Comment & Debate
Daniel Pipes. “Ban the Burqa – and the Niqab Too.” Jerusalem Post. August 1, 2007: “In contrast, burqas and niqabs should be banned in all public spaces because they present a security risk. Anyone might lurk under those shrouds – female or male, Muslim or non-Muslim, decent citizen, fugitive, or criminal – with who knows what evil purposes. […] Some examples (full details can be found at my weblog entry, “The Niqab and Burqa as Security Threats”): A spectacular act of would-be escape took place in early July, when Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz Ghazi, 46, tried to flee the Red Mosque complex in Islamabad, Pakistan, where he had helped lead an insurrection aiming to topple the government. He donned a black burqa and high heels but, unfortunately for him, his height, demeanor, and pot belly gave him away, leading to his arrest. […] One of the July 2005 London bombers, Yassin Omar, 26, took on the burqa twice – once when fleeing the scene of the crime, then a day later, when fleeing London for the Midlands. […] Other male burqa’ed fugitives include a Somali murder suspect in the United Kingdom, Palestinian killers fleeing Israeli justice, a member of the Taliban fleeing NATO forces in Afghanistan, and the murderer of a Sunni Islamist in Pakistan.”
Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk said in 2006 after the country instituted the ban: “The Cabinet finds it undesirable that face-covering clothing – including the burqa – is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens.”[1]
Daniel Pipes. “Burqa Crime.” The American Conservative Union Foundation. September 30, 2009: “Terrorism: Taliban reliance on burqa’ed terrorism, often of the suicide variety, makes Afghanistan the current world epicenter of this tactic. On two occasions, authorities foiled would-be suicide bombers before they could act – one a Russian male convert to Islam with 500 kilograms of explosives in an automobile in Paktia Province, the other an Afghan woman hiding a bomb in Jalalabad.
Usually, though, violent intentions are hidden by the burqa, becoming apparent only after an attack begins:
A Taliban commander, Haji Yakub, was killed in burqa as he tried to escape a house in Ghazni Province while attacking U.S. forces.
A Taliban operative, Mullah Khalid, attacked a police patrol in a crowded market in Farah Province. killing at least 12 people (7 police, 5 civilians).
A suicide bomber in Helmand Province killed a Pashtu-speaking British soldier before being shot in the forehead.
About fifteen suicide bombers in burqas armed with suicide vests, Kalashnikovs, and grenade-launchers drove to government buildings in Paktia Province and killed 12 persons.
Iraq suffered three such incidents (a male insurgent disguised as a pregnant woman, an attempted assassination of a governor, and two suicide bombers killing 22 Shi’i pilgrims) while Pakistan suffered two (one, operating from a rickshaw, killed 15 people). The attack on Mumbai that left nearly 200 dead included a mysterious burqa’ed woman. Elsewhere, incidents involved an attack on French tourists picnicking in Mauritania and a Molotov cocktail attack in Bahrain.