Excluding situations involving security checkpoints, schools, and courtrooms etc., burqa bans are stupid.
This week, we saw a fantastic example why that’s true, when an Austrian man was cautioned by police for dressing up as a shark. According to Sky News, the gentlemen was advertising for a computer store named McShark, and was fined after he refused a police request to remove his shark head. That refusal meant he had contravened a new Austrian law requiring anyone in public to show their face between hairline and chin.
The surreal quality of this story speaks to something important: as a general rule, face concealment bans are stupid.
First off, designed to stop Muslim women who wear near-full/full face burqa or niqab veils from doing so, the ban attempts to treat a symptom of failed assimilation rather than its source. As I’ve noted, Europe’s problem with Muslim self-segregation from civil society is largely a result of Europe’s failure to match immigrant communities to opportunity and expectation.
Successive generations of Muslim immigrants in Europe have struggled to attain the same measure of social mobility as their American counterparts, while also being made to feel unwelcome. The high incidence of welfare dependency in European Muslim communities also speaks to Europe’s failure to demand work in return for residency. Work matters, of course, because it gives us a sense of binding to our fellow citizens and society.
Burqa bans do nothing to address these challenges. On the contrary, by denying individuals the freedom to practice their religion, such laws reinforce the sense of separation that already inflicts Muslim communities and causes the problems noted above. These bans reek of what they are: prejudiced.
In this case, we see the bans’ inherently ludicrous quality. If a shark-man can be banned from walking down a street, so too can anyone in any face-covering fancy dress outfits.
Indeed, we must assume that Austrians will even be denied the right to dress up as their folklore legend, Krampus!
Perhaps as we approach Christmas, those who supported this ban will reconsider their opinion. Until then, here’s why real sharks are great.
