Political turmoil over uniforms

I can’t say that I’m overly interested in the attires in which our law enforcement personnel are clad. If pink buttons happened to be part of our female police officers’ uniforms, then so be it. Who am I to meddle in internal affairs, related to the wellbeing of our men and women of the law – and quite honestly, why should I even care? It’s not as if it affects me in any way.

Granted, most men – and, I suspect, some women, too – wouldn’t object to being handcuffed by the kind of bunny cop depicted here, but in all honesty, would it really matter if she wore a hijab? Because that’s what the popular uproar is all about: A decisions made by the Ministry og Justice and Police some weeks ago, allowing Muslim WPC’s to wear specially designed hijabs with their uniforms, made all hell break loose.

Wherever you looked, people were outraged. Numerous Facebook groups were formed, and for weeks on end news and TV debates were all about the hijabs. That’s right: hijabs!

You have to remember that this is Norway. We don’t care much to bother ourselves with the really serious matters, but we do harbour an innate fear of the unknown, especially if its origins are really really distant, not to mention of a dark complexion. Add to that the fear of Muslim supremacy, and I expect you get the idea.

People even started to demand the Minister of  Justice’s head on a plate, that’s how “serious” this is. Maybe it’s time someone try to put things into perspective. We’re talking a minor detail, affecting a very limited number of people. For one, there are very few female police constables at all, let alone Muslim WPC’s. Chances of running across one of them (how many are they, two?) are something very close to a million to one, well, less, actually. Also, this shouldn’t be a political matter in the first place, but handled inside the law enforcement agencies. It’s their uniforms, for Chrissake…

It all ended in the government revoking their decision, which means that our two Muslim WPC’s won’t be allowed wearing hijabs – whether they want to or not (the latter being the case, by the way).

But it doesn’t stop there. In the wake of it all, voices are being raised, claiming that we’re being subjected to a “subtle islamification”, specifically by Siv Jensen, chairman (!) of the right-wing Progress Party:

In her speech to the right-wing Progress Party (FrP) national board on Sunday, Siv Jensen warned against what would happen if what she called “a subtle islamification” of Norway would continue. She pointed to what had happened to the Swedish city of Malmoe, where according to Jensen Sharia laws had been introduced in sections of the city, and where the police hardly dared to enter.

— The Norway Post

Which is really what the hijab hubub was all about. If you ask me, police constables, men and women alike, should be allowed to wear tophats and dinner jackets for all I care, so long as it’s reglementary – which is a matter for the agencies, not the politicians (who, as we all know, know little or nothing about how to dress).

So now you know how we keep ourselves occupied. We’re really kind of cute, aren’t we?