Holger Awakens

I guess the British people can now understand what it was like in America when Congress shoved a Healthcare bill down our throats when 70% of Americans were against it, because British Immigration Minister, Damian Green, has decided that Britain won't follow France's lead and install a burqa or hijab ban because it would be "rather un-British" - this in the wake of polling that shows that 67 percent of Brits want the ban.

From the story at The Telegraph:

Damian Green said such a move would be “rather un-British” and run contrary to the conventions of a “tolerant and mutually respectful society”.
He said it would be “undesirable” for Parliament to vote on a burka ban in Britain and that there was no prospect of the Coalition proposing it.

His comments will dismay the growing number of supporters of a ban. A YouGov survey last week found that 67 per cent of voters wanted the wearing of full-face veils to be made illegal.

Mr Green used a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Telegraph, his first since taking up his post at the Home Office in May, to issue a “message around the world that Britain is no longer a soft touch on immigration”.

You know, Britain has had ample opportunities to send a serious message to the nation's islamic immigrants but oh no, apparently the terror attacks on the country, the weekly protests in the streets calling for the death of Britain and huge crime rate increases just aren't enough to warrant hurting the feelings of the poor islamists.

Perhaps we should perform an experiment - let's have Damian Green's wife head out of the house down a dark street in London tonight about midnight - that okay with you Damian?

Burka ban ruled out by immigration minister



Damian Green said such a move would be “rather un-British” and run contrary to the conventions of a “tolerant and mutually respectful society”.
He said it would be “undesirable” for Parliament to vote on a burka ban in Britain and that there was no prospect of the Coalition proposing it.

His comments will dismay the growing number of supporters of a ban. A YouGov survey last week found that 67 per cent of voters wanted the wearing of full-face veils to be made illegal.

Mr Green used a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Telegraph, his first since taking up his post at the Home Office in May, to issue a “message around the world that Britain is no longer a soft touch on immigration”.

He said the summer would see a major crackdown on the main streams of illegal immigration — including sham marriages, illegal workers and people trafficking — and confirmed that this autumn the Government would set an overall cap on migrants entering Britain from outside the European Union.

His firm decision to rule out a burka ban will disappoint some Right-of-centre Tory MPs, including Philip Hollobone, who has tabled a private member’s bill that would make it illegal for anyone to cover their face in public.

Mr Hollobone, the MP for Kettering, said this weekend that he would refuse to hold any constituency meetings with women wearing burkas.

The United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) has also supported calls for a ban after last week’s vote by French parliamentarians to outlaw full-face veils, including burkas, in public. Deputies in France’s National Assembly backed the ban by 335 votes to one.

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, has revealed he is not in favour of an outright ban on the burka – but adds that they should not be worn if doing so “compromises public or personal safety, endangers national security or impedes professional or social interaction”.

In an article for The Sunday Telegraph he says: “In those circumstances, it is difficult to see how it can be allowed.”

Mr Green said he did not think that the French vote for a ban would have an impact on immigration into Britain.

“I stand personally on the feeling that telling people what they can and can’t wear, if they’re just walking down the street, is a rather un-British thing to do,” he said. “We’re a tolerant and mutually respectful society.

“There are times, clearly, when you’ve got to be able to identify yourself, and people have got to be able to see your face, but I think it’s very unlikely and it would be undesirable for the British Parliament to try and pass a law dictating what people wore.

“I think very few women in France actually wear the burka. They [the French parliament] are doing it for demonstration effects.

“The French political culture is very different. They are an aggressively secular state. They can ban the burka, they ban crucifixes in schools and things like that.

“We have schools run explicitly by religions. I think there’s absolutely no read-across to immigration policy from what the French are doing about the burka.”

Mr Green’s comments came after the new head of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) told The Sunday Telegraph that Britain was the most welcoming country in Europe for Muslims.

Farooq Murad pointed to the spread of mosques and sharia, or Islamic law, as positive signs of the greater freedom Muslims are given in this country.

He warned that any moves to restrict the expression of Islam by banning the veil or blocking the building of minarets would alienate the Muslim community and threaten social cohesion.

Mr Murad, who last month succeeded Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari as secretary general of the MCB, said: “Life in Britain is much more welcoming and healthy for Muslims than in other European countries.

“There’s a great British sense of fairness and justice. We can have great pride in what a tolerant country Britain is, looking at the growth of mosques, and how nearly more people eat halal meat than don’t.”

