Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Proposed Georgia Bill Addresses Imagined Threat from Burqa-Clad Drivers

OK, my fellow Americans, my fellow Westerners, what will convince you that Let’s Ban Islam laws are a bad idea? Clearly appealing to multicultural values, to acceptance, to religious freedom, can only go so far, and can only reach the already-convinced. (The only Amendment that far too much of the country cares about these days is the Second.) So is it time for the ‘this fuels ISIS’ arguments? To brush aside the dignity-of-Muslim-women reminders and delve right into the ‘this will wind up harming all Americans’ one? What’s going to shift the indifferent?

I ask because Georgia’s considering a burqa ban, except not exactly a burqa ban, because (see the French “ostentatious religious symbol” euphemism), the proposed bill applies to any sort of “mask, hood, or device,” but… right. The ban would impact public spaces as well as private ones.

What I don’t think will do a heck of a lot to shift public opinion, unfortunately, is reminding that laws like this could wind up impacting other religious minorities as well. As I argued last year in the New Republic, there’s no reason to think that a ‘this could happen to Jews, too’ analogy will sway those who are Islamophobic as well as anti-Semitic. Last November, though, I hardly understood the extent that the country was either of those. Early last week I didn’t. We didn’t know who’d won! I suppose a handful of Jews could be swayed, maybe? But I sort of think anyone Jewish who sees a burqa ban and is like, fantastic!, is coming at this topic from a not-so-persuadable place. But what do I know.

And finally because irony, the law comes out of an earlier ban aimed at Ku Klux Klan attire.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at [email protected]. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.