Last Wednesday, Georgia state representative Jason Spencer wrote a bill that would alter an anti-masking law originally designed to prevent Ku Klux Klan activity to outlaw Muslim women wearing niqabs or burqas. Currently, the law only has male pronouns and thus, cannot apply to Muslim women, but in the re-written law, female pronouns would be added and could prevent women from driving or being on public property veiled or being veiled in government ID photos.
On Thursday, the bill was withdrawn because of the extremely negative reaction. So, there is nothing to worry about now. Right?
Wrong.
There is a legitimate argument to the word change of this bill. Muslims have been violent in the past. The entire world has suffered at the hands of people twisting the religion of Islam into something dangerous and evil. Veiling can now be considered a matter of national security because, what if someone veils themselves in order to commit a crime? Security cameras will not be able to get an accurate picture of that someone because of their veil.
And yet, the right to wear that veil is protected by the Constitution. Every American has the right to express their religion without government persecution and as the religion of Islam requires modesty, which is expressed through a veil for Muslim women, then every Muslim woman has the right to wear a niqab or a burqa.
A dear friend of mine pointed out that freedom without rules is actually anarchy. Without any rules, America would be in chaos (just look at the riots after this past presidential election). However, can the sins of the few dictate the rules of the many? Even without this law in place, we must still pay attention to the precedence the idea of it has set. It is now a viable idea that religious freedom can be compromised in issues of national security. Perhaps that is appropriate. We want to be safe and asking Muslim women to simply wear a hijab instead of a niqab or burqa may be an acceptable idea. They would still be modest and everyone could feel secure. But what about the woman who feels honest conviction about wearing a niqab or a burqa? How can the supposedly freest country on earth ask her to ignore those personal convictions because other people are afraid of radicals who have skewed her religion?
How can we tell Americans that their safety is less important than someone else’s religious freedom? How can the government ignore the honest concerns of its citizens who need their protection?
There is no good answer to any of this. I hope that we never have to make a decision between religious freedom and national security. As a Christian, religious freedom is extremely important to me. But as an American, so is national security. No matter what, a law like this would compromise one of these issues. And so we must ask ourselves what we value, what type of future we want for ourselves and our children, and then we must look a law like this in the eye should it ever come up in the future and state our opinion and our hope.
Dear Muslim women, I do not want to outlaw you and your beliefs. If I can celebrate in my religious freedom, so should you.
But dear fellow Americans, I do not want to sacrifice your security or my own.
If I ever have to look a law like this in the eye, I hate to say that I would crumble. I would crumble to the ground and beg my God for a peace that permits all freedom, all safety, and all hope.
*Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/georgia-niqabs-hijabs-illegal_us_582cd788e4b058ce7aa90a56
