It's all about mini skirts and veils

A good example of familiarity leading to greater acceptance is the changed community attitude towards homosexuals. The courage displayed by some high profile people to come out over the past decade or so seems to have blazed the trail for many previously closeted homosexuals to do likewise. This has resulted in a discernible dampening down of previously existing widespread homophobic attitudes.

It is not difficult to multiple such examples. Presently, a similar enlightenment seems to be occurring in the context of mental illness.

For people that are still unconvinced about the compatibility of the face veil and community harmony, they should spend a pleasant afternoon at my old stomping ground, the Broadmeadows Shopping Square. The people of Broady don’t fare well on most indicia of social flourishing, such as wealth and education standards. But they are fortunate enough to have undergone cultural enlightenment as a result of sharing their patch with one of the biggest Muslim populations in the country.

In Broady, face veils are nearly as common as eye jarring “muffin tops”, (the effect of obese bodies in overly tight low cut jeans) and are more tasteful. In fact face veils are so inoffensive they are ignored - commonality has led to invisibility.

At the same time, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali needs to spend a bit of time at Bondi Beach over the summer. There he’ll quickly come to realise that women and men both wearing not much usually have far more in common than sex on the mind.

In the end, opposition to the face veil is all about Western prejudice, just as opposition to the mini skirt is all about Islamic prejudice. Once the overblown sensitivities of others start constituting a basis for curtailing our freedoms, liberty in any form is lost.

Westerners and Muslims both need to drop their small minded relativistic perspectives and embrace a more universal and tolerant disposition - national unity depends on it.