Once Again.... If You Don't Like France...

[Thumpalumpacus]

It's a criticism of their thinking, which seems pertinent, to me. If someone's being hypocritical, then that necessarily undermines their point, don't you agree?

The fundamental flaw in your reasoning is your assumption that "their" refers to some monolithic group for which this law primarily applies.

I'm not making that assumption. My use of "their", in this case, refers to those who are complaining about government interfering with clothing while in France but not in their home countries, which is certainly not all Muslims. My apologies for not being clearer.

In reality, however, this law limits the free expression of individuals who are undoubtedly as equally outraged at barbarism committed in the name of their religion as you are. I suspect this applies to the majority of those who choose to wear the niqab.

Perhaps. However, this law also provides those women who don't like to wear the niqab with a convenient excuse to exercise their own freedom of choice, rather than their husband's.

You're basically saying in equivalence that since there are a few crazy right-wingers who advocate violent action in the US, the government is justified in imposing law that specifically limits the liberties of all citizens with right-wing views.

No, I'm not. If you'd do me the favor of rereading my posts, you'll see that my support for this is based on the fact that criminals of all stripes use masks when carrying out robberies, and that I find banning those masks justified. You'll also find that I generally agree with the SCOTUS that the presumption of privacy in the public sphere is unsupported by common sense.

In short, I've specifically stated that I'm not in favor of singling out niqabs, but rather, all masks which hinder identification in the public sphere. I had thought I had made that obvious.

This is what governments do to expand their power over individuals all the time, targeting minorities first. The measure of freedom that exists in a society is noted by how minorities are treated, and in this situation, I think it is a step in the wrong direction for any liberal democracy.

Given that I'm am not advocating singling out the Muslim minnority, your point is nugatory.

I only meant that their standards, hypocritical or not, are irrelevant to ours.

We're in agreement here, then, for, as I've already stated, I don't think we should take anyone's standards as our own guideposts, but rather, we should formulate our own.

I still think it's entirely valid to point out hypocrisy, because thinking which is internally contradictory is almost always internally flawed.