Banning the burqa: an assault on freedom

This article was published in Spiked Online 11 April 2011

Unfortunately, both France and some of its critics seem driven by a desire to police people's thoughts.

On the day that France’s ban on the burqa comes into force, spiked republishes a speech given by editor Brendan O’Neill at the House of Literature in Oslo in October last year.

There is no question, in my mind, that tolerance is under threat today. This Enlightenment ideal - one of the most important, radical Enlightenment ideals - is being assaulted and undermined around Europe.

However, it is being undermined not only by governments and thinkers who want to ban the burqa, but also by some of those who defend women’s right to wear the burqa. Tolerance is being denigrated first by those who refuse to tolerate the burqa - and second by those who defend ‘burqa rights’ in a very shallow, relativistic fashion and who clearly don’t have the first clue what tolerance really means.