Free Republic

Belgian politician risks Muslim backlash after using teenage daughter dressed in burka and bikini for campaign against Islam Cover up: Politician's daughter An-Sofie Dewinter poses in a burka and bikini in a campaign against Islamic extremists A Belgian politician has risked causing uproar among Muslims after starting a 'Women Against Islamization' campaign featuring his 19-year-old daughter wearing a burka and a bikini. Filip Dewinter, leader of the far-right Vlaams Belang party, uses a shot of his daughter An-Sofie Dewinter in the dark blue bikini for the political campaign. The glamorous teenager dons a burka that covers her head and face,...

Restrain yourself, infidel dogs... BizzaroBlog via Bilbo's Pedro Churros Now if Al Qaida ever get their paws on me,  they'll remember I'm 'cool'... More/links at Reaganite Republican God Bless our veterans today- and every day -and enjoy your weekend, FReeper patriots

That's me! In Dubai last week to open a milkshake franchise, promote her signature fragrance, and pursue other opportunities to expand her business empire, uber-celebrity Kim Kardashian and mother Kris Jenner stopped by the Dubai Mall to shop for the latest Middle Eastern fashions – including matching burqas.“That’s me!” Kardashian later squealed on Twitter beneath a photo of herself with her famous face completely obscured except for a slit for the eyes (this is actually a niqab, , which covers everything; a burqa is becoming the popular catchall word to describe the covering in general). Considering that Kardashian’s fame...

The Archbishop of Canterbury and Royal Commission for Political Correctness announced today that the climate in the UK should no longer be referred to as 'English Weather'... Rather than offend a sizeable 'minority' group -especially a self-absorbed, vile-tempered one with a penchant for making explosives in their bathtub- persistently bleak weather conditions over the United Kingdom will now be exclusively referred to as 'Muslim Weather' (partly Sunni- mostly Shi'ite). You know- some of that furniture waterproofing spray you use on the sofa might do wonders for that outfit when it rains, ladies... (about only way Sharia Islam could be...

Rachid Nekkaz (pictured) has set up a million euro fund to pay fines for women who choose to wear the full Islamic veil in countries, like France, where it is against the law to do so in public. A French businessman has set up a fund to pay fines for women who wear Islamic veils or the burqa in public “in whatever country in the world that bans women from doing so”. Rachid Nekkaz, 38, a real-estate businessman based in Paris, travelled to Belgium on Wednesday to pay 100 euros for two women fined in the first case in the...

Italy's parliamentary commission has approved a draft law banning women from wearing veils that cover their faces in public. The draft law was sponsored by Souad Sbai, a Moroccan-born member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative Freedom People party. The law, which was passed by the constitutional affairs commission Tuesday, would prohibit women from wearing a burqa, niqab or any other garment that covers the face. It would also sentence anyone who forces women to cover their faces in public to up to one year in prison and fine them $43,000. The Italian news agency ANSA reports the opposition voted...

Prince, the purple-clad rocker, caused many a jaw to drop last month over his laughably sanguine view of life in the Muslim world: :It's fun being in Islamic countries, to know there's only one religion. There's order. You wear a burqa. There's no choice. People are happy with that." As a piece in the Guardian notes, "The singer who once sang of '23 positions in a one-night stand' praises Islamic countries for offering 'no choice.'" Indeed, this writer of "Darling Nikki," a song celebrating a rendezvous with a "sex fiend" who likes to "grind," appears to have switched loyalties to...

  This column was first posted on June 1, 2010. In it I expressed the fear that a burqa could be used to conceal a terrorist − male or female − strapped with explosives. Some readers thought my fear was unreasonable, even bigoted. It wasn’t. Read “Terrorists in Drag: Bombs Beneath the Burqa” by Dr. Phyllis Chesler. Male terrorists have been captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere, disguised in burqas and loaded down with weapons and explosives. What is already happening there can happen here. http://cloud.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Picture-3.gif Meanwhile, in Britain there are concerns that Sharia courts are enforcing anti-woman decisions; in...

TEPCO to cover reactor with polyester sheets The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will begin to cover the No.1 reactor building with polyester sheets this month to prevent the dispersal of radioactive substances. The buildings of the No.1, 3, and 4 reactors were severely damaged by explosions and radioactive elements are still being released into the atmosphere. There are fears that heavy rain may hamper the workers' activities and that the rainwater may become contaminated with radioactive materials. To prevent these situations, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, plans to enclose the reactor buildings with polyester sheets. The...

