The current debate over the ‘Islamic black cloak of death*’ is an important one. Not least because it make us think about the sort of badges, clothing or ideolgical or religious signifiers that do or do not cause people to be in fear of the wearer or the wearers identity group.
I bet there will not be many people for whom this outfit causes fear:
Buddhist monk
or this one
Anglican Christian Nun
or this one
Women wearing the sort of modest outfits preferred by Orthodox Jewish women
or this one
Hindu woman’s sari
or this one
a random vicar in a dog collar
or this one
Sikh turban
However, when we come to outfits, uniforms and signifiers that identify the wearer with ideologies that have a proven track record of hatred, violence, oppression and genocide, then it is a different matter.
Most reasonable people I believe would be concerned to see someone walking down the street in an outfit like this, and the other ones below because of what this sort of clothing represents.
Mosley and his Blackshirts
or this one
an SS Officers uniform
or this one
The Niqab, one of the badges of hatred sported by some Muslims.
If it is illegal under the 1936 Public Order Act for people to appear in the street in a Blackshirt or an SS Officers uniform, because it is highly offensive and represent totalitarian belief systems, why shouldn’t Islamic garb like the Niqab be treated the same way? All of the last three pictures are of the representatives of ideologies that are cults of death, they must ALL be treated the same. All Islamic face covering outifts must be banned in all public places, there must be no exceptions and no surrender to whining. I know that this opinion may cause a problem for some Libertarians, and it does raise a queasy feeling having law that governs clothing, but when the clothing is the uniform of an enemy then exceptions must be made to the general rule that a person can wear what they want and are very much justified.
* I must give credit to ‘Paul‘ a commentator at the Harry’s Place website from whom I am borrowing the phrase ‘black cloak of death’. Knowing the amount of shit that comes out of the mouths the sort of Islamofascists who wear such outfits, maybe it should be more appropriate to amend that phrase and call the Niqab ‘the black cloaca (chicken’s arsehole) of death’
