Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Hiding your identity with the burka is un-Australian.

Following are two letters published in the “Cairns Post,” our daily newspaper. Letter 1, was written by me in answer to another letter that stated that a full burka should be part of Australian fashion. As a consequence, I was chastised in the Cairns Post, by Han Barkmeyer, and I got an e-mail from another person telling me that I’m a fascist and a bigot. This didn’t worry me; it is like water off a duck’s back. I know that speaking the truth can hurt, but it is one of the few democratic rights we still have in this country; to speak or think without externally imposed restraints. However, hiding your face is not “covered” by that convention. Pun intended.

Barkmeyer wrote among other things: “I like freedom and civil liberties and I don’t like people like Werner, who want to curtail them.” Unquote. What a lot of unmitigated blather. It is the law in Australia that one cannot go into a public office with a motorcycle helmet on, why should a full face cover be tolerated? Barkmeyer is barking up the wrong tree. - Werner
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Letter 1. Published on 24. 5. 2010.
Covering faces will not become fashion.
Jo Watson, “Adapting to fashion.” CP18.5.2010. If she thinks that Muslim woman who cover their faces can be considered fashion in Australia, she would have to be joking. It is fashionable in Muslim countries, but it should not be tolerated in Australia. Congratulations go to France and the Belgians who had the intestinal fortitude to ban covering faces.

Before we left for Australia as migrants, the then Menzies government implored us to assimilate and integrate into the Australian way of life. This we did, but walking around in pyjama like garbs and covering the faces is definitely not the Australian way.

Furthermore, those people in Australia live in Muslim enclaves, educate their children in Muslim schools and indoctrinate them with passages from the Koran like, the infidels are your enemies killing them is the order of Allah, whoever that is. You never see them at sporting fields or mixing with other Australians, but after two years they can become Australian citizen. It’s a joke.

I would like to emphasise that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it can be said that all terrorists seem to be Muslims. When will the Australian government wake up and let only people into this country that are willing to adapt and assimilate?

It makes one wonder why Muslims want to come to a predominantly Christian country, why on earth don’t they want to go to a Muslim country? - Werner Schmidlin Yorkeys Knob

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Letter 2. Published 2.5.2010, with a picture of an Islamic women in a full burka, I wonder now if Bark (up the wrong tree) meyer will reply to this letter. - Werner
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Dress to respect the local culture.
PEOPLE who complain of the burka are not bigoted, nor ignorant, but democratic. In 2008, there were 40,000 dress code violations recorded by the Dress Police in Iran, and most of the tickets were issued to women for showing hair or too much ankle. Click picture to enlarge.

Obviously many Muslim women resent the strict Islamic code, which is a product of the post Iranian Revolution of 1979. And it has nothing to do with the Koran. In fact the Koran has very little to say about female dress.


In the mid-1960s I lived and worked in the Middle East, and I travelled to three or four cities without seeing the full burka.


I was always dressed conservatively with long sleeves and long hemlines. I did not wear a headscarf. I dressed to respect the local culture.
This is what women who wear the burka, do not do in Australia.

They are thumbing their noses at our democracy and our ideas of female beauty.
If I appeared in a swim suit at a beach in most Muslim countries, I might be arrested. But then I know it would upset people and I would not do it.

The extreme burka is a recent phenomenon and its days are numbered in the West, now that the criminal elements see the advantages of using it.

France has already banned the burka (And so has Belgium. - Werner) and other countries will follow; after all, a strict Islamic regime and a democracy cannot co-exist.
- I.P. Shanks, Mareeba.

My thought for today: - Werner
We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon. Konrad Adenauer

4 comments:

John Demster, Cairns said...

Congratulations, Werner, you are one of the few people in this country, who has the courage to speak out on subjects detrimental to Australia. We have a lot of bigots in this country, but you are certainly not one of them. Don’t worry about wowsers like the Barkmeyers of this world.

A. & C. Simpson (ACT) said...

I totally agree with you, Werner; the burka is un-Australian. I. P. Shanks was right; “They are thumbing their noses at our democracy and our ideas of female beauty.” The burka also undermines social cohesion. Women who wear the burka in Western countries send out a strongly anti-integrationist message.

I was reading that in “Britain, for instance, this total lack of willingness to integrate on the part of some Muslims has become an obstacle to the formal learning of English, has heightened inter-communal tensions, and has reinforced the ghettoization of Asian Muslims into separate enclaves with high unemployment and increased social alienation.”

Finally, the burka can be a security or crime risk: It hides the identity of a potential terrorist or criminal.

Wendy Frith (Grafton) said...

Werner I can tell you why Muslims don’t want to go to another Muslim country.
1. They wouldn’t get the social benefits; they receive in Australia.

2. They are producing more children than any other group in Australia and we can assume that the purpose of this is to eventually have the numbers in this country to make the law – and we all know what that would be. Wearing the burka would be one of them.

Bevo said...

These silly people who can see no harm in wearing the full face burqa must have had too much fluoride to drink and can't think straight. Are they prepared to hide their beautiful faces for the rest of their lives, no sunshine on their faces or bodies, no Vitamin D from the sun, no chance to smile at anyone, no evidence of tears, hidden under a canvas tent just like your own personal prison. If you like this idea go and live in Afghanistan and join up with the taliban. What are you doing here, where thousands of our ancestors died trying to keep this country free, so that you can live a life where you are still able to speak your mind and dress as you wish.
Why don't we all wear a balaclava to get our photos taken? Because it is ridiculous and has nothing to do with religious beliefs, but is just total subservience to males, something normal Australians no longer believe in.