Our Flemish correspondent VH files this report:
The Dutch high school teacher Jos Baijens — a grown man, 43 years old — has worn a headscarf since Monday, March 1.
By doing so he protests against Geert Wilders’ proposal to ban headscarves in all municipal bodies, public buildings, and government-funded organizations and associations.
VH includes a translated news report featuring Mr. Baijens. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
A full transcript of the video is at the bottom of this post.
VH continues:
- - - - - - - - -
Mr. Baijens (43), father of three, says he will continue his protest by wearing the headscarf, a symbol of political Islam and the suppression of woman in private. The headscarf was a gift of a Somali woman, he said.
On Wednesday, during the municipal elections, a group of teachers and students in the Hague will organize a “playful action”, also by wearing headscarves when they go to vote. With this action they want to take position against the proposal of the PVV to prohibit headscarves in all municipal bodies and subsidized organizations and associations.
The students and teachers, associated with various educational institutes in Hague, are calling on voters also to wear a headscarf when they visit the polling station on Wednesday. […] They want to make it clear that a headscarf is not something exclusive to Muslims: “Brigitte Bardot in the sixties also often wore headscarves.”
I wonder if all the Muslim guys think Mr. Baijens looks really cute in that outfit…
Video transcript
| 00:00.00 | Of course, it is weird. Men do not wear headscarves, not even the Muslims do. | |
| 00:05.00 | Even so, Jos Baijens, a Dutch language teacher in Eindhoven… | |
| 00:10.00 | has worn a headscarf since March 1. He protests against the proposal… | |
| 00:14.00 | by Geert Wilders to levy a tax on wearing headscarves. | |
| 00:18.00 | “Will Geert Wilders not be laughing his head off about you?” | |
| 00:22.00 | I do not know, you must ask Mr. Wilders. “It looks quite funny, I must say.” | |
| 00:26.00 | Yes, I receive different reactions, some say it does not suit me at all. | |
| 00:30.00 | But when I take it off my hair is messed up and they say put it back on. | |
| 00:34.00 | “What do you hope to achieve?” Uh … that people at home start thinking about how… | |
| 00:38.00 | ridiculous it is that we in the Netherlands in 2010 want to ban headscarves… | |
| 00:44.00 | and reflect on how we build a tolerant, free, and safe society, … | |
| 00:49.00 | and that is not the way Wilders wants to do it. | |
| 00:53.00 | After one teaching session the Board of the school made Baijens take it off, … | |
| 00:58.00 | the school thinks the classroom is not a platform for political purposes. | |
| 01:02.20 | “What were the first reactions in school this morning?” Well, quite variable… | |
| 01:06.00 | as always with politics I think. I had a good fierce debate in the classroom, … | |
| 01:12.00 | some students said: ‘Sir, you can’t do this, you support the oppression of women’… | |
| 01:17.00 | ‘Are you also for circumcision? Wilders is right.’ | |
| 01:21.00 | But also people who said ‘Wilders really goes too far, you are doing a good job’. | |
| 01:25.00 | Most people are responding very positively: ‘It’s good that you do this.’ | |
| 01:30.00 | “Have you had any reaction from Muslims you know?” Yes, most Muslims in school… | |
| 01:34.00 | were very enthusiastic: ‘How good, how sweet and brave of you’ … | |
| 01:39.00 | and I’ve checked it with Muslim experts: ‘Do I offend people with this?’ | |
| 01:46.00 | I don’t want to ridicule anyone, don’t want to ridicule headscarves. | |
| 01:50.00 | But they said, ‘We see no problem whatsoever’. | |
| 01:54.00 | “A stupid question: how do you put that on?” Well, I have two cloths, I have just … | |
| 01:58.00 | a triangle like the housewives use when they clean… | |
| 02:02.00 | and this thing you just pull on, it has a hole to stick your head through. | |
| 02:06.00 | “Everybody can do that?” This anyone can do. | |
| 02:10.00 |
22 comments:
A headscarf is most certainly not a symbol solely of Islam (unlike the burqa and its variants). Many Slavic women wear headscarves, and yes, it was also fashionable before the first mosques were built in these previously Christian countries.
The libertarian in me is in anguish, as I personally am one to live and let live (not to mention you do catch people who wear it and are not Islamic out as well).
But the conservative in me feels that the ban is simply symbolic. It is resistance, and distasteful as my libertarian side may find it, it is, I suppose, exactly the same as doffing a hat when you enter a house - a matter of courtesy.
The conservative thus wins.
After all, when in Rome...
Oh my. If it weren't so scary that this guy is so stupid, this would be extremely funny.
Jezus.. i've got no words. This is becoming scary. and this retard is a teacher, teaching the dutch kids. this has to become a viral.
This is even more sick, if you think that Wilders actually wants to use the money gathered from the taxed hijabs to finance the care centers for muslim women which are the victims of their men/families
Solidarity with those who would slice off his head and laugh at his decapitated, empty noggin.
What a rebel!
"Choose your fights wisely" is clearly no longer translatable into Nederlands.
There is a good Dutch word for this dolt:
Klootzak.
My take on the headscarf debate as a whole:
I honestly do not care about headscarves. For one thing it's a cop out, a way for pseudo-conservatives (I'm looking at you, Sarkozy) to look as if they are taking a brave stand against the Islamization of their country while still promoting diversity and immigration. The problem is not that women in the Muslim ghettoes of Europe wear headscarves, the problem is that there are Muslim ghettoes in Europe! If you want a symbolic gesture don't attack the headscarves, put up a statue of Jon Sobieski.
Godffrey,
wow, thats a great idea. Puting a statue of Sobieski or Vlad Tepes in the middle of Amsterdam or even better, Rotterdam. Why didnt Wilders think of that already? He should get a sudden tip ;)
proposing a statue like this would be so dificult to refuse ideologically by the leftists.. and it will surely be a statement to the barbarians beating up people in the streets. great idea!
Is it reality or a Monty Python sketch? Uhm, you tell me...
Slavic headscarves ARE WORN DIFFERENTLY from Islamic headscarves, and do not cover all of the hair and the head.
Dolt: I checked with Muslims to make sure I wasn't offending them, because to offend my own Dutch heritage is good, but to offend a Muslim is the worst kind of crime.
Interviewer: And do the Muslims have a problem with it?
Dolt: No, the Muslims have no problem with me assuming the role of a docile, submissive Muslim woman, willingly adopting their customs so as to show my capitulation to them.
If I was head teacher at this school I would have suspended this idiot for bringing politics in to the school and distracting students' attention from the lessons he is employed to present. His actions are making a fool of himself but more importantly dragging the schools reputation along with him. Sack the Twat!
Ciao Godffrey,
I think you are absolutely right. But as you can see by the post of LAW Wells, for us, (I mean most of us) it all boils down to a debate about "Freedom" when the real question is much deeper: the civilizational take over of alien barbarians.
What Europe fears is someone saying: "Whoa, wait a sec, we would like to maintain our culture, religion(s), race, lifestyle, continuity with our history, appreciation of our heroes, our libations and foodstuffs, our play of the sexes, etc. - Though not absolutes unto themselves, they are not only good enough for us, they are VERY VERY VERY VERY precious.
As long as the issue is about Freedom and not the limits of Freedom, we are nowhere, we are reduced to headscarves (which even some Muslim countries have managed to ban). It becomes an otiose excercise and Meneer Jos Baijens will have his usual snickering field day. So, with all respect to LAW Wells, I don't think it should be "the Conservative in me versus the Libertarian" but the Dutchman in me, versus the empty void of sideral space; my little and real garden versus the great All-Garden of the Universe (where everything/NOTHING grows).
The Freedom Party should be the Love-Holland-Warts-and-All Party.
1389: I suspected there were differences, but your point is noted.
loshkaFutz: I'm a small government Tory, and as such, I believe that people must have as much freedom as possible, and not be constrained by law (but rather, by culture and convention). That ultimately means that, yes, anything goes (including abortion, contraception, bad advertising, dodgy workers, etc).
But as a Tory, I am also a social conservative and as such support the Christian faith upon which our entire civilisation is built.
Thus, when I say "The conservative wins against the libertarian", it's exactly the same as what you said - the social conservative has hushed the libertarian, as the need to preserve our culture must prevail (I am, of course, wary of the use of government power - as it can be used to save our culture, so too can it be used to destroy it. See France and banning crosses).
And Dreadnaught, I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, every teachers union on the planet loves to politicise everything. I mean, seriously, I had to critique works from marxist and feminist perspectives in English (they've taken over the bloody Board of Studies!). Thank God I am five years out of school, and unable to care less about such interpretations!
Godffrey, the problem is that there are relatively big numbers of Muslims in Europe, not that they form ghettos.
Costin, are you Romanian, like your name?
LAW Wells, there's nothing wrong from a libertarian point of view to ban hijabs. First of all, libertarianism is an ideology which is designed to organize a nation, like all societies. Muslims just aren't part of the Dutch nation. It's that simple. For example, I'm a libertarian too in the economic scene, I believe drugs should be legalized along with prostitution and abortion, but all should be socially discouraged, as it was in my country before the communists. Still, these are ways to organize a homogenous people with the same ethnicity, culture and so on. So, those libertarian things always get sacrificed in the defense of your nation. Just look at freedom of speech - am I free to tell the enemy the position of my troops?
Jos Baijens: ... that people at home start thinking about how ridiculous it is that we in the Netherlands in 2010 want to ban headscarves and reflect on how we build a tolerant, free, and safe society, and that is not the way Wilders wants to do it.
