Unable to decide on who should run the country, Belgium has at least decided on one thing. It wants to ban the burqa and the niqab. The lower house of parliament voted almost unanimously in favour: there were two abstentions and no one voted against.
Astonishingly, Daniel Bacquelaine, the MP who introduced the legislation said "It's not about introducing any form of discrimination," whereas I should have thought it was just a little discriminatory agaisnt people who want to wear the burqa or niqab. Bacquelaine is the head of the Francophone liberal Reformist Movement (MR) party: Belgium is one of the few countries applying segregation even to political parties. He said the ban was against clothing "aimed at stopping people from being identified."
But of course it doesn't apply to motor cyclists, so that is clearly nonsense. I should have thought the only way you could logically achieve this would be to ban all religious identification, including crucifixes, nuns' habits and the yarmulka.
Now the Muslim groups will go to the courts and Europe will drown in a stream of pomposity and self-righteousness. It would perhaps be better if Muslims decided Belgium was a nasty place to live and left, but that is what Mr Bacquelaine wants.
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