The Tennessean: Davidson sheriff’s booking policy eases rules on religious headwear

A Muslim woman told to remove the veil covering her face to pose for a jail mugshot has prompted the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office to revise its policy regarding religious headwear.

Beginning Friday, a person wearing face-covering religious headwear who is being booked into the jail will have two mugshots — one with the coverings on; the other will be taken with the headwear removed from the person’s face.

The second shot will be taken in the presence only of a same-sex guard, be kept in a confidential file, and opened only through judicial order, said Karla Weikal, sheriff’s office spokeswoman.

The same rule applies at security checkpoints at Justice A.A. Birch Criminal Justice Building, Historic Metro-Nashville Courthouse and Davidson County Juvenile Justice Center. If someone wearing a type of religious headwear sets off a metal detector at the entrance, the person will be taken to a private room by a guard of the same sex. There, the person will remove the headdressing and be screened.

While local civil rights and religious leaders Tuesday applauded the revisions, some Middle Tennessee law enforcement officials said the sheriff’s office might be taking things a bit too far.

“…taking things a bit too far”?

Gee, ya think?

“We respect religious rights, but sometimes common sense has to play in here a little bit,” said Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe. “I don’t care if it’s Bubba with a cowboy hat or if it’s a religious situation, for everyone’s safety, we’re going to take a mugshot, and when it comes to booking photos, I’m going to have to see who you are.”

The Muslim woman who was told to remove her veils for her booking photo in Davidson County contacted the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, which started in April negotiating with the sheriff’s office about changes to its religious accommodation policy. That policy took effect in 1998 but is modified each year…

Read it all.

This is perfectly ridiculous.

Nobody in the US has any business wearing facial disguise in public to begin with, much less committing a crime with it on.

In the US or any other non-Muslim nation, facial disguise (the burqa, or the hijab and niqab, or anything else) violates our own social mores. As a way of verifying identity and establishing the level of trust that allows our society to function, we expect that persons of both sexes and all ages go about in public with their faces and heads exposed. Not only the face itself, but also the neck, ears, head shape, and hair, form part of the visual cues that we use to recognize and identify one another.

When we see someone whose face is concealed, other than during a masquerade event or in exceedingly cold weather (uncommon in Tennessee), we wonder whether that person is getting ready to loot a store, rob a bank, throw a bomb, join a lynch mob, or commit other violent crimes. Considering the facial disguises worn by many of the recent rioters in the UK, our mistrust is well founded.

Not About Modesty

Burqa-wearers claim that their “modesty” is offended by any attempts to get them to doff their facial disguise. That’s hogwash! In our part of the world, modesty is all about not attracting undue attention to oneself. Going around with a bag over one’s head and body is the antithesis of modesty. It is all about confrontation; it is a test to see whether we will back down. One reason why Muslimas wear the burqa in Tennessee is because it puts pressure on non-Muslims. Even the hijab alone, by which I mean just the head/neck scarf, without the niqab (i.e., the face veil), serves as an “in your face” confrontation. The hijab is a visual sign of the wearer’s rejection of the customs and the community ties of native-born Americans and even of the sensibilities of those immigrants who came to the US because they approve of what we stand for (or of what the US once stood for). It is an implied statement that normal American women who do not cover their heads are somehow “immodest.”

If you cannot cope with the idea of your face being exposed in public, then you do not belong in this part of the world. Just go home immediately, take your friends and family with you, and never come back. Or don’t come here in the first place!

Security Risk

The burqa is an unacceptable security risk, even in Muslim countries! There is no way to know who (male, female, criminal, terrorist) or what (contraband, including BOMBS) might be under that burqa. By the time the authorities apprehend the suspect and remove the disguise, it may be too late to prevent a massacre or other major disaster. This is why the burqa is banned in some countries and cities.

“Religious headgear”?

Calling the burqa “religious headgear” is a whitewash in and of itself. What kind of “religion” expects teenage girls and adult women go around with bags over their heads? I contend that Islam is not a religion at all, but rather, an enemy, totalitarian, expansionist political ideology that seeks to rid the world of everything but itself. There is no reason why we need to give any totalitarian ideology the First Amendment protection that belongs to the free exercise of religion. In fact, according to the Qur’an, the stated goal of Islam is to encroach upon and destroy our own freedom to reject Islam!

Why is Davidson County so important?

Davidson County’s policy on shari’a law is important because Davidson County exercises jurisdiction over a populous metropolitan area that is also the capital of Tennessee.

According to Wikipedia:

Davidson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 626,681. Its county seat is Nashville.[1]

In 1963, the City of Nashville and the Davidson County government merged, so the county government is now known as the “Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County,” or “Metro Nashville” for short.

Nashville is also the capital of Tennessee. The upshot is that decisions that are made in Davidson County will not only affect “Metro Nashville” but also exert influence upon the entire State.

Blog admins 1389 and CzechRebel have been to Nashville. We both vehemently oppose the ongoing Muslim attempts to infiltrate the Southern US and to impose a parallel system of shari’a law upon it. We are far from alone in this. The South continues to be a bastion of Judaeo-Christian civilization, which is why the tranzi-progressive/pro-jihadi axis constantly bashes Southerners as “rednecks,” “hillbillies,” “bigots,” and so forth. It is all because the “common folks” of the “Red States” in the South keep getting in the way of their evil agenda.

No mosques in Dixie, and no burqas either!