Yesterday, police in Australia’s New South Wales state were handed more authority to remove burqas and other face coverings to identify potential criminal suspects. The move follows the recent case of a Muslim woman who was acquitted after a judge ruled her Islamic veil made a positive identification of her impossible.

Police previously had the power to request the removal of face veils while investigating serious offenses, but not on more routine matters.

Anyone who now refuses to show their face upon request could be jailed for up to a year or face a heavy fine.

The Islamic Council of New South Wales said it accepted the move, while the Muslim Women’s Association said it had no problem if police handled the issue sensitively, including the deployment of female police officers.

The new legislation was prompted after the high-profile case of Carnita Matthews, who was sentenced to six months in prison last year, for falsely accusing a policeman of trying to forcibly remove her burqa during a random breathalyser test.

Matthews subsequently won her appeal after a judge ruled that the prosecution could not prove she had made the false complaint because officers were not able to see her face.

Premier Barry O’Farrell made his point quite clear:

I don’t care whether a person is wearing a motorcycle helmet, a burqa, niqab, face veil or anything else, the police should be allowed to require those people to make their identification clear.

I have every respect for various religions and beliefs but when it comes to enforcing the law the police should be given adequate powers to make a clear identification.

The burqa and other face veils have come up against increasing pressures this year already, as more and more countries around the world begin to ask whose rights are actually more important – the state or the individual.

[Source: BBC]