It's all gone to shit

Unmasked!

Here in Switzerland, the Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP)—the right-wing Swiss People's Party—has narrowly won a referendum to ban the wearing of face coverings in public. While ostensibly aimed at banning all face coverings, including those used by violent street protestors to hide their identity, there is no doubt that this is primarily aimed at the minority muslim population. Indeed, the SVP campaign was supported with slogans such as stop extremism.

image of SVP poster showing woamn wearing a niqab and the statement 'Extremismus stoppen!'
Little doubt as to this poster's target. It inextricably links extremism to muslim women's use of the veil and, consequently, to Islam in general.

To my understanding, most active, and therefore the most dangerous, Islamic extremists are men. After all, it's they who are promised all those raisins in the afterlife! Although women may contribute to the violence, directly or indirectly, I cannot help but think that the SVP's proposal is more driven by its xenophobia, and disdain for anything non-Swiss in Switzerland, rather than a genuine attempt to effectively tackle Islamic extremism.

Ahead of the vote, Walter Wobmann, chairman of the referendum committee and an SVP lawmaker, described Muslim face coverings as "a symbol for this extreme, political Islam which has become increasingly prominent in Europe and which has no place in Switzerland". "In Switzerland our tradition is that you show your face. That is a sign of our basic freedoms," he said.

BBC News droid

The proposal to ban face coverings was made before the COVID-19 pandemic. All adults must now wear Chongmasks in public places; so much for basic freedoms. If the ban applied to them, I'd be all over it like flies on shit. As it is, meh!