I can tolerate people who are willing to tolerate me.  That does not seem to be the case with a noticeable contingent of Muslims in Holland.  If they're not willing to be tolerant of the dominant culture, why should the dominant culture be tolerant of them?

If the Muslims wearing burquas will tolerate the Dutch people drawing cartoons of Mohammed or making movies that could be considered blasphemous, then they're welcome.  But if they riot when my culture fails to accomodate theirs sufficiently, maybe the current level of accomodation is a bit too high.

Thalia

Consider halloween, clowns, street performers, facial bandages, etc. Should all those be banned too?

Interestingly enough, in many states and towns of the USA the wearing of masks is prohibited. The prohibition is usually selectively enforced (i.e. ignored on halloween) but there are a lot of standing statutes based on an era where people were riding around in white sheets and hoods covering their head. In Virginia for example, its illegal to be over 16 and wear a mask in public. Other places add extra penalties for committing a crime, or intending to commit a crime while wearing a mask.

So bottomline -- plenty of restrictions exist in the good ole USA on people's freedom to cover up their face.

No, the main reason for this decision, I believe, is that the burqa is becoming a political rather than religious statement - and it is a political statement that the right-of-center government feels is unacceptable.

I'd be a bit more nuanced and take a page from the Islamists -- religious statements are political statements. Islam makes no distinction between religion and politics.

You make a solid libertarian argument against the idea of banning burqas. And mostly I'm sympathetic. That said I wouldn't dismiss the public safety and security concerns out of hand. I for one simply don't understand how airport security works
in Islamic countries with the travelling population providing no visual clues as to whether they are a threat.

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.

I find myself agreeing with you.  I'll take it a step further as well.  I think what we're seeing is the continued drawing of battle lines between the mideast and Europe/USA.  I have been thinking about this for sometime, but not with any alarm.  Now, with Iran flexing is atomic muscles and civil war in Iraq, I'm not so sure.  Cataclysm anyone?

One point that may need clarification is the use of burqa as political statement.  Western governments are in a tizzy about the wearing of religious clothing, but just like those annoying American fundamentalists who plaster their cars with fish stickers, wear "my boss is a Jewish carpenter" or WWJD t-shirt, there are Muslims who wear their religious accoutrements as statements as well.  What we have here is a toxic mix of one side acting in a paranoid fashion and the othe side (at least the more radical parts) feeding the fire.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine