the burqa wear it publicly at all times. To oppose the anti-burqa campaign and propose such an alternative is illogical and mere political posturing out of fear of appearing “intolerant” and “Islamophobic.” “Officials” exist in multiple spheres of society, so how does one determine which “officials” require faces to be shown? Furthermore, how could anyone determine who is forcing a Muslim woman to wear a burqa? Do Swiss authorities expect a woman covered in a burqa to report her husband and/or members of her community who strictly adhere to sharia?
Swiss proponents of the burqa have asserted that a ban “intrudes on religious freedom,” yet the Swiss government will not openly approve other aspects of sharia, such as FGM, child marriage, forced marriage, polygamy, the triple talaq, and the inferiority of women, Christians, Jews and other religious minorities.
The definition of religious freedom has not been adequately elucidated in Western society. Religious freedom is widely understood to be a right that allows one to worship in any faith tradition freely without persecution. It does not allow for the trampling of another’s rights. One cannot violate Western constitutional protections of human rights in the name of “religious freedom.” There are also norms in the West that facilitate security and a sense of safety. One has a right, for example, to know the face of the school bus driver who is transporting one’s children. One also has a right to be able to identify a driver who may have caused an accident and fled the scene. One also has a right to see the face of a person arrested and appearing for questioning in a courtroom.
“Swiss government rejects proposed burqa ban,” by Michael Shields, Reuters, July 27, 2018:
ZURICH (Reuters) – The Swiss government opposed on Wednesday a grassroots campaign for a nationwide ban on facial coverings in public that will prompt a binding referendum, the latest twist in a Europe-wide crackdown on burqas championed by anti-Muslim activists.
The Swiss cabinet said individual cantons should decide on the matter, which nevertheless will go to a nationwide vote under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy after activists last year gathered enough public support.
Measures against the wearing of Islamic veils have already been taken in Belgium, France, Denmark and Spain, among others, with the Netherlands passing its own ban this week.
The Swiss government suggested instead adopting laws that would prevent people from covering their faces when dealing with officials and punish anyone who forced women to conceal their faces with up to three years in jail.
“The government is aware that facial coverings can lead to problems. With its proposals it suggests targeted and specific legal measures in areas in which it has authority,” the cabinet said after a meeting.
“The initiative would make it impossible to take into account the individual cantons’ differing sensitivities, in particular removing their ability to determine for themselves how they wish to treat tourists from Arab states who wear facial coverings,” it added.
The face veil ban will come to a binding referendum after activists last year collected the more than 100,000 signatures required to put the proposal to a national vote.
The group, called “Yes to a Mask Ban”, includes some leaders who also spearheaded the 2009 Swiss ban on constructing new minarets.
Full-face coverings such as niqabs and burqas are a polarising issue across Europe, with some arguing that they symbolise discrimination against women and should be outlawed. The clothing has already been banned in France.
“Facial coverings are a symbol of radical Islam that have nothing to do with religious freedom but are rather an expression of the oppression of women,” Anian Liebrand, a Swiss campaign leader, said when presenting the collected signatures.
“In Switzerland, we show our faces when we talk to each other.
Others contend that bans unnecessarily intrude on religious freedom……
Marty says
It would be best to simply ban the islamic death cult completely and turn existing mosques into recreation centers that include mixed bathing.
mortimer says
Many countries have banned the faces veil and MANY OF THOSE are Muslim countries … are the MUSLIM countries ‘Islamophobic’ as well? No, they are not.
List of countries that banned the face veil: France, Netherlands, Belgium, Chad, Egypt, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Germany, China, Malaysia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/01/16/map-the-places-where-islamic-face-veils-are-banned/?utm_term=.a3c2bbcd64a9
THE ISLAMIC VEIL IS THE ULTIMATE SYMBOL OF INEQUALITY, MISOGYNY AND PATRIARCHY.
mgoldberg says
the next thief who wears a burqa, the next jihadist bomber who wears a burqa will evidence the folly of this political correctness.
John Hawk says
The burqa is a great look. I think it’s called “Glad Bag Chic.” Other that being able to hide an AK-47 with 10 clips, a Bowie knife, and 50 pounds of C-4 under it, what could possibly go wrong?
gravenimage says
+1
common sense says
Swiss cowards.
Tommy Robinson is out, interview with Carlson is on Fox news. Crazy story mistreated by his own country for “breeching the peace”.
John says
what a Mob of WIMPS, now you F–ked yourselves do not ask anyone else for help when you are all kicked out of your own Country, gutless wonders.
MFritz says
This decision has less to do with a lack of spine – and a LOT more with greed and money. The sheiks (of Saudi Arabia, Qatar) etc. are VERY good customers of Swiss Banks and weapon manufacturers. And have been for DECADES.
And the sheiks want to visit the country with their wifes and no ban shall interfere. Apart from that, they don’t give a damn about the muslim rabble that lives in Switzerland.
Kesselman says
The muslum cocky attitude is instigated in the mosques. Without the imported preachers of hate, some of the daily trouble with islum would seem like a lesser irritant.
Westman says
How to become nobody:
https://creepingsharia.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/schoolphotovi-vi.jpg
https://creepingsharia.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/miss-islam.jpg
Rosie Barnes says
Apart from the obvious security implications and the fact that it is a seen by many as a symbol of male dominance, the veil is incompatible with Western values and culture and a barrier to integration. Two attempts by “French” and “Belgian” Muslims to have those countries’ burqa bans overturned by the European Court of Human Rights failed and were rejected.
This is what the judges had to say in the case of Belgium: “the nationwide prohibition, which came into effect in 2011, did not violate the rights to private and family life and freedom of religion, or discrimination laws. The court found Belgium had the right to impose restrictions aiming to ensure the principles of “living together” and the “protection of the rights and freedoms of others”. Its ruling said the government had been responding “to a practice that it considered to be incompatible, in Belgian society, with social communication and more generally the establishment of human relations, which were indispensable for life in society…essential to ensure the functioning of a democratic society”.
Note: INCOMPATIBLE. Incidentally, the “French” woman (of Pakistani origin) who took France to the Court was represented by BRITISH lawers.
gravenimage says
Swiss government caves to political correctness, rejects burqa ban
……………..
This is depressing, since Switzerland has been one of the less dhimmified nations in Europe.
StellaSaidSo says
Switzerland may soon be just as ‘dhimmified’ as her neighbours. With a percentage Muslim population of around 6-7% (same as UK official figure), rising migrant crime, and radical Imams co-ordinating jihad attacks throughout Europe, Switzerland cannot afford to be complacent.
granddaddy says
They’re doing this so they can rig elections. That’s what it’s about.
gravenimage says
That’s part of it. It is also an attempt to Islamicize Switzerland, and to enable Jihad terror attacks.
Lor says
This is sad. We are however, witnessing before our eyes, the creeping (not so very) Islamization of Western Europe – all who read JW know this since a very long while.
I lived and studied in Austria and Germany in the late seventies to eighties and felt safe as a young female. Not only has that security changed, but we have burqas all over the place. We understand that those who wear them have a feeling of superiority (drilled into their brains) to those women of the HOST countries. Women need to ponder that a bit and not be so giddy to wear a head covering “in solidarity” – to what?
gravenimage says
Yes–things have changed shockingly fast.
leftcancer says
I can tell you how stupid the Left in Switzerland is.
They are against Germans who came ONLY TO WORK and are LESS criminal!But they want that illegals can stay…
Even a Swiss Minister who is married to a Nigerian woman sayed that 99% of the Nigerians are Drug Dealers…funny the press mostly never wrote that he is married to a Nigerian Woman-i saw it in a TV Docu.