CULTURAL DIFFERENCES, ASSIMILATION AND IMMIGRATION POLICY

Powerline Blog ^ | October 21, 2014 | John Hinderaker

[right-wing agnostic]

Two stories currently in the news are, I think, illuminating. The first comes from Paris:

The incident took place when a veiled woman was spotted on the front row of a performance of La Traviata at the Opera Bastille….

France brought in a law in 2011 banning anyone from wearing clothing that conceals the face in a public space, or face a 150 euro ($190) fine.

The woman was sitting just behind the conductor, visible to monitors, wearing a scarf covering her hair and a veil over her mouth and nose during the performance on October 3.

“I was alerted in the second act,” said Thiellay, adding that “some performers said they did not want to sing” if something was not done. …

The spectator and her companion — tourists from the Gulf, according to MetroNews — were asked to leave by an inspector during the interval.

“He told her that in France there is a ban of this nature, asked her to either uncover her face or leave the room. The man asked the woman to get up, they left,” Thiellay said.

This is not the American way. Personally, I don’t like to see veiled women. It makes me uncomfortable. But my comfort is neither here nor there; it is her face and she can cover it if she wants to. (I am not speaking, obviously, about driver’s license photographs and the like.) Still, we Americans have a right to ask: do we want to have a lot of veiled women going about in public places?

[Uversabound]

*do we want to have a lot of veiled women going about*

I work near NYC in Northern Westchester county. I see full burka on women when I go out to lunch a few times recently. One was pushing a baby carriage through traffic. Full Burka not just the head.

Its part of our Freedom although far from it.

[sueuprising]

I agree that immigration from Moslem countries should be at best, limited. Long ago, immigrants felt the need to assimilate in the general culture. Certainly my ancestors did and many took classes in their native European country as a prerequisite to coming here. I recall my 15 year old grandmother’s passport photo showing a fashionably dressed young teenager. She told me years later that she studied what to wear so she could fit in . This was because she, like other earlier immigrants, wanted to be American, which evidently was a culture worth aspiring to until the mid 20th century.

[Rusty0604]

I wonder what LEO would do if everyone started wearing burkas? They couldn’t risk stopping anyone for fear of profiling.

[omega4412]

She’s in enemy uniform and should be treated as such. Like someone wearing a swastika armband during WWII.

[driftless2]

Unless I'm at a masquerade party (exceptionally doubtful) or approached on the street by a clown asking for directions (again, very doubtful) I would refuse to talk to anyone wearing with their face covered. No, talking to someone over the phone is not the same thing.

If you don't have the decency to expose your face to me when you're trying to speak to me, don't try. I won't answer. While at DisneyWorld recently I saw a few women walking around in their burkas with their faces covered. The feeling I had was disgust. I will neither talk to the woman or the woman's husband.

[JoeFromSidney]

When I was a visiting professor in Turkey, there was a riot at another university over head scarves (not the full face covering, just the equivalent of a "babushka" or "mantilla"). The university wanted the girls to take off their head scarves for their ID pictures. The girls refused, saying "This is the way we look." When I arrived on campus that morning, there were riot police all over campus, and a tank at the main gate, just to be sure that our students didn't have a sympathy riot. Strictly speaking, it was against Turkish law to wear a head scarf in any government building, including universities. Most of the time the law wasn't enforced.