That France is moving toward banning the burqa is a positive development on several fronts: For starters, while many are the arguments against the burqa — it is anachronistic, misogynistic, etc. — the fact is there have been many instances worldwide where criminals and Islamic terrorists have facilitated their activities by concealing their identities via the burqa (which, we are reminded, was originally designed for female “modesty”).
(Incidentally, it always bears asking — what if the shoe was on the other foot? Would the Muslim world, which has problems with something as inoffensive as churches being built, allow a distinctly Western custom on its soil — especially one that poses hazards?)
Moreover, according to former Islamists, a direct correlation exists between radical Islam and burqas — that is, wherever there is an increase of the former, there follows an increase of the latter, which is seen as a physical manifestation of radicalism.
However, where the Western infidel bans the burqa, such as in France, the Islamists’ options become limited: stay and be forced into conforming (and essentially “liberalizing”); insist on the burqa, and, as a matter of priorities, return to accommodating Muslim countries. Or, of course, forego the burqa in compliance with secular laws, but continue to harbor Islamist beliefs in a state of taqiyya or taysir.
The burqa ban is ultimately a reminder that those religions that do not “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s” always will be at odds with secular societies. Indeed, when it comes to Sharia mandates that conflict directly with secularism, the burqa is but the tip of the iceberg.
Raymond Ibrahim is associate director of the Middle East Forum, author of The Al Qaeda Reader, and guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College.
