I'd like to share with any audience I might have a few words that really inspired me. 'Annonymous' has many legitimate points, the most brilliant of which being: a covered face equals a deprivation of identity. I think this woman/man displays an intelligence far surpassing any "burkha advocate". Her words sum up my emotions with a flowing flawlessness that I find rather poetic in it's sarcasm-enriched integrity.

"A person without a face is not human. Period. If you can't tell the difference between covering cleavage and covering a face, you have serious issues.  If you think you should not have a face, then you must have disturbingly low self-esteem and think you are less than human too. And why is Xanga's front page dominated by somebody with obvious psychological issues? Islam does NOT require that woman be deprived of their faces, and if it did, you know what? It would be WRONG. Modesty? Perhaps you would be even MORE modest, and men would have LESS basis for finding you hot, if you were chained into a basement where nobody could ever see you. It's the same ridiculous logic that you are using to claim this is "modesty." And of course that's exactly what the Taliban, who also espouse your form of "modesty" did to women. It's the obvious logical path. And you are helping it. I'm sorry, you sicken me.

Part of your identity. If you have no face, you have no identify. You are nothing but a piece of cloth.

When men start covering their faces and being cut off from society, then we'll talk. Until then it's nothing but a misogynist practice, enabled by women who feel they are somehow of worth if they let men treat them as non-human. Sad and sick. It's right up there with cultural practices that some sick women also espouse, under which women have acid thrown on them for not cooking well. That some women are sad enough to say it's fine with them doesn't make it fine, and the "it's cultural" argument holds no water.

Get help. This kind of crap is why Xanga is on the decline. It generates traffic by holding periodic discussions as to whether violating human rights is ok, and whether degrading women is ok. And you sheep line up to say it's just fine with you."
- Annonymous

Another quote I'm especially fond of is:

"I can't believe how willing women are to defend their own oppression, it's sick!"
- for_ever_mustard@xanga

So aptly said. I find it remarkably amusing and, sadly, very true. I suppose that's the effect of a successful brainwashing, though. I hope I don't offend anyone by this comparison, but it seems to me so similar to Nazi Germany. Hitler, by some power probably related to Allah, managed to convince his nation that a certain populous did not deserve to live...

"Shopping in Harrods last week, I came across a group of women wearing black burkhas, browsing the latest designs in the fashion department.

The irony of the situation was almost laughable. Here was a group of affluent women window shopping for designs that they would never once be able to wear in public.

Yet it's a sight that's becoming more and more commonplace. In hardline Muslim communities right across Britain, the burkha and hijab - the Muslim headscarf - are becoming the norm.

In the predominantly Muslim enclaves of Derby near my childhood home, you now see women hidden behind the full-length robe, their faces completely shielded from view. In London, I see an increasing number of young girls, aged four and five, being made to wear the hijab to school.

Shockingly, the Dickensian bone disease rickets has reemerged in the British Muslim community because women are not getting enough vital vitamin D from sunlight because they are being consigned to life under a shroud.

Thanks to fundamentalist Muslims and 'hate' preachers working in Britain, the veiling of women is suddenly all-pervasive and promoted as a basic religious right. We are led to believe that we must live with this in the name of 'tolerance'.

And yet, as a British Muslim woman, I abhor the practice and am calling on the Government to follow the lead of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and ban the burkha in our country.

The veil is simply a tool of oppression which is being used to alienate and control women under the guise of religious freedom.

My parents moved here from Kashmir in the 1960s. They brought with them their faith and their traditions - but they also understood that they were starting a new life in a country where Islam was not the main religion.

My mother has always worn traditional Kashmiri clothes - the salwar kameez, a long tunic worn over trousers, and the chador, which is like a pashmina worn around the neck or over the hair.

When she found work in England, she adapted her dress without making a fuss. She is still very much a traditional Muslim woman, but she swims in a normal swimming costume and jogs in a tracksuit.

I was born in this country, and my parents' greatest desire for me was that I would integrate and take advantage of the British education system.

They wanted me to make friends at school, and be able to take part in PE lessons - not feel alienated and cut off from my peers. So at home, I wore the salwar kameez, while at school I wore a wore a typical English school uniform.

Now, to some fundamentalists, that made us not proper Muslims. Really?

