NationStates Jolt Archive


Is this kind of religious profiling acecptable?

Pax dei
29-12-2006, 02:06
MUMBAI (Reuters Life!) - Women wearing the burqa and other face-concealing veils could be banned from jewelry stores in a west Indian city after a spate of thefts involving burqa-clad customers, jewelers said on Thursday.

More than a dozen thefts have occurred in jewelry shops in Pune in Maharashtra state in the past two months, with at least three cases of women wearing burqas spotted by surveillance cameras as they stole gold ornaments.

"Police could not find any clue about the women's identity because their faces were covered," Fatehchand Ranka, head of the Maharashtra Jewelers' Association, told Reuters.

Pune's jewelers, who deny targeting any religion, say they have written to the authorities asking for permission to stop serving customers who refuse to show their faces to surveillance cameras from January 1.



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But the move has angered a section of India's Muslim community which says the attempt to profile customers on the basis of their attire is an attack on their freedom of religion.

"It's up to a Muslim woman to decide if she wants to shop in a burqa," said Naseem Siddique, head of Maharashtra's minority communities panel.

"Next they will say they will not allow a Sikh in a turban because he could be hiding a pistol under it."

But a council of powerful Islamic clerics said the jewelers had a right to defend their business.

"They are sustaining losses. Moreover, they have said it is not about burqas alone but veils of all sorts," said Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi, secretary of the All-India Ulama Council.

Veils are used not only by millions of Muslim women but also women from other communities in Hindu-majority India.

If your produce is getting ripped off in this manner is it aceptable to request such measures?
Zarakon
29-12-2006, 02:08
Yeah, but it doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't the woman take their burkas off, then loot?
The Nazz
29-12-2006, 02:10
I think if your produce is getting ripped off in this manner is it aceptable to request such measures?

It's not necessarily religious profiling--it's a security matter. They wouldn't let men with ski masks into their stores either.
Pax dei
29-12-2006, 02:11
It's not necessarily religious profiling--it's a security matter. They wouldn't let men with ski masks into their stores either.
Should airport security be the same?If its not just targeting muslims that is?
Ifreann
29-12-2006, 02:12
"Next they will say they will not allow a Sikh in a turban because he could be hiding a pistol under it."
Why would a Sikh hide a pistol under his turban when he has a knife?



Sikhs are the ones that carry knives with them, right?
Zarakon
29-12-2006, 02:13
Why would a Sikh hide a pistol under his turban when he has a knife?



Sikhs are the ones that carry knives with them, right?

Yeah. The men do, anyway. Which raises interesting questions about transexual sikhs.
Prekkendoria
29-12-2006, 02:13
Should airport security be the same?If its not just targeting muslims that is?

Yes.
Pepe Dominguez
29-12-2006, 02:15
Sikhs are the ones that carry knives with them, right?

Yeah, that, a comb, and a dreidel or something.. presumably though , theft is easier with a pistol than with a knife.
The Nazz
29-12-2006, 02:17
Should airport security be the same?If its not just targeting muslims that is?
Can you get on a plane in the US without being identified? Not to my knowledge.
Zarakon
29-12-2006, 02:18
Yeah, that, a comb, and a dreidel or something.. presumably though , theft is easier with a pistol than with a knife.

Can't duck with a knife on your throat.
Pepe Dominguez
29-12-2006, 02:25
Can't duck with a knife on your throat.

"...easier," remember. Not impossible.