As Islamists condemn the French ban on face-covering attire in public, it is worth noting that some of the strongest words in support of the law — and in opposition to the burqa and niqab — actually have come from Western Muslims. A few recent highlights:

Burqa-clad women detained in FranceWed May 11, 2011 11:58PM One month after France's banning of the burqa, women wearing the face-covering garment are being arrested and forced to remove their veils in public to avoid police harassment. Five women were immediately detained by police for wearing the burqa on city streets, as they attempted to attend a conference on the controversial law in the capital Paris, a Press TV correspondent reported on Wednesday. The conference was organized by the multicultural association Don't Touch My Constitution, which has raised funds to help women pay the fine that the government has imposed...

Belgium has taken a major step towards banning burka-type Islamic dress in public after its lower house of parliament overwhelmingly backed the measure. After Thursday's approval, the senate still has several weeks to decide whether to put the bill up for further discussion and another vote. The Belgian legislature came close to approving such law last year, but the process was held up at the last moment when the governing coalition collapsed. The bill was approved by an overwhelming majority of 136-1 with two abstentions.

Amid demonstrations, terror threats, and hyperbolic headlines, France has become the first Western country to enforce a ban on face-covering attire in virtually all public places, more than six months after the Senate approved sweeping legislation. Penalties for wearing garments such as burqas and niqabs include a fine of €150 and citizenship classes, while those who intimidate others into donning the apparel risk a €30,000 assessment and a year in prison. Tickets are being issued, but questions persist about legal challenges and enthusiasm to administer the law. Though France is the pace setter, efforts to impose burqa bans, both broad...

France bans face-covering Islamic veil - France has passed and today began enforcing a law that forbids the wearing of face veils by Muslim women. Some arrests have already been made. Here are three reasons why this law is a terrible idea. 1. Freedom of religion, if the Muslims don’t have it, nobody does. If you can pass a law like this, you can also jail religious people for criticizing homosexuality (as is in fact done in Europe), or you can ban Christians from homeschooling their kids (also a fact of life in much of Europe). Freedom of worship is...

POLICE FEAR MUSLIM VIOLENCE IN RESPONSE TO ENFORCEMENT OF NEW LAW Paris police arrested a woman today for wearing a burqa on the first day of France’s ban on Muslim veils. About a dozen people, including three women wearing hijabs, staged a protest in front of Notre Dame. Police said the woman was detained because the protest was not authorized and the protesters refused to disperse. Despite the arrest, police say they will enforce the new law “extremely cautiously” due to fear of provoking violence. This is an incredibly ominous statement, don’t you think? “The law will be very difficult...

<p>Recent Muslim mass wedding at Enfield, England...</p>

Islam is the only major world religion where child marriage has the religious sanction of its prophet. Mohammed 'married' Aisha, his most notable wife, when she was six years old. The marriage was consummated when she was nine or ten at the latest. Like so many marriages, it was the product of an alliance between her father and Mohammed. Aisha's merchant father was Mohammed's first ally outside his family, and went on to be Mohammed's successor. That alliance was sealed with the sexual abuse of his little girl. Such arrangements are still common in the Muslim world today, where little...

Lleida in the northeastern Catalonia region on Thursday became Spain's first city to introduce a ban on wearing the face-covering Islamic burqa in public places. These places include offices, sports centres, markets and other property owned by the city council. The niqab - which covers the face but leaves a small slit for the eyes - has also been banned. In neighbouring France, the national parliament in September outlawed the burqa and veils which cover the face... The same month, two separate bills were presented in the upper and lower houses of the Italian parliament which aim to end the...

Angela Merkel does not make the covers of Dutch newspapers very often. But the German chancellor's assertion last week that "multiculturalism has absolutely failed" in her country was headline news in the Netherlands. As far as the Dutch are concerned, the Germans - whom they consider to sometimes be politically behind the times - have finally woken up. The Netherlands' dream of a happy, harmonious multicultural society burst on a grey autumn morning six years ago in Amsterdam. On November 2, 2004, an Islamic extremist gunned down Dutch filmmaker and Islam critic Theo van Gogh in the street, then slit...

THE Netherlands will ban the burqa, anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders has said following the announcement of a pact to form a minority coalition government backed by his party. "There will also be a burqa ban," Mr Wilders told journalists in The Hague, announcing measures agreed on by three parties negotiating to form a new government. The measures, which seek to cut government spending by 18 billion euros ($25.32 billion) by 2015, should also halve the number of immigrants who enter the Netherlands, the politician said. "A new wind will blow in the Netherlands," Wilders said, standing alongside presumed prime minister-in-waiting...

