As a proud British citizen I am extremely proud of my francais speaking friends across the channel for doing that. The muslims are all obviously up in arms about it, but I think it's a good idea.

Too many of us Brits/yanks go to Abu Dhabi or Suadi Arabia or any middle eastern country and do something wrong that would normally be perfectly fine, i.e kissing in public, etc. Yet they come into our countries and wear what are, essentially, balaclavas and think it's perfectly okay.

What do you guys on the internet think of this?

I'm sorta meh on it. One one hand, It's well within their religious rights to wear clothing directly associated to their religion, but on the other hands, like you said, they're great for hiding your identity. If it happened here (canada), I think I'd complain more, but at this point I really don't care.

I think they needed to find a compromise, like, translucent burkas or something.

It's funny you should mention identity. One of the arguments for keeping burkas is the fact that you're taking the identity away from muslims.

I laughed at that.

Well they can't really get pissed if they don't allow what we view as normal in their countries. They WILL, but they have no leg to stand on.

Stupid course of action that will piss off too many people. Oh well.

Stupid idea and you're all stupid for thinking it's ok. (save for FoiL who is pretty cuil guy)
The burka harms no one.

It CAN harm some people, but only if they're forced to wear it. If they go to France, and their religious beliefs say they should wear a burka, why not let them wear it?

I know I was almost ready to kill myself until I got to FoiL.
ARE YOU ALL ♥♥♥♥ RETARDED? FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION? THE CORE VALUES OF AMERICA? FREEDOM TO PRACTICE RELIGION?
WHAT. THE. ♥♥♥♥. IS. WRONG. WITH. YOU. PEOPLE?

If you're an American and you support this you should be taken out behind the shed like the defective codpiece you are. This is taking away a human right. THOSE ARE SORT OF ♥♥♥♥ IMPORTANT. It has nothing to do with concealment of identity and everything to do with discrimination against muslims. God I'm going to get an ulcer like this.

If we look past how our good friend Homophanim put it. He is kinda on to something. The burka has very little to do with islam, it is a cultural thing. We should respect their want to wear it. Of course, some might be forced to wear it. But why go against everyone who just wants to wear? I think it is pretty xenophobic to ban it.

I hope this ban doesn't spread out to others in Europe like some sort of trend.

I'm all for human rights and such, and I do oppose saying that they can't wear a burka.
I'm just saying it's kind of stupid to say we can't kiss, then when we say they can't do something (which we have what passes as a reason for), they get all indignant and pissy. Double standard bull♥♥♥♥.

If it does then Britain will be the first, and the rest will follow. This is an act of cultural racism and violation of human rights. I'd rather have them ban low cut shirts or mini-skirts. This is a matter of self deprivation and a form of cultural statement.

If we cannot rule over the press how should we rule over how people dress? It's a shoddy euphemism, but it's one that applies perfectly.

What the hell will they outlaw next? Black jeans?

Might I point out that in France they have about 3 million Muslim women. French police decided to figure out how many of them wore burqas and/or niqabs and found the number to be ... 367
So we're not exactly increasing national security by leaps and bounds here guys.

HOWEVER.


The United States (along with most other western nations) recognizes freedom of religion as 'freedom of belief and freedom of worship with the absence of any state-sponsored religion'. I can worship who I want, and I can believe what I want, but I can't DO what I want. If I tried to stone someone, the state would probably take issue with that. The French have apparently decided that burqas and niqabs are threatening, and moved to eliminate them.

There is no "freedom of expression" but there is "freedom of speech" which isn't quite relevant here.

No, you wouldn't be able to stone someone, but I'm pretty sure neither would french women.

And now I want a honest answer from all of you without any immature crap. What do you find more offensive, burkas or an extremely low cut shirt?