Saturday, December 22, 2012

A supremely muddled Supreme Court

Barbara Kay on the Supremes' ruling on witnesses wearing the niqab in court:
... Unfortunately, the ruling ... leaves the door open for exceptions to the rule in other cases. For this reason, I would have preferred that the dissenting opinions of Justices Louis Lebel and Marshall Rotstein — that the veil is never to be worn during testimony — had been the majority view.   
... This is an excellent moment for the government to step up to the plate and, with this ruling as impetus, create a law that prohibits face cover for all those giving testimony in court, with no religious exemptions at all.
Right on, Barbara! In fact I'm now closer to the view that wearing the niqab in public, anywhere, be banned entirely.  Allowing niqabs leads to Supreme Court "decisions" like this one.

3 comments:

Alain said...

Hiding a woman's face is as much a religious requirement as a bank robber hiding his face. The first is an Arab cultural thing based on women being the property of a male, father, brother or husband, while the second is to avoid being identified. These judges are a disgrace in having been too lazy or indifferent to do a modicum of research on Islam, since they would have easily discovered that hiding a woman's face is NOT a requirement in Islam. They need to be shamed publicly for their incompetence.

JR said...

There are three types of women who wear the niqab:

(1) Those who are forced to do so by their Islamist patriarchy. These women would appreciate and be liberated by a ban on wearing it.
(2) Those who choose to do so, as Tarik Fatah says, as a middle finger to infidel Western society. These women are Islamist radicals who would loudly protest a ban. Their hostile attitude should not be rewarded.
(3) Those who claim simple adherence to Islamic/Arab tradition. However, it’s difficult to separate these from the other two types. A ban to deal with the first two problems, together with the fundamental incompatibility of the niqab with Western traditions and values, should take precedence.

Anonymous said...

Ahhhhh multiculturalism what a beautiful experiment. I saw in Calgary: a police officer with a turban on, a bus driver with a turban on and a rail way worker with CPR wearing a turban. It was one of those heart warming moments that kinda make you feel like your defecating in your pants. Lollipops, sunshine and rainbows!