Left-wing grievance mongers are playing the “Islamophobia” card after the sovereign, Christian-majority Western nation of Switzerland banned full-face coverings, including the burqa and niqab, in public places.
The proposal passed Sunday by a narrow majority, with 51.2 percent of Swiss voters approving the measure and 48.8 percent opposed, according to results published by the federal government.
A whopping 21 of the liberal country‘s 26 cantons (or member states) approved the measure.
While the proposal did not specifically mention Islam, it was immediately attacked online as “Islamophobic” and referred to as a “burqa ban.”
Keep in mind that only 5 percent of Switzerland’s population is Muslim, while more than 65 percent are Christian.
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The burqa and niqab are different from the less-restrictive hijab (or headscarf) worn by Muslims such as Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, as hijabs do not cover the entire face.
Also, the Swiss ban does not apply to the face masks that people wear to protect themselves from the coronavirus.
Moreover, the face-covering ban does not have a widespread effect, since only about 30 women wear the niqab in Switzerland, Reuters reported.
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By enacting the ban, Switzerland joins several other European countries, including France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark, that have banned the oppressive garments in public.
This means that full-face veils are not allowed in streets, restaurants or on public transportation. However, burqas and niqabs are allowed in places of worship and other sacred sites.
Proponents of the ban say full-face coverings pose security risks because it’s easier to commit crimes and not get caught if you can conceal your entire face.
They also point out that the onerous garments symbolize female oppression since one reason women are forced to wear them in some Muslim-majority countries is to deter rape.
The twisted, misogynistic reasoning is that if a woman shows her hair, face or body, she might arouse the sexual desire of a man, who’s not responsible for raping her since “she asked for it” by not being veiled.
“In Switzerland, our tradition is that you show your face. That is a sign of our basic freedoms,” said Walter Wobmann, a member of parliament for the populist Swiss People’s Party, according to Reuters.
He added that full-face veils are also a symbol for the “extreme, political Islam which has become increasingly prominent in Europe and which has no place in Switzerland.”
Switzerland’s Central Council of Muslims slammed the face-covering ban as “a dark day” for Muslims and called the proposal unfair.
“Today’s decision opens old wounds, further expands the principle of legal inequality, and sends a clear signal of exclusion to the Muslim minority,” the group said in a statement.
Leftists on social media criticized the ban as “racist and Islamophobic.”
#Switzerland has joined the growing list of racist and Islamophobic European countries which criminalise Islamic beliefs.
Shame on the Swiss, a country with fewer than 40 Burqa wearing Muslims to begin with.
#Islamophobia #BurqaBan pic.twitter.com/ADeJvyjW0m
— Robert Carter (@Bob_cart124) March 8, 2021
I hope all women wishing to wear a burqa in Switzerland continue to do so, and defend themselves against this racist police state. Don’t let fascists tell you what to wear based purely on racism and hatred
— PhillyTakes 🏴🚩 (@takes_philly) March 8, 2021
However, activist Saïda Keller-Messahli, the president of the Forum for a Progressive Islam, supports the ban, saying it’s good for women.
“What the full veil represents is unacceptable; it is the cancellation of women from public space,” Keller-Messahli said, according to Reuters.
Anecdotally, most people who have observed women wearing burqas will concede that they look very jarring and uncomfortable, especially if you live in a Western country.
Germany in springtime. pic.twitter.com/zGvFAw39LQ
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 25, 2017
As it is, 18 nations have banned the burqa, including moderate Muslim-majority nations such as Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
The main reason cited was heightened security concerns after criminals committed crimes by hiding their identities under full-face veils.
Another reason was growing worries over the metastasis of radical Islam and potential terrorism, US News reported.
Tellingly, the left hasn’t attacked Morocco as Islamophobic over its burqa ban. The race-baiting howls of Islamophobia are usually reserved for white-majority, Western nations.
To this very moment slavery continues in parts of Africa and the Islamic world. Very little noise is made about it by those who denounce the slavery of the past in the West, because there is no money to be made denouncing it and no political advantages to be gained.
— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) September 14, 2019
If you ask economist Thomas Sowell, he’d likely say this is because “there is no money to be made” or “political advantages to be gained” by scolding non-Western countries that aren’t choking on self-flagellating white guilt.
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