Niqabs and Burqas as Security Threats

I wrote a week ago, in a blog for National Review Online, that the niqab and burqa should both be banned on security grounds, "as one cannot have faceless persons walking the streets, driving cars, or otherwise entering public spaces." Although a problem with historic roots (Iraqi irregulars disguised themselves in the Palestinian town of Deir Yassin in 1948), this blog will document the current dangers, especially in the West, of the burqa and niqab as a disguise.

Mesmerising yashmak gang: This first incident is perhaps the oddest of all. I quote from the "British Muslims Monthly Survey," which got this incident from the Chingford Guardian of October 8, 1998:

Two thefts in Chingford and Walthamstow have been blamed on "mesmeric Muslims." At an off-licence in Walthamstow, two women wearing yashmaks with two children, asked for a bottle of Bacardi and sweets. They gave the owner of the shop a £50 note, which he changed. They then said they did not want the drink and asked for their money back. The owner of the shop said his mind went blank and he gave them the £50 note and an additional £10 note. He said: "I was just frozen and had no idea where I was. I have never known anything like that in my 16 years in the business. There was some sort of spell on me." Later the same day, in Chingford, a similar event took place at a music shop where the owner returned the £50 note plus an additional £20 note.

(October 1998)

Jewelry theft in London: Two robbers, male and female, stole £200,000 worth of jewelry from the exclusive Ramot on Sloane Street in Knightsbridge by wearing burqas into the store. The robbers then flung open their garments to reveal guns, threatened the staff, took their keys to the display cabinets, locked the staff in a back room, and made off in a black Mercedes Benz getaway car with what Scotland Yard called "unique" gems. (March 7, 2002)

Attacking a church: Two assailants in burqas threw a grenade among worshippers at a Christmas Day service on in the village of Chianwala, northwest of Lahore, killing three and wounding thirteen. (December 25, 2002)

Niqab as an accessory to abduction in the United States: Timothy Egan tells about the strange abduction of Elizabeth Smart, 14, in "In Plain Sight, a Kidnapped Girl Behind a Veil." Brian D. Mitchell, 49, flaunted Smart in public but kept her in a niqab-like garment that hid her for nine months from one of the most intense-person cases ever conducted.

With a veiled Elizabeth Smart and his wife in tow, Mr. Mitchell showed up at a downtown block party here, a grocery store, a restaurant, even living for about a week just one block from the Salt Lake City police headquarters, numerous witnesses say.

Throughout much of last summer [i.e., 2002], while the police and volunteers were looking day and night for Elizabeth after her kidnapping, it turned out she was moving among them in the open, dressed in the most flamboyant of outfits, and at times even camped just three-and-a-half miles from the Smart home. Mr. Mitchell was stopped by the police several times, and later arrested in San Diego on a burglary charge - all while still holding Elizabeth captive, the authorities said. …

Late last summer, the police say, Mr. Mitchell was moving all around Salt Lake City. At the block party in early September, other people approached the three and asked about the small, veiled girl. "I went up to Mitchell and asked, 'How come she can't even look at people?' " said Ron Lewis, 37, a banquet crew leader who was at the party. "I said, 'What's up with a religion that won't even let women speak?' " said Mr. Lewis, who told his story to the police today. "Her eyes were all I saw of Elizabeth," Mr. Lewis said. He said at times, Mr. Mitchell and his wife held Elizabeth's hand.

(March 14, 2003)

Burqa'ed commandos capture burqa'ed Al-Qaeda fugitive: On the plus side, a group of Pakistani commandoes disguised itself as women to wait out a ranking Al-Qaeda operative, Abu Faraj al-Libbi. And why were they in burqas? Tim McGirk of Time explains: "U.S. and Pakistani intelligence had received a tip that a suspected al-Qaeda operative would be traveling to [the town of] Mardan disguised as a burqa-clad woman. Because any plainclothesmen seen grabbing a woman would attract a hostile mob, the commandos had donned female garb and accosted the suspect as his motorcycle crossed a graveyard." (May. 8, 2005)

Afghan suicide bombers hides under burqa: Five Afghan soldiers were killed and four wounded when a suicide bomber, whom the police think was a Taliban member, disguised himself as a woman and sat in the backseat of a car, then set off a bomb hidden under his burqa at an army checkpoint in Khost province of eastern Afghanistan. According to Mohammed Ayub, the regional police chief, "The bomber probably wanted to go into Khost city for a suicide attack there, but panicked and blew himself up when the soldiers started checking." (February 2, 2006)