On immigration, Mr Green said the Coalition’s aim was to put “steady downwards pressure” on immigration from outside the EU so that net immigration fell “to the tens of thousands” by the time of the next election, expected in 2015.

He ruled out an amnesty for illegal immigrants.

“There will not be an amnesty under this government: my Lib Dem colleagues have accepted that … just looking around the world that would send a terrible signal.

“Out there in other countries there has been the view that Britain’s borders are not very well defended and that if you can get into this country it’s relatively easy to operate here, to work illegally and so on. We’ve got to change that perception around the world.”

Steady pressure on numbers to reduce net immigration substantially over time was the “best way to restore public confidence”, he said.

This one is gonna REALLY get to the islamists because they all feel that they still own Spain and so, when Barcelona, Spain outlaws burqas and niqabs, get ready for some fireworks.

Here's the full story from Family Security Matters.

Exclusive: Barcelona Bans The Burka


Barcelona is set to become the first Spanish city to ban Islamic face veils and full body burkas in public buildings, including markets, hospitals, and libraries.

The city's municipal government announced the prohibition which will take effect in September.
"Barcelona will forbid the use of the burka, niqab and any other item which hinders personal identification in any of the city's public installations," the government statement said.

Alberto Fernandez Diaz, a city councilman and member of the conservative Popular Party, proclaimed on his website that "the use of the burka and niqab undermines the dignity and freedom of women".

"The mayoral decree is only a half-measure,” he complained, “because as well as forbidding the burka and niqab in public installations, it is necessary to forbid it on the street," he added.

Last year, Mr. Fernandez-Diaz was responsible for halting the construction of a massive mosque in the midst of Barcelona.

Face veils are banned in all public spaces in the relatively small towns of Lerida and El Vendrell, which like Barcelona are in the northeastern region of Catalonia in Spain.

Jordi Hereu, Barcelona's mayor, has resisted calls to impose a ban on full face veils in all public spaces in Spain's second-largest city. He said such a measure would be beyond the jurisdiction of a municipal government.

Barcelona is presently home for 300,000 Muslims. The city’s Islamic community dates back to 1967, when Barcelona became the first stop for the North African migrant population on their way to Western Europe.

Spain was partly ruled by Islamic Moors from the 8th to the 15th centuries and had around 1.4 million Muslims in 2009 — about 3 per cent of the population — according to the Islamic Commission of Spain.

In a recent controversy, a young woman in Madrid changed schools after refusing to remove her Islamic head scarf when the institute where she was studying enforced its rule banning the wearing of head-coverings.

The ban on face veils is not new in Europe.

France approved a bill last month to outlaw the wearing of veils in public and Belgium's lower house has also voted in favor of prohibiting the full veil, provoking strong reaction and stoking debate across the continent.

Countdown to full fatwa on the entire country of Italy....3...2...1.... LOL! It wasn't too long ago, perhaps a year ago, when the Italian people voted to halt the building of any new mosques in their country and it appears that smaller jurisdictions are now following through on tougher scrutiny on those muslims who just don't seem to understand that rules are rules and if you want to live in a new country, YOU conform to that society...the society doesn't submit to YOU.

Moral of the story (from Times of India): when the police tell you to do something, you do it. Capice?

Now, Italy slaps fine over burqa


ROME: Italian police fined a woman $650 for wearing a full Islamic veil — the first punishment of its kind in Italy but the latest in a wave of sanctions against the burqa in Europe.

The Tunisian woman was walking in a street in Novara on Monday when she was stopped by a patrol, local police said. "City police ticketed her last night and she will have to pay a $650 fine," Novara municipal police official Mauro Franzinelli said. "As far as I know this is a first in Italy."

The woman was stopped by police outside a post office as she was walking with her husband. The husband produced identity documents for the couple but refused demands by the male officers for the woman to lift her veil so she could be identified. Police then called in another patrol which included a woman officer to carry out the face check.

Franzinelli, who is also a local official for the anti-immigration Northern League, said the city had adopted a decree in January banning the burqa in public. He said the interior ministry was aware of the ban and its comments had been taken into account.

"It's a security problem. In a civilised community, people cannot walk around completely covered," Novara's mayor, Massimo Giordano said. While there is no specific legislation on the burqa, covering the face in public — even with a helmet — has been banned in Italy since 1975.