A simple, straightforward solution to the burqa "dilemma":

Anyone should be free to wear a burqa.
Anyone should be free to refuse service to anonymous burqa-clad humanoids.

Just as service station proprietors are free to refuse service to helmet-wearing motorcyclists.
Just as banks are free to refuse service to anyone wearing Ned Kelly headgear.
Just as post offices are free to refuse service to people with buckets on their heads.

Fair.
Equitable.
Reasonable.
Just.

Problem solved.

Language is a wonderfully malleable concept, is it not. CHERFUL has found a new application for the word "oppression"

>>...all the more reason to ban the wearing of the burqa, heaven knows we don’t need to introduce any more kinds of oppression.<<

Introducing a law that describes what clothing may or may not be worn, surely, is one of the more blatant misuses of legislative power.

While not as oppressive as, say, insisting that some members of the community should wear a yellow star with the word "Jude", prominently on their outer clothing, it is from the same control-freak mentality.

Don't forget also, that it can be used as a form of "reverse oppression".

If you were a burka-wearing Muslim female - whether you did so under coercion or voluntarily - in Turkey or Syria, you would be excluded from the education system.

How would that be, for a way to keep the little lady under your control, eh

Proxy is on the path to a resolution that would respect everyone's rights. Many of us do feel their right to know who they are dealing with/keep themselves safe somewhat infringed when another is wearing an impenetrable mask. This sense is very much behind outrage at those who insist on wearing this pretentious garb.

Liz45 does carry on at length - so much so that I've stopped looking at what it's about. Indigenous issues still I assume, as though presenting a thesis, bit by bit.

Language is wonderfully malleable, but our spelling must be precise. So Thanks Antiseptic, a second time, and others, for sharpening my spelling; the antilogarithm function, exponential, has no D.  

However Rusty, your make unfair comment in your first paragraph. Could you please reference this supposed case of summed probabilities, so that this allegation does not rest on your recollection alone. I do remember making argument based on probabilities. I don't remember claiming to be an authority on anything. 

Pericles <introducing a law that describes what clothing may or may not be worn surely is one of the most blatant misuses of power.>

If the freedom to wear anything you like truly exists then why is nobody allowed to go anywhere in this country with swastikas on their clothing or Klu Klux Klan outfits on. After all just wearing an outfit like that is only exercising freedom of choice. Believe it or not some people are offended in the same way by seeing people wearing a burqa down the street; when people wearing these same clothes have killed white people and attacked their countries in terrorist attacks. The same as people wearing the Klu Klux Klan outfits killed black people. Why is it O.K to wear the burqa but not a German Swatstika. Yes I know you will use the argument that some muslims are moderate and not terrorrists, but so were some Germans moderate, to the point of actually helping and hiding their Jewish neighbours. So that argument doesn’t wash.

Although I don’t think there is actually any law against wearing a German uniform or a klu Klux Klan outfit the amount of societal outrage and cries of discrimination pretty soon ensure that these clothes are not worn. In fact it may actually be able to be enforced under the discrimination act. So much for the freedom to wear whatever you like. No doubt you yourself would be opposed to people being totally free to wear what they like in respect to the two examples above.

Proxy - Anyone should be free to wear the burqa
Anyone should be free to refuse service to burqa-clad humanoids

Proxy has the answer here, at what point does the freedom to wear the burqa override the freedom of people in society to feel safe in cafes, shops,banks etc

That is precisely my point, CHERFUL.

>>Although I don’t think there is actually any law against wearing a German uniform or a klu Klux Klan outfit...<<

If there is no law against wearing "swastikas on their clothing or Klu Klux Klan outfits", what is the case for singling out the burqa?

By all means impose the same rules as for motorcycle helmets in shops, banks etc. No problem there. But I haven't noticed an outcry that we should forbid, by law, the wearing of motorcycle helmets.

We all know there is another agenda at work here, don't we? We're just too polite to mention it.