Al-Qaeda leadership in Iraq: Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, eluded Western forces over a three-year period through wiliness. In the description of Bill Powell and Scott MacLeod of Time, "al-Zarqawi was a maddeningly elusive target—a master of disguise who could pass as a woman in a burqa one day, an Iraqi policeman the next." (June 11, 2006)

Palestinian gunmen escape Israeli forces in Gaza: The IDF suspected that Palestinian gunmen dressed up as women to escape a 19-hour standoff with the IDF that tried to dislodge them from a mosque where they were hiding. A report by Sa'id Ghazali in The Independent provides more details about women injured while taking burqas to the gunmen:

Lying in a hospital bed, covered from head toe in a black cloak, Asma Hamad, 23, said that she and two relatives were wounded while serving as human shields for dozens of fighters, who had taken refuge in neighbouring houses. The women were summoned by phone calls and local radio stations to rush to the area of the 700-year-old al-Nasr mosque.

"We went immediately to the streets," Mrs Hamad said. "Some of us carried food, some brought traditional women's cloaks and head covers to help the fighters. The army immediately shot at us. I was hit in my left leg." … One woman told Maan, an independent Palestinian news agency, that she smuggled women's clothing into the al-Nasr mosque, where the gunmen were holed up , and helped them escape in disguise.

(November 4, 2006)

Abdul Rasheed Khalid, owner of Zaibi Jewellers, in Brampton, poses with empty display cases. He was bound and hit several times during a robbery on Nov. 17, the latest in a series of Toronto-area jewelry store heists.

Jewelry theft in Canada. : This incident was reported by the Toronto Star, "Jewel heists target Asians":

Abdul Rasheed Khalid was alone in his Brampton jewellery store filling the display cases with yellow gold rings and necklaces when two people, one wearing a head-to-toe black burqa, appeared outside his locked door.

"Salamu alaikum," the 58-year-old store owner said after pushing the entry buzzer, believing them to be a Muslim couple. There was no reply, and seconds later the pair — both males — forced him at gunpoint to the back office where he was bound with duct tape and hit several times. Then his store was cleaned out.

"Keep quiet, keep quiet, close your eyes," they said, while emptying the red velvet trays into duffel bags carried by an accomplice. Khalid caught a glimpse of the crooks. He thinks they were Pakistani or Indian.

Last Friday's daylight robbery has other South Asian jewellers across the GTA on edge, fearful they'll be next. The thieves didn't seem to care that Zaibi Jewellers is in the same strip mall as a storefront Peel Region police station at McLaughlin Rd. and Ray Lawson Blvd.

(November 21, 2006)

Mustaf Jama, Britain's most wanted fugitive, apparently fled the country for his native Somalia by donning the niqab.

Murder suspect flees UK: It's not been confirmed, but a reliable source indicates that Mustaf Jama, 26, one of Britain's "most wanted" criminals for having murdered Police Constable Sharon Beshenivsky, 38, in November 2005, fled the country during the last week of 2005 and returned to his native Somalia. The picture of Britain's most wanted man, with 21 criminal convictions, had been circulated to every police force, port and airport in the country. He got through by disguising himself as a Muslim woman. Specifically, he adopted his sister's identity, using her passport and by wearing a niqab. Turns out, security personnel at London's Heathrow Airport made no attempt to match his face with her passport picture, even though the airport was on a heightened state of alert after the 7/7 terrorist attack. Indeed, the Times (London) writes that "British immigration officers rarely carry out a visual check to match a passport photograph with a departing female passenger's veiled face." It also adds that, in October 2006, "a male suspect in a major anti-terrorist investigation evaded capture in Britain for several days by dressing in a burka. He was eventually arrested and is awaiting trial." (For more on that case, see "Suspect in terror hunt used veil to evade arrest.") (December 20, 2006)

Jewelry theft in India: After closed circuit television cameras in jewelry stores in Pune, India (about 170 km from Bombai), revealed that burqa'ed customers had perpetrated three recent thefts of jewelry, each valued at over $8,500, the Pune Jewelers Association has applied to the police chief of Maharashtra State for permission to exclude anyone with a covered face (regardless of religious affiliation) from their shops.