République française has banned the burqa. Along with the face-covering veil (the niqab), the burqa is the garment with which Muslim women conceal their bodies from head to toe. More accurately, it is the instrument by which their bodies are concealed. In fundamentalist Muslim communities, the burqa is not worn by a woman’s free choice. It is imposed, a product of cultural submission that reflects the subordinate status — in a real sense, the chattel status — to which women are consigned in Islamist ideology. The new French burqa law was announced this week. Not a social debate: a law....

PARIS – The French Senate has voted overwhelmingly for a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil everywhere from post offices to streets, in a final step toward a making it law. The Senate voted 246 to 1 Tuesday in favor of the bill, which has already passed in the lower chamber, the National Assembly. Any dissenters have 10 days to challenge the measure in the Constitutional Council watchdog, but that is considered unlikely.

I think it's a fair question to ask. I too have taken notice that 'Obama is a muslim', some of the puzzle pieces fit. But not enough IMHO, it doesn't stand on it's own. Now, if you re ask the question as "Is Obama an appeaser of muslims" then all of the puzzle pieces fit, particularly that of radical liberation theology. There shouldn't be any questions that he believes that garbage. Obama is not a muslim, he is a believer in liberation. And that does stand on it's own.

Police in Hamburg shut down the notorious al-Quds mosque, renamed the Taiba mosque in 2008, led by German-Syrian national and voluntary imam Mamoun Darkazanli. Darkazanli (a.k.a. Abu Ilyas al-Suri) has been a suspected al-Qaeda operative, primarily as a financier and logistician, in the European Union for close to two decades. Long active in al-Qaeda circles, Darkazanli first surfaced on the radar of Western intelligence agencies when he purportedly helped procure a cargo ship named “Jennifer” for Osama bin Laden as early as 1993 (Hamburger Abendblatt, October 16, 2004). Germany’s Bundeskriminalamt (BKA- Federal Criminal Police Office) admitted that it had been...

It wasn't a purr-fect crime after all. Sources said last night that cops had caged the "Cat Lady," the serial stick-up artist who dons clever disguises -- including a cat mask -- to rob high-end boutiques around the city. The suspect was identified as Shanna Spalding, 28, of Queens, who sings with a death-metal band called Divine Infamy under her stage name, Purgatory. The burqa-clad suspect was picked up in SoHo after bursting into a Greene Street boutique with a gun and demanding cash, sources said. ...Cops said they had noticed her prior to the heist, and followed her to...

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Montgomery County police said a man wearing a burqa robbed a bank in Silver Spring. Police said the man who robbed a TD Bank branch on Briggs Chaney Road about 4:20 p.m. Tuesday was wearing a "long black burqa over his face." He also wore jeans and tan boots.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Montgomery County police said a man wearing a burqa robbed a bank in Silver Spring. Police said the man who robbed a TD Bank branch on Briggs Chaney Road about 4:20 p.m. Tuesday was wearing a "long black burqa over his face." He also wore jeans and tan boots. Authorities said the man showed a gun and demanded money. He took an undetermined amount of money and fled.

BRITISH academic and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins has angered Muslim groups by comparing the burqa to a trash bag. Muslim organisations reacted angrily... "I think it is ignorant and Islamaphobic," said Seyyed Ferjani, of the Muslim Association of Britain. In 2008 he said: "It's almost impossible to say anything against Islam in this country, because you are accused of being racist or Islamophobic."

Istanbul — I moved here five years ago. In the beginning, I was sympathetic to the argument that Turkey’s ban on headscarves in universities and public institutions was grossly discriminatory. I spoke to many women who described veiling themselves as an uncoerced act of faith. One businesswoman in her mid-30s told me that she began veiling in high school, defying her secular family. Her schoolteacher gasped when she saw her: “If Atatürk could see you now, he would weep!” Her pain at the memory of the opprobrium she had suffered was clearly real. Why had she decided to cover herself?...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A popular Saudi cleric said Saturday it is permissible for Muslim women to reveal their faces in countries where the Islamic veil is banned to avoid harassment, while deploring the effort to outlaw the garment in France. Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, is one of the few Muslim countries where women are forced by custom to cover their hair with head scarves and their bodies with cloaks called abayas in most parts of the country. It is also common to see Saudi women wearing full-face veils.

Bill O’Reilly is clearly continuing his shameless and cowardly surrender to Sharia Law. Daily on his program, The O’Reilly Factor on FoxNews.com, he engages in the standard and phony obfuscations about the jihadi threat the West faces, consistently refusing to honestly name and label the Islamic foundations of the terrorist enterprise. Back in April 2010, he blatantly sided with our society’s dhimmis, blaming South Park for doing the Mohammed shows. Rather than praising Parker’s and Stone’s courage, standing up for their right to make any script they wished, and denouncing the despots who threatened their lives (and the tenets of...

