Banning the burqa

Reform’s newest MP, Sarah Pochin, has used her first PMQ to call for a ban on the burqa. Within minutes Reform put out a statement saying that wasn’t official policy. Two hours after that, Reform MP Lee Anderson came out in favour of a ban. This is Reform through and through. No coherence, no coordination, and it all stems from a complete absence of policy. Not for the first time either. Reform is no closer to resolving its inherent amateurism.

It did, however, spark something of a debate, and it’s time the subject was revisited. There can be no doubt. We do have to ban the rotten things.

There are, however, caveats. Banning the burka might be unenforceable in the UK. You first need a police force willing to enforce the rules. Good luck with that in majority Muslim areas. Imagine two community plods attempting to affect an arrest of two burqa-clad women (always two there are) who don't even speak English. Within minutes the plod are surrounded by a mob of angry muslims and the plod need a riot squad to escort them away. Again this feels like one of those dog-whistle soundbite policies that doesn't give any thought as to how it's enforced.

I happen to think it's a symptom of a bigger problem; namely the men who make women wear burqas (who create even more serious problems). It's a symptom of the Islamic extremism we've imported, thus requires a more comprehensive approach to tackling sectarianism and Islamism. Otherwise, your policy is just randomly harassing female victims of Islam in the street. This is quite serious though. That a blanket ban is unenforceable, says the British state is unable to assert its own authority with ethnic minorities.

I take the view that a burqa ban would be partially useful in that we can make it so that no government agency is obliged to serve any woman who doesn't take it off. We can even make it grounds for suspension of benefits. Where the burqa ban would be especially useful is in term of visa probation interviews. We would make any visa contingent on a five and ten year integration interview, and if they do not have a working command of English, and there's evidence of defying the burka ban, we have grounds to kick them out. We should see it more as a useful administrative tool.

I tend to think, however, that a ban would have to be part of a wider Hostile Environment Bill which also bans non-stun slaughter, genital mutilation, cousin marriage, polygamy and other such culturally enriching practices. This bill would also look to ban funding of ethno-religious social enterprises, and ban translation services and signs in foreign languages.

That said, we should be under no illusions about this. If we are going to fight Islamic sectarianism, we can't look upon these as measures as ordinary policing. We're dealing with communities who openly contest the writ of British law. We cannot expect local public cooperation.

As such, we are going to have to go in with heavy squads to shut down extremist mosques, and clear police officers to defend themselves with all necessary force. We will, in all probability, kick off riots, all of which will be on film. We will need to ensure that police officers have the backing of their force commanders, and the backing of national politicians, otherwise we'll see a mass police walk-out.

The thing about this kind of policing is that it has to be done the way the Germans do it - with overwhelming force, without apology. Otherwise we'll be grovelling to the Imams on the Monday morning. These aren't normal measures to govern civic spaces. They are designed to address a very specific issue and we are, by nature, discriminating. We are essentially are starting a conflict with Islamist sects.

On that basis, we must anticipate the blowback on the streets, and in the courts, and in parliament, and we can fully expect the media and the left to rush to the defence of Islamist mobs. You may be all gung-ho for this, but once your pull on that thread, there is no going back. It will escalate - and within days, police will not be able to operate in Muslim majority areas without armoured vehicles.

You can easily argue that it's better than ignoring the problem, since there are no other obvious ways to address it, but once you're in it, you're in it until you've asserted your own authority - whatever it takes. The point it, this is not by any means trivial.

From debating this over on X, there is a great deal of naivety about this. Many seem to think if we just ban things in law then Muslims will simply comply. After all, that’s how things work in a civilised society. They banned smoking in pubs. We complied. They mandated facemasks during Covid. We complied. We don’t really do open defiance except when we have to. Ethnic minorities, however, are a law unto themselves. No first world nation can tolerate this.

This, ultimately, is a consequence of multiculturalism and decades of indifference, but one day soon, we will have to act. We cannot afford not to. The longer we leave it, the more dangerous it will be.