The only places to ban the burqa should be where security is the factor and for photo identity cards.

It would be more constructive if we put the effort into upholding the current laws in relation to forced marriages and FGM. These acts are illegal in all states yet we turn a blind eye.

Stormbay & Shadow Minister

You are missing an important point. Eventually new migrants adopt the culture of their new country. It can take a generation or two. But banning the burqa simply means that more women will stay at home (irrespective of how they feel about the burqa - familial and religious pressure is massive). Interacting with the majority of non-burqa wearing French will, in time, influence clothing traditions. Being the only burqa wearer among crowds is a pressure in itself. Adoption of the culture of a new country takes 2 or 3 generations for migrants.

Nor do I think you understand how deeply indoctrination can influence a person's self-image and core beliefs. As an example, look how many fundy christians still believe in creationism in spite of overwhelming and clear evidence to the contrary.

Banning the burqa will not solve the problem of integration between immigrants and their new country - it will cause greater divisions between muslims and others, because muslims will (quite rightly) feel singled out and persecuted.

It is a bit late now to talk about banning the burqa in Australia. If contemplating such a move it would have been wiser with forethought to have done it prior to accepting immigrants from those nations so that potential immigrants were fully aware of the law. It is a bit late now to change the rules midstream and swap one form of enslavement for another - an isolated existence in the home.

I tend to agree with Fractelle's comments above. While we may dislike what the burqa stands for from our cultural point of view (lets face it it is a symbol of a demeaning and backward culture and nothing to do with religion) I am loathe for governments to start dictating what people should and should not wear in public.

Integration takes time and I doubt that the grandchildren of the burqa wearers will be doing the same. The same way that those immigrants must come to tolerate the bikini on our beaches we must tolerate this ridiculous garb.

In my perfect world I would not want to see burqa wearing women because I hate what it stands for - it is insulting to both men and women - but alas it is not a perfect world nor do we live in a facist state.

The solution lies in education, integration and a war against ignorance. These all take time.

Banjo rightly points out there is much more that goes against human freedoms and dignity in FGM and forced marriages. Hear hear to that.

It depends on the content and who is providing the education. For example, Catholic education in Australia in the Fifties.

Fundamentalism can actually become even more rigid and extreme in the adopted country, even where it has all but disappeared in the home country. This could have something to do with the number of immigrants arriving around the same time and settling in the same locale.

Good point Cornflower. I could see that those countries from where immigrants have come could evolve away from the more fundamental customs while their counterparts in Australia and elsewhere perpetuate the old customs. But this is only in the short-term.

Education does not necessarily mean formal education - but the education we get from exposure and influence from a number of areas: contact with different cultural groups in school, at work, exposure to a different and more open media, access to cultural institutions etc. And yes to some extent our schools will have to play a part even if it is only to respond definitively to bullying behaviours based on racism (or any other form).

It is the children of today that will shape the new face of multi-culturalism in 30 years time not their parents of today who are more set in their ways. Time will also soften the edges of white Australians who are currently uncomfortable with 'difference' or see new immigrants as a threat to their way of life.

The drastically different garb worn by some Muslims champions the difference between Muslims and the rest. Moderates from any minority are those who keep their religion and culture to themselves for private occasions, and generally merge with the host culture in public life.

Most immigants in the past have done this. But not Muslims: they wish to be different and show their contempt for the West in every way they can.

Westerners who don't believe that world domination is the aim of all serious Muslims are fools. Muslims are using the freedoms of the West, as well as the West's lethargy and stupid PC tolerance to that end.