This discussion looks at the problems for society, raised by the Burqa. The privilege of the Burqa is often abused by Muslim men to escape security forces. High profile cases of this are Osama Bin Laden, Yasser Arafat and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and there have also been several cases of terrorists in the UK doing this.

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It's not only Arab or Muslim terrorists or terrorist leaders who dress as women. In 1958, the "strongman" (that was the Homeric epithet employed in those days by Time Magazine) Nuri es-Said of Iraq tried to escape from the men of Col. Qassem by dressing as a woman. He didn't succeed. He was caught, killed, his mutilated semi-naked body dragged through the streets of Baghdad for further mutilation by a populace enthusiastic about such things.
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http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2006/11/niqabs-and-burqas-as-securi...

I wrote a week ago, in a blog for National Review Online, that the niqab and burqa should both be banned on security grounds, "as one cannot have faceless persons walking the streets, driving cars, or otherwise entering public spaces." Although a problem with historic roots (Iraqi irregulars disguised themselves in the Palestinian town of Deir Yassin in 1948), this blog will document the current dangers, especially in the West, of the burqa and niqab as a disguise.

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Jewelry theft in London: Two robbers, male and female, stole £200,000 worth of jewelry from the exclusive Ramot on Sloane Street in Knightsbridge by wearing burqas into the store. The robbers then flung open their garments to reveal guns, threatened the staff, took their keys to the display cabinets, locked the staff in a back room, and made off in a black Mercedes Benz getaway car with what Scotland Yard called "unique" gems. (March 7, 2002)

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Attacking a church: Two assailants in burqas threw a grenade among worshippers at a Christmas Day service on in the village of Chianwala, northwest of Lahore, killing three and wounding thirteen. (December 25, 2002)

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Niqab as an accessory to abduction in the United States: Timothy Egan tells about the strange abduction of Elizabeth Smart, 14, in "In Plain Sight, a Kidnapped Girl Behind a Veil." Brian D. Mitchell, 49, flaunted Smart in public but kept her in a niqab-like garment that hid her for nine months from one of the most intense-person cases ever conducted.

With a veiled Elizabeth Smart and his wife in tow, Mr. Mitchell showed up at a downtown block party here, a grocery store, a restaurant, even living for about a week just one block from the Salt Lake City police headquarters, numerous witnesses say.

Throughout much of last summer [i.e., 2002], while the police and volunteers were looking day and night for Elizabeth after her kidnapping, it turned out she was moving among them in the open, dressed in the most flamboyant of outfits, and at times even camped just three-and-a-half miles from the Smart home. Mr. Mitchell was stopped by the police several times, and later arrested in San Diego on a burglary charge - all while still holding Elizabeth captive, the authorities said. …

Late last summer, the police say, Mr. Mitchell was moving all around Salt Lake City. At the block party in early September, other people approached the three and asked about the small, veiled girl. "I went up to Mitchell and asked, 'How come she can't even look at people?' " said Ron Lewis, 37, a banquet crew leader who was at the party. "I said, 'What's up with a religion that won't even let women speak?' " said Mr. Lewis, who told his story to the police today. "Her eyes were all I saw of Elizabeth," Mr. Lewis said. He said at times, Mr. Mitchell and his wife held Elizabeth's hand.

(March 14, 2003)

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Burqa'ed commandos capture burqa'ed Al-Qaeda fugitive:

On the plus side, a group of Pakistani commandoes disguised itself as women to wait out a ranking Al-Qaeda operative, Abu Faraj al-Libbi. And why were they in burqas? Tim McGirk of Time explains: "U.S. and Pakistani intelligence had received a tip that a suspected al-Qaeda operative would be traveling to [the town of] Mardan disguised as a burqa-clad woman. Because any plainclothesmen seen grabbing a woman would attract a hostile mob, the commandos had donned female garb and accosted the suspect as his motorcycle crossed a graveyard." (May. 8, 2005)

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Pakistani cops stop attack by burqa-clad jihadists

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/09/pakistani-cops-stop-attack-by-bur...

In the West, the "right" of Muslim women to cover their faces is uniformly presented as a civil rights and religious freedom issue. In reality, as this story from the good side of Pakistan's double game shows, it is a security issue. "Pakistani Police Thwart Attack," by Zahid Hussain in the Wall Street Journal, September 16 (thanks to Rosanne):

ISLAMABAD -- Islamic militants clad head-to-toe in women's burqas attempted to attack an oil-storage facility in Karachi, raising fears that insurgents are fleeing northwestern Pakistan and infiltrating the nation's main business hub.

Three gunmen disguised as women tried to enter the high-security terminal used by oil companies late Monday night, Waseem Ahmed, the city police chief, told Pakistani television on Tuesday. Police say they suspect the assailants disguised themselves as women to try to slip past security checkpoints.

Pakistani police officers examined weapons and ammunition left behind by attackers in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday.

When stopped by security guards, the militants opened fire, killing one guard. The assailants fled during a gun battle, leaving behind the burqas, purses and hand grenades.

"We suspect they wanted to carry out a big terrorist attack which our prompt police action thwarted," said Mr. Ahmed in an interview with Geo TV Pakistan....

Posted by Robert on September 16, 2009 5:38 AM

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Niqabs and Burqas - The Veiled Threat Continues
by Daniel Pipes Jerusalem Post September 2, 2009

http://www.danielpipes.org/7585/niqabs-burqas-veiled-threat

What's new on the niqab and burqa front?

To remind, both garments are designed for the modesty of Muslim females; the niqab covers all but the eyes and the burqa covers the entire face. In "Ban the Burqa – and the Niqab Too," two years ago, I documented how these two items pose criminal and terrorist dangers.

Is that still the case?