Association president Fattechand Ranka explained: "Because of the burqa the police could not identify their faces. Anyone could be masquerading under a burqa, even a man." He explained that the PJA has videos of women stealing jewelry but they could do nothing about it because the faces are obscured. "We could only see their eyes because the veil covered the rest of their faces."

For his part, Pune police commissioner D. N. Jadhav has rejected the ban, for fear it would cause Hindu-Muslim problems, and suggested instead that if the jewelry shop owners "are really concerned about security, they can appoint saleswomen and women security guards in their shops." And the PJA did back down, with Rankha announcing its withdrawing the proposed ban out of concern for religious sensibilities.

Naseem Siddiqui, chairman of Maharashtra State Minorities Commission, hailed the retreat. "The burqa is an integral part of Muslim religion and asking women to not wear it while shopping for jewellery will not be acceptable to the community." But Javed Anand, general secretary of the Muslims for Secular Democracy, was sympathetic to the jewelers. "There is a valid point here and we must see it for what it is." (December 29, 2006)

Police chief assassinated in India: Manzoor Ahmed, police chief of Pampore, Kashmir, was killed when a suspected Islamist posed as woman wearing a face covering. The subsequent gunbattle left one civilian dead and two constables wounded. (December 30, 2006)

Philadelphia bank: The report in the Philadelphia Inquirer is not explicit, so it's not clear if a niqab is involved, but one suspects so, for how else would "Muslim clothing" and eyeglasses disguise a successful bank robber:

A woman robbed a Center City bank yesterday and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said. The robber, dressed in Muslim clothing and wearing a pair of silver eyeglasses, walked into the Wachovia Bank branch at Broad and Walnut Streets about 2:10 p.m. and gave a teller a demand note, police said. The robber escaped after receiving the cash, police said.

(January 6, 2007)

The six accused July 21, 2007 bombers. Yassin Omar (seen here without his burqa) is on the lower left.

Bank robbers in London: "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's Rye Bread" and you don't have to be Muslim to misuise the niqab. Anthony Roberts, 22, and Nicholas Bidar, 19, stole Muslim clothes from Regent's Park mosque in June 2006 and put them on to conceal their identities for a bank robbery later that day in Kilburn, north London. They waited in the banking hall before rushing guards as they made cash deliveries and collections, then sped away in a waiting car. The pair of thieves pleaded guilty to three counts of theft (including a previous robbery three weeks earlier) and the Kingston crown court in south-west London sentenced them to four and three years in prison, respectively. (February 10, 2007)

UK Terrorism suspect escapes: Closed-circuit television captured Yassin Omar, 26, of north London, on two occasions wearing a burqa. Omar is one of the six accused July 21, 2005 would-be bombers (he allegedly tried to set off a hydrogen peroxide bomb at Warren Street Underground station). The first time was on the day of the attempted bombings, when Omar (in the Daily Telegraph description) "dressed from head to toe in a black burka and carrying a brown handbag" is seen walking to Golders Green coach station and getting off a bus hours later at Digbeth, Birmingham. (Click here for the actual CCTV footage.)

The second time, he fled London under a burqa a day after the failed attacks. As the Times (London) account puts it:

The 6ft 2in (188cm) figure of Yassin Omar, dressed from head to toe in a black burka, could be seen with a white handbag over his left arm as he made his way with a woman to a London coach station. Mr Omar boarded the 6.20pm National Express service to the Midlands, Woolwich Crown Court was told. Three hours later the bus arrived in Birmingham and he disembarked. He sat on a bench and waited until a red Nissan Sunny car pulled up, Max Hill, a junior prosecutor, said. He then got in and was driven away.

Yassin Omar, in burqa disguise, fleeing from the police.

It bears noting that, for reasons of verisimilitude, Omar shaved his arms and carried a white handbag. (February 21, 2007) May 4, 2007 update: Giving testimony in court, Omar explained that he took one of his mother-in-law's black burqas because she "had lots of them" and put it on out of fear that the police would shoot him.

