France fights terrorism

[RoboCon]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34874754/ns/world_news-europe/

France moves to ban terrorist fashion statements. Will Obama move to follow suit and risk offending his Muslim friends and allies, or will he allow another 9/11 to happen?

[notyoueither]

Oh, those wacky French...

[a.kitman]

veils are retarded. but its even more retarded to ban them.

[Dry]

However, France, which wants an Islam tailored to the West, would be the only western European country to target the all-enveloping robes and niqabs, the cloth hiding the lower face.

Well...
In Belgium it is already forbidden since years for anyone to hide his/her face while in public. With 2 exceptions:
- the carnival period and
- bikers with full helmet
And even in those cases, you are require to show your face if the police ask for it.

This is a very old law and despite muslims protests, it is still applied. Every year there are some 200 cases of people - mostly muslim women - fined because they hide their face.
They try to accuse the police of racism, while this law is as old as Belgium.
One women even tried to sue the police for harassment, because after being fined a first time, she was fined again, by another policeman, the same day.

So, in Belgium, any face covering clothing is de-facto forbidden, without the need of a new, extra law. This law exists since years and years. We just apply it to everybody. No special privilege for muslims.

And it seems to work. I very, very rarely see face covered muslim women. And just a small fine (less than 100 euro, iirc) is enough to discourage them to do it and only a few crazy illiterate idiots dare to accuse us of islamophobia for applying the law.

[Elok]

Yeah, but IIUC several French politicians have already gone on record saying that it's a move to defend French cultural values or some such hooey. They can't backtrack now and claim to be pulling a Belgium.

[Kitschum]

What's the plural of burqa? I have a feeling it's not burqae...

[Elok]

I don't know the Arabic plural. I just add s.

[Kitschum]

That's sooo pedestrian. Don't tell me you pronounce it with a non-uvular q too

Edit: The plural is baraqi' (second a is long) which was slightly unexpected. And the correct singular in Arabic is actually burqu'. Use this knowledge wisely.