Belgium is set to become the first ever country in Europe to ban the burqa from being worn in public places.

The vote in Parliament for a nationwide ban on Islamic clothes or veils that do not allow the wearer to be fully identified was almost unanimous.

The full-face niqab and burqa worn by some muslim women are not a mandatory requirement for the religion of Islam, but one of personal choice.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100430/twl-belgium-decides-to-ban-the-burqa-3fd0ae9.html

This could be one step in a long process of making these Islamic extremists to lighten up!! "One woman without a burka is one woman too many" they say. But something tells me that, give or take a few years, this burka thing will be eliminated in areas outside the countries of origin of the burka-wearing women. I know that for some women they CHOOSE to wear it, but it's too extreme a part of one's faith to walk around in public dressed in a black shroud. It's just not humane.

Good stuff. Good stuff.

I remember my Dad's pakistani friend blasting his fellow Muslims for wearing the Burqa.
He narrated how a group of women in burqa came out of the mosque, stood next to a car taking pictures.

If the burqa is not necessary i don't see why one would want to wear it.
Not only do you look strange and maybe silly, you also exclude yourself from the society.

Again, good stuff.

thumbs up to Belgium.

True, guys. Though I don't pretend to know the tenets of Islam and what wearing the burka means to them, but it seems that the Belgians feel that if you want to stay in their country, you have to live by their rules. If other European countries follow suit, then many burka-wearing muslim women will be forced to stay in their countries of origin in order to practice their faith.

maedan:


True, guys. Though I don't pretend to know the tenets of Islam and what wearing the burka means to them, but it seems that the Belgians feel that if you want to stay in their country, you have to live by their rules. If other European countries follow suit, then many burka-wearing muslim women will be forced to stay in their countries of origin in order to practice their faith.

Honestly, I see absolutely no problem with the above(bolded).
I have no problem with countries who show tolerance and hospitality towards other people and their beliefs. Infact i think they should be lauded.

You hoesntly think more burqa wearing women will stay in their countries if other countries follow suit? I strognly doubt it.

But where a certain group of people choose to exclude themselves from the society then necessary actions ought to be taken to combat that.

I'm hoping the vast majority of muslims don;t feel persecuted by this.

I hope more nation will do the same thing.

That dressing is nothing but a repression on woman's freedom. And it takes away the what is the widely accepted norm of seeing the face of the person we speak with.

excellent. Europe needs to take its culture back.

@Topic

Very Funny.

A lady just came second in the Saudi Arabia Poetry contest, she actually wrote against hard-line Islamic clerics and she was in full veil.

I wonder if the Judges caught a glimpse of her. Simon Cowell would have had none of it. lol

[flash=200,200]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaJ2X4kpAkc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always"[/flash]

She's a housewife and a mother of four from Saudi Arabia. But Hissa Hilal is also a poet — and a finalist in the Million's Poet competition on the Arabic satellite channel Abu Dhabi TV. Think American Idol, only with contestants reciting poetry written in the traditional Bedouin style.

Hilal says her decision to enter the competition was a now-or-never situation. As she told NPR's Renee Montagne, "I have something to say; this is the chance. If I don't do it this year, I think I'm not going to do it in my life."

Hilal is one of just a few women who have ever entered the competition. And her poetry has openly challenged hard-line Islamic clerics and their harsh fatwas, or religious rulings.

A poem she recited on the show earlier this month included verses that, loosely translated, read: "I have seen evil from the eyes of the subversive fatwas in a time when what is lawful is confused with what is not lawful."

Although her words may be perceived as subversive, her dress certainly is not. Whether she's in the TV studio or in her daily life, Hilal wears a full black flowing niqab — only her eyes are visible to the audience.

"This is a tradition," she says. "If I take it [off], all the traditional types would be shocked. I will lose the people — those I want to talk to, my people. I don't want to lose them, because I'm going to say important things."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125356092

Next thing is to ban the building of more mosques.

frosbel:

Next thing is to ban the building of more mosques.

**Ouch**
Now that would be extremist.

maedan:


**Ouch**
Now that would be extremist.

Yeah right.

Almost all the churches of this great country have been bought with Saudi Arabia petro-dollars and converted into mosques, such that the landscape is changing rapidly.


Now Sharia is practised in many parts of London and Birmingham.

This is Sharia by the back door, not many of us are fools.

Its time to say no to extremists for the sake of our children and their children's children.

frosbel:

Yeah right.

Almost all the churches of this great country have been bought with Saudi Arabia petro-dollars and converted into mosques, such that the landscape is changing rapidly.


Now Sharia is practised in many parts of London and Birmingham.

This is Sharia by the back door, not many of us are fools.

Its time to say no to extremists for the sake of our children and their children's children.

Ooooh---kaaay . Your view I guess. But trust me, no one is going to let any Anglo-European country be transformed to some Sharia base. Trust me.