Criminality: Jordan offers a glimpse into the potential for niqabs and burqas as illegal accessories: one news report indicates that 50 people committed 170 crimes using Islamic garments during the past two years, or roughly one incident every four days, a crime wave that has prompted some Jordanians to call for restricting or even banning these Islamic head coverings.

No other country reports nearly so many head-garment-related crimes, but Philadelphia, Pennsylvania boasts multiple robberies (3 banks and 1 real estate leasing office) in a sixteen-month period in 2007-08, including the murder of a police officer.

The United Kingdom has the West's second-worst record. Jewelry stores – some owned by Muslims – have been targeted in the West Midlands, Glasgow, and Oxfordshire. Two travel agencies were attacked in the adjoining towns of Dunstable and Luton while an armored truck driver was assaulted in Birmingham. Robbery is not the only motive; teenagers in London, used niqab-style face coverings when stabbing a younger boy.

Other criminal incidents in the West include east European pickpockets wearing Islamic headgear in Rotterdam and a burgundy burqa'ed armed robbery at the People's Bank in Hiddenite, North Carolina (population: 6,000). The man who abducted Elizabeth Smart, 14, of Salt Lake City, forced her to wear a niqab-like garment that hid her in plain sight for nine months.

In response, banks, credit unions, jewelry stores, and schools are limiting access to persons of cover. For example, the Carolina Federal Credit Union of Cherryville, North Carolina, not far from Hiddenite, steers anyone wearing hats, sunglasses, or hoods to an isolated teller where special security measures obtain.

Terrorism: Taliban reliance on burqa'ed terrorism, often of the suicide variety, makes Afghanistan the current world epicenter of this tactic. On two occasions, authorities foiled would-be suicide bombers before they could act – one a Russian male convert to Islam with 500 kilograms of explosives in an automobile in Paktia Province, the other an Afghan woman hiding a bomb in Jalalabad.


An Afghan soldier stands guard over a burqa used by a male Taliban suicide bomber to attack government buildings in Paktia Province.

Usually, though, violent intentions are hidden by the burqa, becoming apparent only after an attack begins:

A Taliban commander, Haji Yakub, was killed in burqa as he tried to escape a house in Ghazni Province while attacking U.S. forces.
A Taliban operative, Mullah Khalid, attacked a police patrol in a crowded market in Farah Province. killing at least 12 people (7 police, 5 civilians).
A suicide bomber in Helmand Province killed a Pashtu-speaking British soldier before being shot in the forehead.
About fifteen suicide bombers in burqas armed with suicide vests, Kalashnikovs, and grenade-launchers drove to government buildings in Paktia Province and killed 12 persons.
Iraq suffered three such incidents (a male insurgent disguised as a pregnant woman, an attempted assassination of a governor, and two suicide bombers killing 22 Shi'i pilgrims) while Pakistan suffered two (one, operating from a rickshaw, killed 15 people). The attack on Mumbai that left nearly 200 dead included a mysterious burqa'ed woman. Elsewhere, incidents involved an attack on French tourists picnicking in Mauritania and a Molotov cocktail attack in Bahrain.

Oh, and on the bright side, Herve Jaubert, a Frenchman falsely accused of embezzling $3.8 million managed to escape Dubai by donning a niqab.

As an ancillary problem, new studies in both England and Ireland have found that covered women (and their breast-fed children) tend to get rickets disease due to an insufficiency of vitamin D, which the skin absorbs from sunlight.

(For greater detail on all these issues, see my weblog entry, "The Niqab and Burqa as Security Threats.")

I have previously called for a ban on "these hideous, unhealthy, socially divisive, terrorist-enabling, and criminal-friendly garments" from public places. Now joining with fed-up Jordanians, I reiterate that call. Islam requires that women wear neither niqab nor burqa, while public welfare emphatically requires their public prohibition. How many more cases of robbery and terrorism must occur for this common-sense stricture to be applied from Afghanistan and Jordan to the United Kingdom and Philadelphia?

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6ft robber wearing a burka leads raiders in jewellery shop heist

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 5:12 PM on 6th May 2010

A robber wore a burka as a disguise to carry out a raid on a jewellery shop, police said today.

The cross-dressing criminal used the black head-to-toe garment, worn by some Muslim women, to hide his identity.

Owners of the jewellers in Bury, Greater Manchester, thought the 6ft-tall robber was a woman and allowed him entry.

Armed robbery: after allowing what they thought was a woman wearing a burka into a shop, staff at Capri Jewellers were help up by a shotgun-wielding gang 

But as soon as he was buzzed in three men barged in behind him - one brandishing a shotgun. They raided the shop, stealing a large amount of bracelets, rings and lockets, before escaping in a waiting car, thought to be a silver Toyota Yaris.

Police are now hunting five men, all Asian, thought to be involved in the raid, which took place at about 4.15pm yesterday at Capri Jewellers on Benson Street in Bury.

The offender dressed as a woman is described as Asian, around 6ft tall and of thin build.

The getaway driver is described as Asian, in his early 20s, of chubby build. He was bald and wearing glasses.

The other three offenders are described as Asian and were wearing balaclavas.

The gang left behind two holdalls that were branded Wei Bao.

Det Sgt Chris Jameson, of Greater Manchester Police, said: 'The store has very tight security so the ruse used to gain entry shows a level of detailed planning, and I want to hear from anyone who may have overheard the gang preparing for this robbery.

'I would also urge anyone who knows the whereabouts of the getaway car or who may have been approached with a view to buying the stolen items to call police. All information will be treated in strict confidence.'

In western Europe wearing of the burka or face-coverings in public has stirred controversy, with some countries considering or imposing a ban on the dress.

Muslims say the burka is a part of their religious culture and such state interference is evidence of prejudice against their faith.