The announcement comes as several other German states are considering a similar ban in their schools, German newspaper Die Tagesspiegel reported earlier this year. Unlike neighboring France and Austria, Germany does not have a nationwide ban on wearing a burqa, a move opposed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In February, a Hamburg court ruled in favor of a Muslim girl after school authorities asked her to remove the burqa in the classroom. The court, in its ruling, said that the girl’s decision to wear a full-face veil in class was covered under the “right to unconditional protection of her freedom of religion.” Following the judgment, some German states mulled changing the state laws to enact the ban.
Germany’s state-run DW News reported the move by southern German state:
The government of the western German state of Baden-Württemberg agreed on Tuesday to ban full-face coverings, often known as burqa or niqab, in schools.
The new rule comes as the topic of Muslim face coverings has been hotly debated in Germany and follows a ruling by a court in Hamburg that reversed that city’s own ban.
Baden-Württemberg’s city council’s decision to ban full-face coverings, typically worn by ultra-conservative Muslim girls, matches the ban for teachers that is already in effect.
State Premier and prominent Green politician Winfried Kretschmann conceded that cases of full-face veiling in schools were rare, but said that nonetheless, a legal ruling was necessary for the rare cases.
Kretschmann said that full-face veiling did not belong in a free society. But he added that such a ban at the university level, where students are adults, was a more complex question. For now, the rule in Baden-Wurttemberg will only apply to primary and secondary education.
Like other German states, Baden-Württemberg has witnessed an increase in Islamic radicalization and migrant crime in the wake of mass-migration from Muslim-majority countries in recent years. In the city of Stuttgart, capital of the southern state, migrant gangs attacked police and looted shops, the German media reported last month. “The mob chanted Allahu Akbar,” German newspaper Bild Zeitung reported on June 22. “A trail of destruction runs through the inner city Stuttgart. 500 rioters turned the city into a battlefield — out of pure lust for violence.”
Six European countries, namely Austria, Denmark, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, and The Netherlands, have introduced some sort of burqa ban in government offices and public places. In Switzerland, several cantons, or districts, have passed similar prohibitions at the local level, but the Swiss government in 2018 rejected a nationwide ban.
While Western feminists celebrate the burqa, hijab, and other sorts of sharia-mandated coverings as an expression of diversity, they are used by the Islamic societies to suppress, suffocate and segregate women from public and social life. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, women are jailed, raped, and tortured by regime henchmen for refusing to wear these oppressive Muslim garbs. In West, migrant Muslim women live under the fear of honor killing, a practice imported from the Middle East, for similar defiance.
Trump: Illegal mass-immigration ‘has been bad for Europe’ (July 2018) [Cover image via YouTube]
Ade Fegan says
OMG .. on Mekel’s watch ?!
J Morgan says
Good for them. Finally, some good news out of Germany. Baden-Württemberg takes the threats and violence of Islam seriously. As they should.
RichardL says
you are wrong. The guy who runs the state is a communist and loves Mohammedans.
J Morgan says
Oh, sorry to hear that.
gravenimage says
Grimly true, Richard–Winfried Kretschmann is a member is Alliance ’90/Greens, which is about as Left as you can get without actually being Communist.
Insanely, he has said that he wants to distribute immigrants who commit the most crimes around the country–of course, this will just have the effect of exposing everyone in Germany to Jihad terror.
Surprisingly, though, Kretschmann *does* back this proposal, saying that Burqas and Niqabs do not belong in a free society.
https://www.dw.com/en/german-state-bans-burqas-niqabs-in-schools/a-54256541
A few other Greens back this–although, unsurprisingly, many do not.
RichardL says
he was a member of a Marxist-Leninist party before he joined the Greens.
gravenimage says
Thanks for that background, Richard. You know things are bad when being a Green is more moderate…
Savvy Kafir says
Every little breath of sanity and common sense is most welcome these days! —
especially when it comes from countries like Germany.
Jedothek says
Can we be clear for once? what is the rationale for banning face coverings ( which are, by the way, now mandatory in the U.S.)? is it that someone might commit a robbery and escape being identified? if so, I suggest that this consideration is irrelevant to public schools.
We have to grow up and drop this thing of making policy decisions on the basis of being pro-Islam or anti-Islam.
shosh says
If you are pro islam, your battle is already lost.
gravenimage says
Jedothek, obviously the Coronavirus crisis is an unusual situation. As soon as the pandemic is over, no one will be asking people to wear a face mask.
