The issue of social and cultural integration between immigrants and locals has started to find its way into European mainstream politics. The banning of the 'hijab' and the veil in certain European countries is a clear manifestation that even among these developed countries who claim to be the champions of personal freedom and human rights, there exists a limit for tolerance in the social and cultural conduct of their immigrant minorities.
Let's not question whether or not the legislation to limit personal freedom in public space is the right thing to do. The underlining fact is that the idea that one's dressing in public space be entirely a personal choice has failed the test even among the much 'highly liberated minds' of European societies. The legislation to limit the freedom of personal attire in public space proves that it is only natural to accept the fact that immigrant minorities are expected to blend themselves with the local content, including their choice of attire in public.
Even though most Muslims in Europe were born there, they are still deemed as immigrants as long as they don't integrate fully with the local content and most European policy-makers believe that this integration has to be achieved through legal means.
If one's personal attire in public space is legitimately restricted by the state's apparatus in European countries, I wonder what the big fuss is over the same thing being executed by the Kota Baru Municipal Council (KBMC) in legislating dwellers there to observe decency in their attires.
Perhaps, from an European cultural perspective, putting up a veil to cover one's face in public is absurd and they choose not to tolerate this absurdity by passing a legislation to ban this practice. Similarly, from the Kelantanese point of view, dressing sexily in public reaches the same level of absurdity and they choose to deal with it in the same manner their European counterparts do for veiled women in their societies.
The striking dissimilarity between the two though is that the European banning of the 'hijab' and veil in public seems to be in direct contradiction with their own values the much preached about personal freedom.
I believe that even among the strongest critics of MPKB's 'no-sexy-attire-ruling', they would agree that there must be some degree of decency in one's attire in public space. They, I believe, wouldn't allow their daughters to walk around with in bikinis or go topless in town.
The level of decency limits might vary, though, from what has been drawn by the Kelantan state authority. Thus, it would be much more logical and honest for these critics to actually state what is the level of decency accepted by them, instead of hypocritically and categorically condemning and demonising the ruling by Kota Bharu Municipal Council.
