Divine_Msn,
As long as we remember that the KKK was set up specifically as an anti-Black American organisation, dedicated to their extermination or at least to terrorising them, there may not be any real comparison with burqas or khadors or nikabs or whatever. But your wearing of KKK garb would be very likely to have consequences: as a call to violence, it may be regrettably met with equal violence. For all that, I would support the right of KKK members to parade down any street in Redfern IF they were prepared to take the consequences. I'd love to be there.

The wearing of burqas or nikabs or hijabs does not involve anybody outside the Muslim world: it does not represent an attack, or the threat of an attack, on anybody else, quite the reverse, i would have thought: you can't get all that violent 'clad in a tent' (cf. Blairbar). To the extent that it's an assertion of identity or religion, it has more resemblance to punk hair-cuts or muffin-tops and bare midriffs or Catholic wimples or bumcrack tattoos. i.e. personal statements. In time, these too will pass.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, divine Msn, but it's not always about you.

Joe

I think it should be law that all ugly unattractive women have to ware the burqa and camels as well! Thank you very much! lol!

Peterson,

And the guys as well ? That would probably rule you and me out.

For those who are genuinely interested in this issue, and not just intent on yet another round of migrant-bashing, try this:

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51689

In Australia, women have fought hard for equal rights, but in many Muslim societies, a dreadful mix of Islam and pre-capitalist patriarchalism has condemned women to inferior and servile positions, with their rights even as human beings diminished, even their rights to life itself. This article covers this in shocking detail:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/a-tale-of-two-standards/story-e6frg6zo-1225877204907

Written by that noted neo-lberal feminist, Janet Albrechtsen, it should be a call to the sisterhood to put aside their skinny frappacinos and perhaps just think - only for a short time out of their day - about the roles of custom and power in the oppression of their sisters, our fellow human beings.

In the land of the fair go, let's not make it harder for them.

Joe

Racism is here, in many guises
Herald Sun, 28 Jan 2010
Rudd nephew's KKK protest stunt
Daily Telegraph, 26 Jan 2010
Indians bashed, five charged

The Australian, 26 Jan 2010
Rudd nephew 'caught up in KKK stunt'
Herald Sun, 26 Jan 2010.
“We weren’t doing anything that was physically dangerous to anybody,” he said.

But police have disagreed and issued the fines for "riotous behaviour" to Mr Rudd, 36, and fellow protestor Sam King.
................................................................

Seemingly the 'law' can find something illegal in wearing KKK robes.

BTW Loudmouth - do a bit of research on the Klan. It started as a right-wing political movement albeit one with a charter to ensure 'coloureds' remained an underclass. The really nasty stuff came later.

It's not about ME either. I'm old enough to look backward and judge what has happened for good and for bad and why, look forward to what might be for my grandchildren and ponder how current trends may pan out in future. No crystal ball but enough experience of the world and human nature to have some serious concerns about where today's politics and policies may lead.

Divine Ms_n, in late nineteenth century America, Blacks by any name were indeed threatened with extermination: this was the rationale for Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise in 1895 - that he would ensure Blacks never lifted their heads and would accept inferior conditions, provided the KKK and so many other groups put their very real threat to exterminate on hold.

So how do burqas and nikabs imply any such threat to anybody in Australia in 2010 ?

Why are women so devalued, and why aren't the Sisters speaking out ? This article:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/hope-at-last-for-hell-on-earth/story-e6frg6z6-1225876662037

details the rape of under-age girls in Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley (but of course, the sisters are not Aboriginal, so it's not really their problem; and usually they are not under-age either, so it's certainly not their problem; and in any case, the women and girls abused are not middle-class, so how on earth can it be the sisters' problem ?). The word 'rape' was not used once in the article (unless I missed it). The difficulty in prosecuting successfully was in gauging the age of the girls - were they under the age of consent or not at the time of the offenses ? Meanwhile, nobody seemed to give a toss about the notion of 'consent' in these cases - even IF the women abused were OVER the age of consent, surely 'consent' means something ? Or is it open-season in Aboriginal communities on a girl once she reaches the 'age of consent' ?

But on the one hand, I have to concede, these are only Aboriginal women, and we have to respect Culture. On the other hand, I've lived in Aboriginal communities and I've known girls and women who have been gang-banged and then suicided. Please don't tell me that respect for Culture is harmless.

No we don't have to respect Culture: maybe all cultures are equally invalid, or at least have abhorrent practices which should be deplored and opposed, no matter where and by whom. Don't equal rights mean anything any more ? In the land of the fair go ?

divine_msn,
The Ku Klux Klan has closer historical ties to the Democrat Party than the Republican Party.
This would undermine your right-wing claim.
In fact, the fourth in line to the US presidency, Robert Byrd,
is a former KKK member who once wrote to the Grand Wizard:
"The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see
its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation."

"In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party,
the planter class, and all those who desired restoration of white supremacy."
historian Eric Foner