I had earlier commented on the Swiss intolerance when they banned religious buildings of a certain type (http://saadahmad.blogspot.com/2009/12/talibanization-of-swiss.html). An interesting twist to that story was that even though most of the world, including European Union, condemned that – there was one certain bigot from France that said that he understood it; who was he? French president Sarkozy (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/08/sarkozy-sympathises-minaret-ban-switzerland)
Just like a TV drama, this European bigotry now enters it next episode and now Sarkozy’s France takes the lead. Target – Muslim women who choose to dress a certain way (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/19/veil-burka-france-muslim-women). What a way to liberate women – by taking away their freedom to dress the way they want. Our president Obama puts it correctly when he said: “It is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit – for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism…”.
And just like the Swiss vote, this is not a marginal section of French population that is suggesting it. Over 57% of the French in a survey favored such a ban – what a liberal society. A woman becomes naked in public to please the male audience – she is liberated; another woman covers herself so that she is judged for who she is – French cannot tolerate her on the street.
These episodes are not isolated. This is a European phenomena and the next episode is already in the works. This time the equation of bigotry from among the Taliban style Muslims and Hitler’s Europe goes head to head in Netherlands (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5814DH20090902). Here a heartless Arab group published some cartoons about the holocaust – they are being charged for being “discriminatory” but the same nation took pride in republishing the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad under the guise of freedom of speech.
Our country needs to look at these episodes with grave concern. Europe has a history of such attitudes towards its own citizens. For hundreds of years they have taken pride in such actions. As always they would make a mess and then we will be called in to fix it for them. The people who want to cover themselves a certain way in France or want to build their places of worship a certain way in Switzerland are born and bred in those countries. How is the behavior of these “enlightened” countries any different from the Taliban in Afghanistan who wanted to impose their “sharia” on their citizens. It is these attitudes which when left unchecked lead to the wide spread hostilities later on and may even lead to another holocaust and then people would wonder how they missed the signs!
Thursday, February 04, 2010
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