{"id":310010,"date":"2025-06-08T07:24:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T07:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=310010"},"modified":"2025-06-10T06:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T06:59:11","slug":"the-real-agenda-behind-the-burqa-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=310010","title":{"rendered":"The Real Agenda Behind the \u201cBurqa Ban\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Kit Knightly \u2013 Off-Guardian June 7, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Two days ago, Reform Party MP Sarah Pochin made a splash when she called for the British government to ban the burqa.<\/p>\n<p>Many European countries \u2013 including France and Belgium \u2013 have already banned the garment, and somewhat ironically the Euro-sceptic Reform party seems keen to join them.<\/p>\n<p>It is increasingly common for those on the authoritarian \u201cleft\u201d to argue for banning burqas on the grounds they are oppressive and misogynistic, while the right encompasses those angles alongside xenophobic ideas of \u201csecurity\u201d \u2013 meaning it\u2019s dangerous to let Muslims conceal their faces because they might blow up or something.<\/p>\n<p>I oppose the burqa ban on simple grounds \u2013 I don\u2019t believe the government has the right to tell anyone what to wear, or indeed what <em>not<\/em> to wear. And I believe empowering it to make those decisions is wrong and potentially very dangerous to individual liberty.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s surface level analysis.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s dig a little deeper \u2013 what is this really about?<\/p>\n<p>Well, Puchin\u2019s fellow Reform MP Lee Anderson somewhat gave the game away when he tweeted about this proposed ban yesterday\u2026<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Ban the burqa?<\/p>\n<p>Yes we should.<\/p>\n<p>No one should be allowed to hide their identity in public. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cLHL1XoDyd\">https:\/\/t.co\/cLHL1XoDyd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Lee Anderson MP (@LeeAndersonMP_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LeeAndersonMP_\/status\/1930264661338784207?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nobody should be <em>allowed<\/em> to conceal their identity? Excuse me?<\/p>\n<p>You see, that\u2019s what this is really about. Burqas cover your face, which makes it possible to hide from CCTV, and facial recognition cameras and all the other jolly conveniences of modern living.<\/p>\n<p>This is about increasing the reach and efficiency of surveillance tools. Yet more technocratic control being introduced through weaponized politics of concern on both wings \u2013 \u201cterrorism\u201d and \u201cpublic security\u201d on the right, and anti-misogyny \u201cfeminism\u201d on the left.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t believe me? Well, I submit into evidence <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/6ZRHx\">this Spectator article<\/a> published yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>It argues that there\u2019s nothing Islamophobic about banning the burqa because many Muslim-majority countries have already done it, and that burqas are both a potential tool for terrorists and an attack on female identities.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not hard to see where go from here.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cburqa ban\u201d will be introduced, only it won\u2019t say \u201cburqa\u201d. Keir Starmer\u2019s \u201csensible\u201d Labour party will get ahold of it, and forge a \u201ccommon sense middle ground\u201d approach.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe agree that security concerns are important<\/em>, they\u2019ll say, <em>\u201cbut singling out the Islamic community is wrong, so we should phrase it more generally.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And in the end the \u201cburqa ban\u201d will be a \u201cwhole face covering garment ban\u201d or something else ridiculously vague, and will empower the the police to force anyone with a hoodie or a ski mask or even big dark glasses to reveal their face.<\/p>\n<p>How do I know that?<\/p>\n<p>Because that\u2019s exactly what happened in France, where a a push to ban the burqa resulted in the 2010 Act<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/French_ban_on_face_covering\"> banning whole-face coverings in public places<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The state doesn\u2019t care about race or religion, the state only cares about control, and creating a lovely egalitarian future where everyone, regardless of colour or creed, is oppressed perfectly equally.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Support Off-Guardian:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/offguardian\">Ko-fi<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.subscribestar.com\/offguardian\">Subscribestar<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/donate\/?hosted_button_id=CKFB3MH8CGB9U\">Paypal<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2025\/06\/07\/the-real-agenda-behind-the-burqa-ban\/\">Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The proposed burqa ban is not about protecting the public from alleged \u2018terror attacks\u2019. It is really about increasing the reach and efficiency of state surveillance tools. Kit Knightly explains<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":310011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Behind_The_News","category-Commentary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=310010"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310044,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310010\/revisions\/310044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/310011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=310010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=310010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=310010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}