The Dutch government agreed today on:-
a total ban on the wearing of burqas and other Muslim face veils in public, justifying the move on security grounds.
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk will now draw up legislation which will result in the Netherlands, once one of Europe’s most easy-going nations, imposing some of the continent’s toughest laws against concealing the face.
“The cabinet finds it undesirable that garments covering the face—including the burqa—should be worn in public in view of public order, (and) the security and protection of fellow citizens,” the Dutch Justice Ministry said in a statement.
Well, is this a step towards saving Holland or sealing its fate?
The answer varies according to which you place uppermost: Dutch national interest or Dutch ethnic interest. Those who like the novelty of forcing Moslems to stay on Dutch terms or go wear their burqas someplace else should listen closely to the Mayor of Amsterdam:-
Job Cohen, the Labour mayor of Amsterdam, said he opposed burqas in schools and public buildings, and said women wearing one who failed to get a job should not expect welfare benefits.
“From the perspective of integration and communication, it is obviously very bad because you can’t see each other so the fewer the better,” he told foreign journalists. “But actually hardly anybody wears one ... The fuss is much bigger than the number of people concerned.”
It’s easy to be tough about a palliative. Dutch national interest is the interest of the polital and cultural elite. They want a successful integration. They do NOT want - and will not get - a tented city of defeated burqa-wearers at the Algerian Airlines check-in. But they will get the support of all those Dutch indigenes who believe Geert Wilders to be a “far-right politician”, and wouldn’t know their ethnic interest from a well fattened goat.
A burqa ban is a politically shrewd strategy from a mainstream liberal perspective.
Posted by Johan Van Vlaams on Sat, 18 Nov 2006 14:32 | #
Emigration statistics for the Netherlands:
2004: 110.000
2005: 121.000
Source the Flemish quality newspaper De Standaard (in Dutch): http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=GMUO4DD9&word=nederland+statistiek