Muslim refugees are fleeing Syria and other parts of the Middle East in search of new homes in European countries, the United States and beyond. Yet these refugees are not exactly assimilating to the cultures of the locations they have selected as their new homes.
A symbol of their refusal to adapt to new host cultures is the the burqa, a headdress worn by Muslim women to conceal themselves in public.
There is plenty of talk in several European countries about banning the burqa. The nearly worldwide desire to implement the ban is not fueled by racism or Zionism. Rather, it is fueled by a desire to remain safe in a world that becomes more dangerous by the hour.
A Matter of Public Safety
Imagine a situation in which a bomb explodes at a public market. Numerous witnesses spot an individual with a slim build who is about six feet tall and 150 pounds running from the area where the bomb exploded. This individual was wearing a large backpack as well as a burqa that covered the entire face but for the eyes.
Security camera footage is reviewed after the explosion. It shows this suspicious individual placing the bomb below a small table at the center of the market. Yet a detailed image of the suspect’s facial features cannot be gleaned from the footage or any witness accounts.
This hypothetical situation will soon be a reality in numerous locations across the globe unless the burqa is banned. This precisely why the burqa is a public safety matter rather than a civil rights matter.
Many Muslims and social justice warriors would not be as passionate about the supposed right to wear the garment if one of their loved ones was killed in an attack by an assailant donning this concealing headdress.
Hiding Behind The Burqa
It is time to think of the burqa as a mask. The vast majority of jurisdictions have passed laws that make it illegal to don a mask in public except for youngsters who trick-or-treat on Halloween.
There are no massive protests by those who demand the freedom to wear concealing masks in public. People are completely accepting of the fact that wearing a mask in public jeopardizes the safety of the greater community.
This begs the question: Why do people protest propositions to ban the burqa when it is essentially the same thing as a mask?
The social justice warriors and the greater part of the Muslim population argue that the burqa is an expression of religious freedom, so it should be protected. However, one can also argue that it should be legal to wear a concealing mask made of large spaghetti strainer because he is a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The religious freedom defense is quite the slippery slope here. Just because someone is a member of a religion does not mean the idiosyncrasies of his faith trump the law of the land.
Many Muslim Women Dislike the Burqa
At its core, the burqa is a women’s rights issue. Combined with other traditional Muslim garb, the burqa serves to hide the entirety of a woman’s skin but for the flesh around her eyes. It is an oppressive garment that renders women second class citizens.
A 2016 study led by researchers at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research revealed almost half of all women in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Turkey, and Tunisia believed they should be able to “dress how they want”.
Women are required to adhere to strict dress codes in all aforementioned countries.
Though women might be viewed as inferior to men in many Muslim-majority nations, this is not the case for the countries many of them are migrating to.
Why should western nations bend to the will of an archaic religious practice to accommodate newly-arrived immigrants? The exact opposite should happen. Refugees to any area must realize a certain level of assimilation is necessary when living in a nation where their native cultural norms aren’t recognized.
Residents of the United States and most other nations do not believe women should be stripped of their identity. Gender equality is a generally agreed-upon principle in Western culture. This means women should be able to dress as they please. If given such freedom, most Muslim women would likely choose to ditch the burqa and bare their face.
This small step toward assimilation is necessary to help Muslims gradually blend into American society and other cultures around the world.
~ Conservative Zone