The Belgian Burqa Ban

First and foremost, having nothing to do with Belgium, burqas or bans, but having everything to do with birthdays, I'd like to wish my mother-in-law (aka Mrs. Frazier & Mae Mae) a very happy birthday. I won't tell you how old she is . . . well, because you aren't supposed to and because you wouldn't believe me anyway. I don't know her secret, but she hasn't changed a bit and I've known her for nearly 35 years! Happy Birthday!

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Belgium. Burqas. Bans.

Belgium is one of the most liberal countries in the world. Issues that beleaguer other countries like . . .

> abortion - fully legal since 1990

> marijuana - not legal, but up to 3 grams is tolerated

> same-sex marriage - legal since 2003

> drinking age - 16 - driving age is 18

> death penalty - outlawed in 1996, but the last person executed in Belgium was the German war criminal and commander of the concentration camp Fort Breendonk, Philipp Schmitt, in 1950

I guess that's why Saturday's enforcement of a new law is so ironic.

Belgium now has a burqa ban. From July 23, 2011 a women can face a fine of, strangely enough,€137.50 and up to seven days in jail for wearing it.

Daniel Bacquelaine, a liberal with the Belgian Reformist Movement party and who introduced the burqa ban bill, said: "It is necessary that the law forbids the wearing of clothes that totally mask and enclose an individual. Wearing the burqa in public is not compatible with an open, liberal, tolerant society."

Was that an oxymoron?

Isabelle Praille, Vice President of the Muslim Executive of Belgium, said "Today it's the full-face veil. Tomorrow the veil, the day after it will be Sikh turbans, and then perhaps it will be miniskirts."

Point taken.

Some see it as a progressive move for Muslim women while many see it as polarizing and extreme. Perhaps it could be both, but it is most surely discrimination.

Although very few women wear the full body/face covering, Belgium joins France as the second EU nation to forbid full body burqa and full niqab veils in public.

For an open, liberal, tolerant society it seems two steps back.

"In time we hate that which we often fear." William Shakespeare