Afghanistan: Afghan soldiers captured Mullah Mahmood, a Taliban leader and expert bomb-maker, as he tried to flee a massive NATO security operation dressed in a burqa. "Alert [Afghan] soldiers at this checkpoint spotted the oddity and quickly arrested him," explained a NATO press release. (Mar. 7, 2007)

Pakistan: A male gunman wearing a burqa shot dead Masroor Alam, 35, a Sunni Islamist involved in several cases of sectarian killings, near his home in the remote tribal town of Dera Ismail Khan, north-west Pakistan, then fled on a motorbike. (Mar. 9, 2007)

Somalia: The niqab presents a whole different level of threat in Somalia, reports Reuters' Guled Mohamed in "Somali forces ban, burn Muslim women's veils," where the Western-backed government has cracked down on women's coverings in the capital, Mogadishu, to prevent the Islamist Courts insurgents from disguising themselves and then attacking.

"Every policeman and government soldier has orders to confiscate veils from veiled women," senior police officer Ali Nur told Reuters, saying various recent attacks had been carried out by people in disguise. "Some of the remnants of the Islamic Courts have been caught wearing veils. During the war, these remnants, pretending to be women, killed so many government troops." Somalis are generally moderate Muslims and most women traditionally cover their heads but not faces. Officials say some suicide attacks have been carried out by men disguised under full face-veils, known as indhasharer in Somali.

A Reuters witness saw several veiled women running away from police on Wednesday. Near the main Tarbuunka Square, a Somali woman was seen removing her face covering before approaching a government checkpoint where one soldier clutched several of the black veils, which cover the face and leave only the eyes visible. Mogadishu residents said government troops and police had been forcibly removing veils and publicly destroying them. "Yesterday, so many veils were burnt by the police," said taxi driver Abdullahi Mohamed.

(May 9, 2007)

Another Philadelphia bank: Five months later, a Wachovia Bank branch in Philadelphia is again held up by a woman in Muslim garb, though this time in the Juniata Park part of town.

A robber dressed in Muslim female clothing stole $700 from a bank yesterday in North Philadelphia. … police said they were looking for a woman wearing gold-rim glasses in this case. The thief passed a note to a teller at the Wachovia Bank branch on the 1200 block of East Hunting Park Avenue in the Juniata Park section about 11:35 a.m. and fled on foot

(June 5, 2007)

Pakistani horror movie features "Burqa Man": Zibahkhana ("slaughterhouse" in Urdu) has the distinction of being Pakistan's first home-made horror movie in a generation. According to its producer, Omar Ali Khan, reports Aryn Baker of Time, "the scariest local touch is the sadistic cannibalistic killer that wears a burqa," a figure whom Khan dubbed "Burqa Man." (June 12, 2007)

Fatah leader tries to escape Hamas: The Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh tells the horrifying story of Jamal Abu Jadian, a top Fatah commander and a sworn enemy of Hamas who tried to avoid the Hamas steamroller in Gaza. He fled his home in the northern Gaza in the evening of June 12 "dressed as a woman to avoid dozens of Hamas militiamen who had attacked it. He and several members of his family and bodyguards were lightly wounded. But when Abu Jadian arrived at a hospital a few hundred meters away from his house, he was discovered by a group of Hamas gunmen, who took turns shooting him in the head with automatic rifles. 'They literally blew his head off with more than 40 bullets,' said a doctor at Kamal Udwan Hospital." (June 12, 2007)

Bosnian bank robbed: Two Men entered a Union bank in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo wearing niqabs. They trained their guns on the bank's customers, made those customers lie on the floor, and proceeded to empty the tills, making off with about $40,000. "Everything happened in a moment. Two persons in black niqabs came into the bank. I thought they were ladies," bank customer Mehmedalija Komarac was quoted. (July 3, 2007)

The Pakistani press ran front-page pictures of Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz in his usual appearance and as disrobed trying to flee the Lal Masjid complex in a burqa.

Head of the Lal Masjid in Islamabad tries to escape: The two brothers who run the large Lal Masjid complex in Islamabad, capital city of Pakistan, have led an insurrection through which they hope to topple the government of their country. Holed up in the complex, surrounded by some ten thousand soldiers, one of the two brothers, Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz Ghazi, 46, tried to escape by joining a group of some twenty women permitted to leave. He donned a full black burqa, even wearing gloves and high heels. Also, he was the only one of the group who stayed quiet.

