18 May At Least Arizonans Don’t Commit “Burka Rage” Attacks
I guess this is why they need a ban on the burka in France. Stories like this make France seem decidedly more unpleasant for certain Muslims than Arizona is for illegal immigrants:
France had its first case of “burka rage” at the weekend when a shopper allegedly tried to pull the veil from the face of a Muslim woman and the resulting scuffle turned violent.
The Muslim woman, named only as Élodie, told reporters that she had been leaving a shoe store in Trignac, near St Nazaire, when two passers-by, apparently mother and daughter, made derogatory remarks before telling her: “Go back to your own country.”
The mother, a lawyer, allegedly tried to tear off the niqab worn by Élodie — at which point the two began trading slaps before being separated by shop assistants, Élodie said.
“Things got nasty,” she added. “The older woman grabbed my veil to the point of ripping it off.”
What I’m heard in the French press is that the mother told her daughter, showing the woman wearing a burqa: “I hope the law comes in quickly…” and that things got heated from there.
In any case, I find your conclusion a little disingenuous, based on one event. France has the highest percentage of Muslims in Western Europe, and there is isn’t any more ethnic tension there than in other multicultural societies. As for the ban on the burqa, I’m astonished at the manicheism of outside commentators. The UK, for example, has a more liberal approach to these issues, but it doesn’t prevent ethnic tensions which are comparable if not worse than in France. I am personally not for the ban, despite having little sympathy for the practice, but I don’t think that the way to deal with the debate is taking intellectual shortcuts for a question which is considerably more complex.
Of course many in Muslim countries engage in much worse forms of religious persecution than ripping garments — for example, assaults on the Copts in Egypt, including wholesale destruction of property and murder. But this does not seem to arouse so much moral indignation in the West.