Thread:Comments:France first to enforce burqa ban/Good!/reply (6)

I have no problem with Islam as a religion that I do not also have with Christianity, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism, et al. And I have no problem with religion per se, just with religion being imposed upon people or used as an "excuse".

What I do have a problem with is people—of any religion—trying to have their religion treated as an exemption to the rules that everybody else much follow.

I believe it is Sikhs whose religion states that they are to carry a sword everywhere, and I would deny them that right. Because something written in a book that is thousands of years old does not imply an inalienable right to ignore the rules and laws of the land in which one resides. The carrying of an offensive weapon is a prime example, and I expect most Sikhs would not expect to be allowed to carry said sword in public.

I simply apply the same logic to the Muslim veil. There are many circumstances in which full-face coverings are deeply inappropriate, and one cannot be expected to be exempted from this on the basis of an outdated system of beliefs, especially by people who do not share those beliefs, or by the government of a secular nation.

Muslims are, of course, as is everyone else, free to believe whatever they like, and free to perform whatever acts of worship or religious expression they wish in the privacy of their own home of place of worship. But expecting to be allowed to do so in public is imposing your religious beliefs on others, and should not be permitted.