The towering hypocrisy of this maroon blathering on about "how we build a tolerant, free, and safe society", even as he simultaneously assists in eroding such a thing is simply atrocious.
As Profitsbeard notes, this microenchephalic wanker is expressing "Solidarity with those who would slice off his head and laugh at his decapitated, empty noggin". Another appalling case of − the words "misplaced" or "misapplied" do not even begin to describe it − unmerited liberality.
Permit me to coin a term, LSS (Liberal Stockholm Syndrome). With this I now predict that some non-zero component of homosexual men will take to cross-dressing with the hijab as a statement of support for those who would just as soon "Look for the highest building in the town, and then throw them down and stone them".*
* From the text "Al Kabair" (major sins) by Adh-Dhahabi
Many Slavic women wear headscarves
Christian Orthodox women in general are advised to cover their heads, but it's recommended, not compulsory, especially when women enter a church. Most Orthodox women of today refuse to wear it even during the mass. It's also different from the Muslim headscarf and doesn't cover the head completely.
rebelliousvanilla,
Yes, I'm Romanian. I blogged about this idiot here.
They aren't headscarves the way Christian's wear headscarves. These are more like a head/neck cinch since they always wrap the neck tightly and usually cover the shoulders.
He needs to be beaten after taking it off a few times to get the real full experience.
And he didn't keep his eyes downcast while walking.
It's somehow heartwrenching to see how effeminate and clownish this man looks. The very image of the West and the Western man after the liberal experiment. Instead of defending his compatriots against the murders, violence, rapes and other crimes perpetrated by immigrants on daily basis, he walks around in Muslimah drag.
Ha, Costin, I am Romanian too. Not many of our countrymen are informed about the West and care about this stuff. :P I know only of me, another guy(he had a bit of a corrupting influence in me by sowing the seeds) I know personally and now you. Sadly, most people in our country don't have a worldview at all or any grasp of ideological claptrap, they are just concerned of their little world. And your wish for the Romanain thieves(government) to not tread on you is a nice dream. I'm amused by the idiots on TV that talk about retirement checks lately and don't realize that the system will collapse in the next couple of decades regardless of what they will do. Obviously in the process they tax young people so that they don't afford to have kids. Anyway, I like your blog, it's in the direction in which our newspapers should go.
Zenster, the whole thing about a free, tolerant and safe society is hypocritical simply because there is no such thing as tolerant and safe/free society, not only because tolerance implies tolerating things that break the safe and free paradigm, but also because it is unreal. Each group has different ideals and interest and if you tolerate one, you undermine the other so the Europeans can tolerate insofar as they undermine their own interests. Like this, a slave can be tolerant to his master.
Sadly, this type of thing epitomizes the emasculation of a lot of European men.
Armance as someone who is an Orthodox Christian, I would say that you are right, we do have some modesty codes like covering your head, but they're not mandatory in any way, just like we are advised to fast, but it's not a requirement. For example, my mother fasts, but she never wore a headscarf. Orthodox Christianity has a bunch of other ascetic features and I was teasing a friend of mine that it's easy to be a Protestant. lol
My first thought when I saw this man was wearing a hijab-like head covering was, "Punch called. He would like his cowl back."
I wonder if this man understands about the "dhimmi" tax that Muslims impose upon non-Muslim believers?
All non-Muslims in Muslim countries are automatically "dhimmis" or "diminished ones" aka second-class citizens who have draconian punishments inflicted upon them by the predominant Muslim culture of these countries. If this man was not so brainwashed by politically-correct nonsense (I can't believe he said it is okay for him to dishonor his own culture, in fact, even desirable to do so, just so long as he doesn't dishonor Muslim culture), he would understand that one of the reasons why Geert Wilders wants to tax the headscarf (besides the fact that the proceeds of the tax can be used to set up shelters and protections for Muslim women threatened with "honor" killings and subjected to threats and beatings from their male relatives) is to wake up people in the Netherlands to the fact that if you are not a Muslim and you live in a Muslim country you are automatically taxed by Muslims just for being a non-Muslim. Turnabout is fair play. Essentially, if Muslims can tax us for being non-Muslims in their countries, then we can tax them for being Muslims in our countries.
Also, this man should understand that the reason why Muslims do not consider him to be dishonoring Islam is because he is an unbeliever and unbelievers are automatically foolish in the eyes of Muslims, or at least automatic objects of derision, and are to be encouraged by Muslims to act foolishly. A dhimmi man wearing a woman's headscarf if probably appropriate to Muslim sensibilities regarding the status of dhimmis and, in their eyes, he a useful idiot helping to dishonor his own culture and self.
rebelliousvanilla , i don't know if i am allowed to say it, but Armance is also Romanian :)
I agree with you. Most people in Romania have no idea whatsoever about what is going on. Among the youthe, the prevalent ideas are the kind of nonsense you see in Michal Moore movies. its pretty scary
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