The burkha is more than just an ugly letterbox, it’s a medieval joke
Ridicule and satire about politics and religion have been components of Western European culture for centuries, and must be accepted by those who choose to settle here, even if you do end up looking like a letterbox.
To those criticising Mr Johnson’s humorous take down of an ugly, medieval garment, I say multiculturalism and diversity work both ways.
What depresses me about this whole “debate” is that whilst the right to wear the burkha and niqab is, rightly in my view, stated (and as Boris stated very clearly), the right to NOT wear it is not expressed. I want to see true freedom for women to wear what they wish, a reason modest Muslims, reformists and anybody with a scintilla of respectability commend the brave women in Iran who protest, at risk of jail or worse, against the forced wearing of hijabs. Nothing in the debate indicates much support for these women and I think that is a modern tragedy and a dereliction of our duty as a liberal society.
I’ve been impressed by the voices of Muslim reformists and modernists who realise the burkha is a relic, a medieval attempt to clutch at the (far more modern) monstrosity that is Wahabism. Their voices have proved far more measured than anything coming from Lewis, May, Downing St, CCHQ, Davidson etc. What he have got from them is nothing but hysterical overreaction.
Free speech is the right to offend — and be offended. With its hysterical reaction to BoJo’s joke, the media and the Remainer faction of the Conservative Party is setting itself against free speech and our right to it.
As anyone who has ever watched “The Life of Brian,” “The Vicar of Dibley” or “The Book of Mormon” knows, religion and the religious are considered fair game.
But only if they’re Christians it seems.
There’s a massive double-standard operating in the UK and the Government seems to support it. But even that doesn’t make sense.
For the burka is a cultural, not religious, requirement for those that wish to perpetuate medieval customs from the Arab world in a mainly secular twenty-first century United Kingdom.
Shouldn’t any rational human being find the reasoning behind wearing a burka offensive? In other words that men are incapable of containing their lusts at the sight of any part of a woman’s body and that it is reserved purely for her husbands pleasure? If those Arab men who insist on the burka were to wear one themselves then perhaps I could have more sympathy for their position. But no, it’s simply a symbol of misogyny and female subjugation.
Mainstream Muslims can solve all these problems if they choose to take control of their communities instead of allowing hatred and criminality to fester on. Don’t fall back on the old epithets, blaming it all on victim-hood and prejudice.
We’re all in a wonderful country created by our forbears, and together we should work for a close and integrated society.
