Ugh...Burqa ban in France?

[lifterdead]

I was actually surprised more people on the mecca weren't against the ban, as many on this site have expressed strong libertarian sentiments before. That about sums it up for me; I'm a libertarian. I firmly believe the government's role in public affair to protect my liberties, insomuch as they don't encroach on the rights of others. That means if I choose to dress up in a pink skirt everyday and parade around the park in clown make-up, I'm free to do so. If I want to smoke pot, I'm free to do so, and so on. For the French government to ban an article of clothing because it's socially backwards seems like an overstepping of boundaries to me. It's not like we stop old Jewish men or old Amish men from influencing their women to wear long skirts that cover their legs.

But I agree with much of what Line wrote. That reflects my views as a libertarian and even in a freedom-loving country like America I'm considered extreme. So, if France wants to ban burqas, fine. It just lowers my opinion of France. (Ha! Who would've thought it possible?)

 

[tim290280]

I was actually surprised more people on the mecca weren't against the ban, as many on this site have expressed strong libertarian sentiments before. That about sums it up for me; I'm a libertarian. I firmly believe the government's role in public affair to protect my liberties, insomuch as they don't encroach on the rights of others. That means if I choose to dress up in a pink skirt everyday and parade around the park in clown make-up, I'm free to do so. If I want to smoke pot, I'm free to do so, and so on. For the French government to ban an article of clothing because it's socially backwards seems like an overstepping of boundaries to me. It's not like we stop old Jewish men or old Amish men from influencing their women to wear long skirts that cover their legs.

But I agree with much of what Line wrote. That reflects my views as a libertarian and even in a freedom-loving country like America I'm considered extreme. So, if France wants to ban burqas, fine. It just lowers my opinion of France. (Ha! Who would've thought it possible?)

We've actually had the same issue raised here in Australia. The arguments haven't been about religious discrimination, they have been more about racism and xenophobia. While I can see the position of banning the burqa (we don't allow anyone else to wear full face coverage without questions being raised), I don't necessarily agree with it. The reasons for banning it in Australia don't come from bigotry necessarily, moreover we don't tend to like the fundamentalist and draconian principles involved and want people to be "normal". My wife was telling me about her boss' wife this morning, apparently she used to wear the burqa but after being here for 8 years now just wears the hijab.

So this issue is really about governments wanting its peoples to not be secularised but to instead assimilate to their adopted country. I don't know that this is something that can be enforced in this manner, but then again the reason people want to come to our country is because of our benefits and culture. Can't have certain groups deciding that they don't like the culture and will start their own country in the middle of ours.