What happened next is a matter of dispute. One account has a female police officer searching his body, then yelling out, "This is not a woman." Another account has a male security officer pouncing on the mysterious figure and, "as he grabbed her, the burqa came off and his beard fell out. He asked the man who he was and he said 'I am Maulana Abdul Aziz'." A third account quotes a security official saying that Abdul Aziz was picked out because of his "unusual demeanour," As he put it: "The rest of the girls looked like girls, but he was taller and had a pot belly."

Government officials had a good laugh at Maulana Abdul Aziz's expense. Deputy information minister Tariq Azeem noted: "After all the things he has said and all the oaths he took from his students that they should embrace martyrdom with him, look at this man." (July 4, 2007)

Kenyan prostitutes hide under niqabs: Now for the niqab hiding an altogether different sort of crime: Prostitution is illegal in Kenya's coastal port of Mombasa but, John Nene reports for the BBC, streetwalkers there have a history of donning the buibui (a niqab that shows more of the face). Wearing black buibuis brings two advantages, allowing them to mingle with other women and to melt into the night when the police turn up. As one streetwalker puts it, "I'm better off wearing the buibui so I look respectable. I can avoid arrest."

Of course, respectable women disapprove. "I feel so embarrassed that sometimes I contemplate removing my buibui and throwing it away. The buibui has lost its respect," says one such woman, Mariam Salma.

This is not the first time prostitutes have donned the buibui, as Nene explains: "It was popular in the 1990s until a religious vigilante organisation illegally rounded up the prostitutes hiding under buibuis and flogged them publicly."

Religious leaders are again upset. Sheikh Muhammad Khalifa, organising secretary of the Council of Imams of Kenya, worries about the police mistaking respectable women for prostitutes, and offers a solution. "For God's sake, if one has decided to join this profession, the uniform of prostitutes is well known. They should stick to their disgraceful attire." (July 11, 2007)

The site of a suicide bombing in Bannu, Pakistan.

"Ban the Burqa - and the Niqab Too" is the title of my article today on the subject of this blog. (August 1, 2007)

Suspected Iraqi insurgent disguised as pregnant woman: The Multi-National Force in Iraq has posted a bulletin today indicating that several men were detained "during an air assault mission along the Euphrates River, Aug. 20. One of the men detained was dressed as a pregnant woman … in an attempt to avoid capture." (August 21, 2007)

Three men carrying explosives in Afghanistan: Itar-Tass relies on IRNA to report that a Russian citizen ("Andrei") and two Afghans were found in Paktia province, Afghanistan carrying about 500 kilograms of explosives in their automobile and were arrested as a suspected associates of terrorists; "all three men were wearing women's clothes." (August 28, 2007) Oct. 30, 2007 update: David Rohde provides a more detailed account of this incident in the New York Times:

Afghan police officers working a highway checkpoint near here noticed something odd recently about a passenger in a red pickup truck. Though covered head to toe in a burqa, the traditional veil worn by Afghan women, she was unusually tall. When the police asked her questions, she refused to answer. When the veil was eventually removed, the police found not a woman at all, but Andre Vladimirovich Bataloff, a 27-year-old man from Siberia with a flowing red beard, pasty skin and piercing blue eyes. Inside the truck was 1,000 pounds of explosives. Afghan and American officials say the Siberian intended to be a suicide bomber, one of several hundred foreign militants who have gravitated to the region to fight alongside the Taliban this year, the largest influx since 2001.

Bomber kills 15 in Pakistan: A burqa-wearing suicide bomber of undetermined sex has killed at least 15 people and injuring 22 at a crowded police checkpoint in Bannu, near the North Waziristan tribal region, about 110 miles south of Peshawar. The bomber was apparently in a rickshaw and set it off while being examined this morning. (October 1, 2007)

Burqa used to rob North Carolina bank: The People's Bank in Hiddenite, N.C. (population: 6,000) was robbed on October 16 by a person in a burgundy burqa at 3:45 p.m. who showed the teller a large semi-automatic handgun, demanded and received money, and fled in a burgundy sport utility vehicle. Police are unsure whether to look for a man or a woman; a close look at the bank video, visible on the WSOC-TV website, reveals it pretty clearly to be a female. The television report also gives some reactions from Hiddenite residents, unused to seeing burqas, much less on robbers. (October 17, 2007)