Wearing a face mask is *not* the same as wearing a Burqa. For one thing, no one is going to call you a whore and “Honor Kill” you for not wearing a face mask.
Then, intentionally wearing the Burqa is a badge of Muslim supremacism. Would you similarly imply that all insignia are the same, and that wearing a Nazi swastika patch is just the same as wearing a smiley face?
The idea that our allowing the hideous misogynist Burqa makes us “grown up” is just grotesque. Is our objecting to women being stoned in the street a sign of ‘immaturity’, as well?
Anette Lang says
Interesting that in Islamic countries in the Gulf, female students attending post secondary institutions are prohibited from wearing full face coverage. Parents of the young ladies are advised to comply if they wish to have their daughters attend. Hence, no young ladies are permitted to wear the niqab.
This is a fact as I witnessed it first hand.
gravenimage says
This does not surprise me. The Gulf States know that students in Burqas are apt to consider even these barbaric Muslim governments to be “insufficiently Islamic”.
Ole Pederson says
Even if this will be enforced, it feels too feeble and already too late.
Walking through several cities in Baden-Württemberg including Stuttgart, which recently experienced a wave of muslim-migrant violence so fierce the entire available police force was incabable of getting control, as I say, walking through these towns I feel like I am in Islamabad or some other shIt-hole capital.
At least this is the correct direction!
gravenimage says
German State of Baden-Württemberg Bans Burqa in Schools
………….
Finally, a small amount of sanity from Germany!
Jaydam says
Its a good start GI,… but how long will it last..?
gravenimage says
I hope it does–but I understand your skepticism under the circumstances.
Yogi says
It’s too late , they are banning the burqa , and in the same time they are taking hundreds of this savages from Greek camps “sick kids” , and hundreds with them adults !!, sick , sick , today in Berlin ZOO, another car drove to the crowds, injuring 7 people, they not saying anything about terrorists attack , but it was terror attack , another day in Merkel’s shit hole Germany, rest in piece .. it’s no hope , politicians will do nothing to fix this , it was not far from Christmas market attack in 2016 , Merkel can burn in hell..
gravenimage says
No one said that Germany had turned some kind of corner–many German policies are still suicidally insane. But any move in the right direction should be applauded.
Jaydam says
When i look at the photograph in this article, i wonder what aliens would think if they had just landed on planet earth, and were confronted with some human beings covered from head to foot.
The mind boggles as to what they would make of them.
Humorous replies welcome below 🙂
Chistopher Watson says
This is probably not a humorous reply but I hope will spark some interest: some years ago I became interested in the WW11 battles in North Africa. This was due to three family members being involved. One, a pilot, died when his Hurricane struck a tree on landing; another fought in a tank and a third was one of Monty’s bodyguards. The names which stand out are, of course, Rommel and Montgomery but many others fought and died along the Mediterranean coast from Morocco to Syria: Italians, Americans, French as well as Canadians and Australians. However, one group of people is rarely mentioned. Where were the native Arabs while the war was happening around them? Apart from the fact that Hitler had a moslem regiment in his army and a prominent Arab leader lived in Berlin there is very little mention of the Arabs.
Elizabeth Honaker says
The Muslims had already made their “peace” with Hitler. Early on in his empire-building activities, Hitler and the head mullah at the time had already made a deadly pact regarding the Jews. The Muslims steered well clear of Hitler’s advances through Africa.
European pagan says
Very good ?
Linde Barrera says
The burqa should be banned world wide.
Halaku says
Mosques in Germany are calling to prayer over loudspeakers and more plan to do so if some court decisions rule in their favor, which, given the Germans’ seeming lack of comprehension of what’s (really) happening, is most likely. The mosques, minarets are barracks of Islam, as Erdogan himself helpfully explained a few years ago to the uncomprehending Germans. Persistently repeated loudspeaker amplified calls for domination of Islami are a way to intimidate and terrify the non-Muslims daily.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/muslim-calls-to-prayers-get-a-mixed-reception-in-germany-a-8dbb2349-421d-4de0-adf2-d6fa230c2b29
abad says
Neither burkas nor Islam can ever be German.
secserv says
Sounds like the right move.
Gourdhead says
The picture caught me off guard. At first, I thought it was a bunch of garbage bags by the curb.
gravenimage says
You aren’t wrong, Gourdhead:
https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/burqa-garbage-bags.jpg
Ren says
Garbage bags are for garbage.
Ren says
?