Free Republic

Angela Merkel is suddenly becoming more hawkish than Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen. To everyone's surprise, the German chancellor is suddenly speaking out against the burqa. Not only does she think it's "unGerman" to wear one, but she even believes the burqa should be banned completely. That's rather surprising coming from a politician who has never hidden her support for the Grand Multicultural Idea. Angela Merkel has called for a burqa ban wherever “legally possible” and says the full Islamic veil is “not appropriate” in Germany. The German chancellor made the comments at a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) conference...

(CNN) — Mayors do not have the right to ban burkinis, France's highest administrative court ruled Friday. The Council of State's ruling suspends a ban in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice, and could affect cities around the country that have prohibited the full-length swimsuit.

Link only: http://www.thelocal.at/20160818/austrian-politician-blasted-for-comparing-burka-to-nuns-habits

Modesty and Beach Volleyball Msgr. Charles Pope • August 14, 2016 • One of the less edifying aspects of the Summer Olympics in Rio is the attire of the women’s beach volleyball players from Western countries. Most of the women wear a tiny bikini with the bottom being especially tiny. (I do not show a picture here because I deem it immodest to do so. Instead, I show a picture of some of the men, whose attire I mention below.) Embed from Getty Images  Frankly, playing volleyball in a tiny bikini seems quite unnecessary. I would argue that it...

Several associations of judges in Germany have proposed a headscarf ban for judges and trainee lawyers, claiming that this is a necessary measure if neutrality is to be upheld in court. At present, the German Constitution does not ban citizens from wearing religious symbols. Only in Berlin does a ban exist for employees of city authorities. But two judicial organizations — the Association of German Administrative Judges and the German Association of Judges — as well as the Ministers for Justice in the states of Baden-Württemberg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, are suggesting that judges and junior lawyers should be prevented from...

A Turkish newspaper employee was tackled to the floor during an attack by burqa-clad women accusing the six-months pregnant victim of being a “Gulenist” and wearing “revealing” clothes that violate sharia law. The women were accompanied by a man who warned she was one of four other “targets” they would attack. Hazal Ölmez, an employee at the newspaper Evrensel, was walking home from work in Istanbul when three people, two of them women wearing burqas, slammed her to the floor. “Why are you wearing revealing clothes? You are a coup supporter and a Gülenist,” the group reportedly yelled at her....

A CONTROVERSIAL mural depicting US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in a skimpy stars and stripes bathing suit has been reimagined as a Muslim women. Maribyrnong Council had requested the artist, Lushsux, remove the “offensive” mural on the side of the Mr Mobility store in Sunshine Rd, West Footscray, within 10 days. But yesterday the Melbourne graffiti artist painted over the mural by covering Ms Clinton’s scantily-clad body with a niqab.

Adverts promoting negative body images will be banned across the Transport for London (TfL) network from next month. As part of his mayoral election manifesto Sadiq Khan pledged to ban adverts promoting "unhealthy or unrealistic" body images. The advertising watchdog received 378 complaints in 2015 about a weight-loss advert that asked customers if they were "beach body ready?" Mr Khan has now asked TfL to set up its own advertising steering group. The Protein World "beach body ready" promotional posters were defaced in Tube stations and a petition was started calling for the adverts to be banned, however the Advertising...

Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, announced Monday that “body shaming” advertisements will no longer be allowed in London’s public transport. “As the father of two teenage girls, I am extremely concerned about this kind of advertising which can demean people, particularly women, and make them ashamed of their bodies. It is high time it came to an end,” Khan said. The mayor added, “Nobody should feel pressurised, while they travel on the Tube or bus, into unrealistic expectations surrounding their bodies and I want to send a clear message to the advertising industry about this.” Khan was not clear...