Rickets: Studies show that burqa-clad women (and their breast-fed children) are lacking in vitamin D, which the skin absorbs from sunlight, and so are at greater risk of rickets. Today's news from Blackburn in East Lancashire, UK, confirms the problem: "56 cases of rickets uncovered." A study commissioned by the East Lancashire Primary Care Trust found, as the newspaper delicately puts it, that almost all the cases found are in the "South Asian community." Further down, we learn that experts think Asian immigrants are more likely to have this problem "because of their darker skin, and Islam's requirements for clothing to cover limbs." (October 29, 2007)

Woman blows self up at Pakistan army checkpoint: A woman in burqa carrying a basket over her head, thought to be an Afghan in her 30s, blew herself in Peshawar as she approached a checkpost, presumably on behalf of the Taliban. She was the only casualty. (December 4, 2007)

Woman with bomb under burqa caught in Afghanistan: Afghan intelligence agents in Jalalabad detained a woman, 55, hiding a bomb under her burqa. She had been followed from Kunar after a tip-off before her arrest. An official in Kunar's intelligence department explained that "She was carrying the suicide waistcoat for the Taleban." (December 24, 2007)

Wal-Mart not worried: Under pressure from CAIR's Nevada chapter, the world's largest retailer apologized to Muslim woman who claimed to have been mocked by a cashier on Feb. 2 who said to the shopper, "Please don't stick me up." In a letter signed by Rolando Rodriquez, vice president and regional general manager, she was told, "I can assure you that the associate in question was disciplined in accordance with our employment policies as a result of the situation." (February 20, 2008)

Friends Jewellers in Cape Hill, Smethwick, West Midlands, robbed by a burqa'ed thief and his accomplices.

Armed men rob British jewelry store: A 6-foot, 6-inch Asian man disguised himself on March 19 as a Muslim woman, put on a burqa, pushed an empty children's carriage, buzzing for entry at Raj Kumar's "Friends Jewellers" in Cape Hill, Smethwick, West Midlands. There was something not quite right about the height and appearance of this person, but the baby carriage persuaded staff to release the lock. On entry, he pulled out a gun and four other Asian men, their faces covered with ski masks, used their hammers to break into the store. They sprayed Kumar, his brother and the store's two security guards with pepper spray, attacked the owners, then broke into display cabinets, took £200,000 worth of 24-carat gold jewelry, and fled in two cars.

Kumar recounted the attack to the press. His mother who first spotted the burqa'ed figure just after 1 p.m..

The 6'6" burqa'ed male thief outside Friends Jewellers, as the security camera caught him.

We have buzzer entry and he was trying to get my mum to let him in. She thought he looked too tall to be a woman but he had this pushchair with him. When she opened the door these men ran in from behind and used hammers to smash through the next door. It took them about five goes to get through the glass. … They got us all in the face [with pepper spray]. One of them threw a claw hammer at me and they hit my brother's arm - he's got a big cut down it. We think this gang have raided other jewellery shops so we tried to prepare for something like this, but when it happened we just froze. We thought they had guns.

Almost as distressing as the robbery were the inane comments on it by two city councilors, both of whom seem to think this robbery was the first of its type. Keith Davies said: "I am a member of the police authority and I will be asking if this kind if think has happened before. … It's the first time I have heard of anything like this. It calls up a lot of questions about how we deal with crime. I would hate to think there could be challenges on women walking round the streets in burkhas. It is really unusual." Mohammed Rouf added: "I am really shocked. It seems they are trying to come up with new ideas to rob people. This is bad for the community and I am shocked that they would go this far just to steal."

For pictures from the security camera, see the sequence at the Daily Mail's coverage. I reproduce one here. (March 22, 2008

Armed man threatens British security guard: A man "dressed in black and wearing a face covering believed to be a burka" threatened a Securicor security driver outside a supermarket in Birmingham on March 14 with what is thought to be a firearm wrapped in a black plastic bag. The driver got into his van and shut the sliding door, trapping the weapon in the door before the attacker could spring it, and ran off to the passenger seat of a nearby parked car. The police issued a statement: "Due to the similar circumstances, officers are exploring possible links with the robbery that took place at Friends Jewellers last week." (March 22, 2008)