France's lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public.There were 335 votes for the bill and only one against in the 557-seat National Assembly. It must now be ratified by the Senate in September to become law.The ban has strong public support but critics point out that only a tiny minority of French Muslims wear the full veil.Many of the opposition Socialists, who originally wanted the ban limited only to public buildings, abstained from voting after coming under pressure from feminist supporters of the bill.President Nicolas Sarkozy has backed...

FReep This Poll! DMV Pictures Should the DMV have the right to ask people to remove religious clothing for their driver's license photos? Yes No Go to the link provided on this post. Scroll down a bit on the Fox 5 San Diego homepage and look for the poll on the right hand side right above "Chrissy's Outfit of the Day" Vote your choice.

But a woman forced to go around like a dehumanized blob is only half the problem. Equally problematic is how everyone, including me, allowed her to pass without comment. As we have done with homeless people, we will now do with women in burqas. We will grow accustomed to averting our eyes from injustice − and that is unacceptable. Yes, I know about “cultural sensitivity,” “tolerance” and “diversity.” But tolerance of what? People who tolerate the intolerable will themselves become intolerable. Diversity of what? A prison contains diverse criminals − does that make it a desirable place to live? Sensitivity...

France has first 'burka rage' incident A 60-year-old lawyer ripped a Muslim woman's Islamic veil off in a row in a clothing shop in what police say is France's first case of "burka rage". Peter Allen, Paris Published: 10:25AM BST 18 May 2010 The astonishing scene unfolded during a weekend shopping trip after the woman lawyer took offence at the attire of a fellow shopper resulting in argument during which the pair came to blows before being arrested. It came as racial tensions grow in the country as it prepares to introduce a total ban on burkas and other forms...

Last month, I too came out against the burqa (“A Burka is Not for Spring Break”) because I support women’s right to enjoy the sunlight. Additionally, the burqa, a symbol of oppression if ever there was one, is un-Australian, without question. Still, seasonal libertarians and Muslim-first socialists look down their collective nose on “bans,” suggesting that the burqa is part of our “multicultural” society. They wonder why women aren’t allowed to choose what they want, even if we can’t understand their choice. Of course, this argument presupposes that one gender just happened to think that burqas and other identity-disguising clothes...

I read, and I write for, the Highlands Newspaper, a weekly paper with a modest circulation. The Editor, also my editor, is Kim Lewicki. She ran an article in last week’s issue that was excellently written and edited, and worthy of sharing with my national audience. The week before, Erika Olvera, a former Police Officer in this town, filed an EEOC Complaint against the Town of Highlands. Our experience with Officer Olvera was limited, but we found her to be diligent and capable. She worked for the Town for two years. She is a naturalized American from Mexico, who has...

Australia's peak Islamic organisation has reacted with disappointment over Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi's comments yesterday that the burka is "un-Australian" and should be banned. South Australian Senator Bernardi lashed out in an article which was published on The Drum website, saying the burka "needs to be binned". He called it a "repressive domination of men over women" and said it establishes "different sets and expectations in society". Prime Minister Kevin Rudd responded today, accusing the Opposition of playing a cynical political exercise by floating the idea of banning the burka. "I think they are walking both sides of the street...

The burqa is no longer simply the symbol of female repression and Islamic culture, it is now emerging as the preferred disguise of bandits and n'er do wells. In Sydney this morning a man was robbed by a burqa wearing bandit who further disguised his (or her) identity by wearing sunglasses. The bandit was described by police as being of "Middle Eastern appearance". Well of course he was (assuming it was a he) because the only characteristics the victim could see were the burqa and the sunglasses. Now unless the sunglasses had 'made in Iran' stamped on them, it's fair...

A CALL for a controversial ban on wearing the burqa in public has split opinion and sparked outrage from the Muslim community who labelled it a political stunt. Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi yesterday sparked outrage after he called for the Islamic headdress to be banned following an earlier robbery in a Sydney store by a burqa clad man. Writing on his personal blog, the outspoken senator said the veil was "emerging as the preferred disguise of bandits and n'er do wells".