Rare species spotted on the streets of Saudi Arabia, people are stunned You've guessed it. Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=084_1450021376#tG1L9WyJXQQuslbb.99

An Al Jazeera America producer claimed that media photos of terrorist Tashfeen Malik without her face-covering burqa are “disrespectful to her culture.” Really? In a now-deleted tweet reported by Right Scoop, Hashem Said wrote “Come on ABC…the family attorney says #TashfeenMalik wore a burqa that covered her face, and you’re putting out pictures of her without it?” On Friday, ABC News published a photo of Malik, wife of Syed Rizwan Farook and half of the terror team that slaughtered 14 innocent people at a holiday party in San Bernardino, Calif. Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the release on bail Monday of a hard-line cleric who had been detained since shortly before soldiers stormed his mosque in 2007, killing scores of people and energizing the country's Islamist insurgency. Maulana Abdul Aziz was granted bail while the court considers the charges against him in relation to the siege of the Red Mosque in the capital, Islamabad, his lawyer Shaukat Siddiqui told reporters outside the court. Prosecutors were not available for comment. Aziz was arrested as he tried to sneak out of the mosque dressed in an all-covering burqa worn by some Muslim women....

'I Hoped To Be A Glorious Martyr' A woman who was inside Islamabad's Red Mosque when it was stormed by Pakistani troops on 10 July has given the BBC one of the first accounts of the final hours of the siege. Unwilling to be named, the survivor said she was not held hostage by militants inside. More than 100 people died in the army operation - she was one of only 30 women to walk out alive after soldiers went in. Following are excerpts from the interview with Rafia Riaz of the BBC's Urdu service. ..."They asked me to come...

A senior German politician, who backs a national burqa ban, has said that the law should also cover tourists to the country from the Arab world. The Bavarian State Minister of Economic Affairs, Ilse Aigner, was speaking to German newspaper Die Welt after her party congress in Munich recently approved two proposals -- one a burqa ban (the full body covering) and one a ban on the niqab (the face veil). She said: "When I have traveled to Iran, I have obeyed the country's commandments and worn a headscarf. Likewise I expect women from the Arab world visiting this country...

Muslim women can no longer wear the full-body garment in shops, restaurants or public buildings and anyone caught flouting the ban could be struck with a £6,500 fine. The local government of Ticino approved the referendum after the Swiss Parliament ruled that the ban did not violate the country's federal law. Two in three voters in the canton backed the move in an overwhelming result for a referendum, in the wake of heightened terrorist alerts across Europe. The law which MPs voted for only applies to veils which covers the body from head to foot worn by the 40,000 Muslim...

Legislators in China's far-western Xinjiang province have passed a law to prohibit residents from wearing burqas in public, state media reported, in a continued campaign against what authorities view as religious extremism. The new ban in Urumqi was approved by local legislators last month, and given the greenlight by the regional legislature at the weekend. The ordinance name suggests it targets outer garments covering someone's full body including the face, which is called a burqa in some Islamic traditions.

A bomb strapped to a girl aged around 10 years old exploded in a busy market place in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Saturday, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 20, security sources said. "The explosive devices were wrapped around her body and the girl looked no more than 10 years old," a police source said. Maiduguri, the capital of northern Borno state, lies in the heartland of an insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, and is often hit by bomb attacks

Here’s the mystery woman who ditched her burqa in Afghanistan and sauntered around Kabul with her legs showing — stunning onlookers and scandalizing the country’s mullahs. “I was shocked,’’ the man who took the photo, local journalist Hayat Ensafi, told the BBC. “I know I had to catch this special moment because I never saw a woman here walking down the streets like this.’’ He tried to talk to her, “but she walked very fast and didn’t talk to me at all.’’ He posted the shot on Facebook and it has gone viral. “The whole city of Kabul is shocked,’’...

Muslim Wonder Woman Redesign Puts Diana in a Headscarf Artist flowercrownprincess envisions Wonder Woman as a hijab-wearing Muslim superhero, who is ready to battle evil in both armor and a headscarf.

Woman dies after hijab, hair get tangled in Montreal escalator MONTREAL — A woman in her 30s is dead after her headscarf and hair became caught in a subway-station escalator. A bystander found the woman lying at the base of the escalator at Fabre metro station in east-end Montreal around 9:15 a.m. He alerted transit workers, who called police. When first responders arrived, the woman was unresponsive. "We tried to perform resuscitation on site, but we weren't able to save her," paramedic Bob Lamle told QMI Agency. The exact circumstances of the woman's death weren't immediately clear, but Montreal police...