50% of Belgians Want Headscarf Ban

Expatica News, May 2007

One in three people in Belgium is bothered by women wearing headscarves in public places. Just over half even would prefer that they be banned in certain places. Intolerance and racism are at the root of these negative views on headscarves.

This was the conclusion drawn by the religious faculty's centre for psychology at the Catholic University of Louvain-La-Neuve after two studies into the Belgians' attitude towards headscarves.

Some 69 percent of those asked see the headscarf as a sign of oppression and 53.3 percent thinks wearing one goes entirely against modern western values. Some 44.6 percent are disturbed by someone wearing a headscarf at school.

The researchers said that this study is evidence that society still has a long way to go in the fight against racism and intolerance.

More: LGF, Winds of Jihad

My thoughts ...

This "long way to go in the fight against racism" is never going to happen. Integration is, first and foremost, visual. All foreign appearance hits the subconscious with microshocks. It causes a startle response and nausea. We are herd animals. Within their own kind, the headscarf is normal and beautiful - but to others it is visual assault.

Only the hardy or insane "celebrate" microshocks. It is the elderly and sick who are the first to withdraw from public spaces in diverse towns. In a day and age where accessibility-for-all is a benchmark for a civil society, diversity has the opposite effect - the turtle effect. Vulnerable people are denied access to public transport, shopping centres, parks, swimming pools, libraries, etc. - because they don't have the stomach for diversity.

Visual diversity is the first stage of separation, which only escalates with other forms of diversity. Ban headscarfs.