I have read the Koran. Nowhere in the Koran does it state that a woman's face and body must be covered in a layer of heavy black cloth. Instead, Muslim women should dress modestly, covering their arms and legs.

Many of my adult British Muslim friends cover their heads with a headscarf - and I have no problem with that.

The burkha is an entirely different matter. It is an imported Saudi Arabian tradition, and the growing number of women veiling their faces in Britain is a sign of creeping radicalisation, which is not just regressive, it is oppressive and downright dangerous.

The burkha is an extreme practice. It is never right for a woman to hide behind a veil and shut herself off from people in the community. But it is particularly wrong in Britain, where it is alien to the mainstream culture for someone to walk around wearing a mask.

The veil restricts women. It stops them achieving their full potential in all areas of their life, and it stops them communicating. It sends out a clear message: 'I do not want to be part of your society.'

Every time the burkha is debated, Muslim fundamentalists bring out all these women who say: 'It's my choice to wear this.'

Perhaps so - but what pressures have been brought to bear on them? The reality, surely, is that a lot of women are not free to choose.

Girls as young as four are wearing the hijab to school: that is not a freely made choice. It stops them taking part in education and reaching their potential, and the idea that tiny children need to protect their modesty is abhorrent.

And behind the closed doors of some Muslim houses, countless young women are told to wear the hijab and the veil. These are the girls who are hidden away, they are not allowed to go to university or choose who they marry. In many cases, they are kept down by the threat of violence.

The burkha is the ultimate visual symbol of female oppression. It is the weapon of radical Muslim men who want to see Sharia law on Britain's streets, and would love women to be hidden, unseen and unheard. It is totally out of place in a civilised country.

Precisely because it is impossible to distinguish between the woman who is choosing to wear a burkha and the girl who has been forced to cover herself and live behind a veil, I believe it should be banned.

President Sarkozy is absolutely right to say: 'If you want to live here, live like us.'

He went on to say that the burkha is not a religious sign, 'it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement... In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity.'

So what should we do in Britain? For decades, Muslim fundamentalists, using the human rights laws, have been allowed to get their own way.

It is time for ministers and ordinary British Muslims to say, 'Enough is enough'. For the sake of women and children, the Government must ban the wearing of the hijab in school and the burkha in public places.

To do so is not racist, as extremists would have us believe. After all, when I go to Pakistan or Middle Eastern countries, I respect the way they live.

Two years ago, I wore a burkha for the first time for a television programme. It was the most horrid experience. It restricted the way I walked, what I saw, and how I interacted with the world.

It took away my personality. I felt alienated and like a freak. It was hot and uncomfortable, and I was unable to see behind me, exchange a smile with people, or shake hands.

If I had been forced to wear a veil, I would certainly not be free to write this article. Nor would I have run a marathon, become an aerobics teacher or set up a business.

We must unite against the radical Muslim men who love to control women.

My message to those Muslims who want to live in a Talibanised society, and turn their face against Britain, is this: 'If you don't like living here and don't want to integrate, then what the hell are you doing here? Why don't you just go and live in an Islamic country?'"

Source: here.

I apologize for the sloppy cut and paste job, but I'm running low on time. I want to highlight this brilliant woman's main point: 'If you don't like living here and don't want to integrate, then what the hell are you doing here? Why don't you just go and live in an Islamic country?'

AMEN!

Oh my, Muslims are so incredibly amusing! I simply can't get over their short fuses. It's hilarious! These pig-headed bastards run around burning flags, raping children, executing innocent people (including their own countrymen), beating their wives, bombing little girls, beheading college students, and crashing planes in towers... Among a multitude of other crimes against humanity...

Yet... despite it all, they actually have the audacity to get mad about how the world views them?

They're fucking barbarians. Not all of them, of course. There have to be some exceptions to every rule, but Islam is a scary ass 'religion'. Their philosophy behind "peace" is to eliminate any and all competition (AKA, "infidels") - much like Hitler's crusade against the Jews. And speaking of which, I'm sure we're all aware of the Middle East's opinion regarding Israel.

Fucking amusing, if you ask me. In a sad, pitiful way of course. It's kinda like a bully with a small dick - no matter how many kids he hurts, he'll never rid himself of his insecurities. And God forbid people actually find out about that penis. Lol. :P

Anyway, I'd love to ramble on about this but I have more pressing matters to attend to (Pirates of the Caribbean is on!).