A GUNMAN wearing a full black burqa and sunglasses got away with a bag of cash following an armed robbery in a Sydney car park, police say. The burqa bandit and an accomplice allegedly stalked their 35-year-old victim after he withdrew a large amount of cash from a shopping centre in Miranda, in the city's south, about 5pm (AEST) yesterday. The victim drove to another shopping centre in Hurstville before the man wearing a burqa - traditionally only worn by women in the Islamic culture - drew his gun, grabbed the cash and fled. Police say the two men they...

Moves by France and Belgium to ban Muslim full face veils predictably angered some Islamic clerics, but other European states facing the same question are following the delicate debate carefully. France announced on Wednesday it would seek a law to ban Muslim residents and visitors from wearing a burqa or a niqab in public, while Belgium was poised to pass a similar ban until its ruling coalition collapsed on Thursday. World governments have in the main been slow to react to the French and Belgian decisions, but Iran was quick to add the proposed laws to its charge sheet against...

Picture me on the Eurostar, in Brussels, Belgium. The year is 2004. There’s a veil-wearing lady sitting behind me with her friend. Like most women of a certain age, they’re chattering their heads off. Later, however, the loud conversation takes a sharp turn, when the Muslim lady pontificates about the superiority of Islam and the evils of paganism. But, if I had been sharing my Protestant beliefs? From a theological perspective, there’s nothing wrong with Muslims or Christians peacefully evangelizing. I am a friend of free speech. But the subject of clothing politics (for want of a better term) is...

March 31, 2010 Belgium moves to ban the burqa If the ban is passed Belgium will become the first country in Europe to make the wearing of Muslim clothing illegal David Charter, Brussels The face-covering veil is set to be banned within weeks in Belgium, making it the first country in Europe to make the wearing of Muslim clothing illegal. Women who flout the ban will face from one to seven days in jail or a fine of 15 to 25 euros. While President Sarkozy is encountering obstacles to his plans to outlaw the face-covering niqab in France, Belgium's main...

FRANCE'S top administrative body has advised the government against slapping a complete ban on the full Islamic veil but says outlawing the burqa in some places was justified for security reasons. MPs from President Nicolas Sarkozy's party said they were determined to push for a total ban of the full-face veil in draft legislation to be presented in the coming weeks. Jean Leonetti, insisted a total ban was the only answer and that MPs could well decide to ignore the State Council's recommendations. "A ban needs to be complete or else it is misunderstood," said Mr Leonetti. "We still are...

The editors of the New York Times newspaper chastised French President Nicolas Sarkozy for sponsoring legislation that would outlaw facial coverings in public. Sarkozy’s ban has been applauded by some French Muslim women, but has been criticized by Muslim leaders, who say it could provoke Muslim men to violence. The Times editors derided Sarkozy’s measure as “intolerant and insensitive.” “Covering the female body is an essential tenet of devout Islamic belief,” the editors wrote. “Prohibiting it tramples on the freedom to practice one’s religion as one sees fit. It is just as wrong as banning female circumcision or arresting Muslim...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says there is no place for full face and body veils such as the burqa, or for the debasement of women, in France. Sarkozy says all beliefs will be respected in France but says "becoming French means adhering to a form of civilization, to values, to morals." Sarkozy said Thursday during a speech on national identity that "France is a country where there is no place for the burqa."

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Some women strode the catwalk in vicious spiked bracelets and body armor. Others had their heads covered, burqa-style, but with shoulders — and tattoos — exposed. Male models wore long, Islamic robes as well as shorts and sequined T-shirts. As surging militant violence grabs headlines around the world, Pakistan's top designers and models are taking part in the country's first-ever fashion week. While the mix of couture and ready-to-wear fashions would not have been out of place in Milan or New York, many designers made reference to the turmoil, reflecting the contradictions and tensions coursing through...

A burka-wearing student has been banned from enrolling at a college after staff claimed the Muslim garment was a barrier to ‘safety and communication’. Shawana Bilqes, 18, was forced to abandon her learning plans after she refused to remove the head-to-toe gown which reveals only her eyes. She had been asked to show her face as a check to avoid identity fraud in case she was posing as someone else. But when she explained she could not due to her religious belief she was forced off her Access course for an HE Diploma at Burnley College, Lancashire. Today Miss Bilqes...

The shameless phenomenon of Western leftist feminists abandoning millions of persecuted Muslim women under Islamic gender apartheid continues. Naomi Wolf has now come forward to say that she finds the Islamic chador sexy and supports its institutionalization throughout the Islamic world. Never mind that Muslim women in most cases do not have a choice of whether or not to cover themselves, and face bodily harm and death if they do not veil. How much, one wonders, does Wolf care about Aqsa Parvez, a 16-year-old Muslim girl who was murdered by her father for refusing to wear the veil? Does...