Al-Qaeda suspect in four murders caught in habaya in Mauritania: Marouf Ould Haiba is one of four suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists accused of ambushing and killing four French family members as they picnicked on Dec. 24, 2007, alongside a road near the town of Aleg, 155 miles south of Nouakchott. He was caught today in a taxi in the capital Nouakchott while disguised as a woman. Government spokesman Hindou Mint Hainina said that "He was disguised as a woman and was carrying a weapon under his dress. He had been trailed by the police for several days and is currently being questioned in Nouakchott's central police station." Police spokesman Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Adda called him a "dangerous member of Al-Qaeda." According to the police, when caught, Haiba was wearing habaya, a black robed garment that covers the head and entire body with just a slit for the eyes. (April 10, 2008)

Philadelphia real estate leasing office: Two men, dressed like Muslim women, pulled off an armed robbery today of a real estate leasing office in southwest Philadelphia, carjacked a van, and escaped in the van, only to abandon it and flee on foot. But an employee of the real estate company both pursued them and alerted the police. When the police caught up with the robbers, one of them, a 20-year-old, pointed a gun at Police Lt. Frank Vanore who shot him in the arm. The robber is listed in stable condition. (May 1, 2008)

Philadelphia bank, police officer killed: What is it about Philadelphia, burqas, and robberies? Here is the fourth incidence I am aware of, more than any other city:

Two men robbed the Bank of American branch inside the ShopRite in the Port Richmond section in the late morning today, then fled. When Police Sergeant Steven Liczbinski, 40, confronted them about 15 minutes later, they shot him three times with an AK-47 and he died soon after. Other police officers chased the two men and killed one of them, Howard Cain. The police also searched a wooded area for another man and a woman connected to the bank robbery. According to an Associated Press report, "The man was described as black, stocky and wearing a white hospital mask. He had shoulder-length dreadlocks, but Little said officers cautioned that that could be wig. The woman, whose race was not known, was dressed in a head-to-toe light brown robe." Another report described the woman wearing "Muslim-type garb."

Howard Cain of Philadelphia, who disguised himself in a niqab to rob a bank.

Comment: There is no reason to assume that the person in burqa is actually a woman. (May 3, 2008) May 5, 2008 update: Indeed, that person was a man. Here are more details of the crime: Two of the robbers, Howard Cain and Eric DeShawn Floyd,

donned Muslim women's clothes - a hijab covering their heads; long dresses, called an abaya; and face veils, called nik-ab - to prevent detection," while Lavon Warner wore a dreadlock wig and dust mask." Then, the trio marched into the bank, and Sgt. Liczbinski responded to the bank robbery alarm at 11:26 a.m. The trio hopped in a blue Jeep Liberty. Hearing flash information about the Jeep, Liczbinski chased the vehicle, which stopped twice before hitting a pole. Cain jumped out and fired the high-powered SKS assault rifle five times at the officer, hitting his left trunk and leaving him in a pool of blood, at Schiller and Almond streets.

May 6, 2008 update: Cain is a Muslim and perhaps Floyd too.

Police patrol attacked in western Afghanistan: A suicide bomber in burqa attacked a police patrol in the Dilaram district of Farah province. Striking in a crowded market, he killed at least 12 people (7 police, 5 civilians) and wounded 27 others (11 police and 16 civilians). The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and named the perpetrator as Mullah Khalid. (May 15, 2008)

Police patrol attacked in southern Afghanistan: "Burqa-shrouded suicide bomber shot by Afghan police in Helmand," reads the The Times (London) report:

British soldiers beside the body of a dead Afghan suicide bomber shot in Lashkar Gar in Southern Helmand while wearing a burqa; note the suicide bomb belt near the corpse.

The suicide bomb belt lies beside the body of the man shot in Lashkar Gar in Southern Helmand today. Among the trail of clothes around him is the women's burqa with which he had disguised himself as he set out, explosives strapped to his chest, towards the police compound that was his target. "He was shot in the forehead after he ignored warning shots and was killed on the spot," said Hussain Andiwal, provincial police chief. "When we took off his burqa we found he was a man with a suicide vest tied around his body." "It was an 18 volt battery concealed under his clothes," said a spokesman for ISAF, the International Security Assistance Force.

When Private Daniel Gamble, one of the regiment's small number of Pashtu speakers, approached him to ask him what he was doing, the man reached under his cloak and detonated a concealed explosive vest, killing Private Gamble instantly and fatally wounding two other members of the patrol. On this occasion, however, the Afghan officers guarding the compound shot the man after he refused to freeze and instead started running towards the building, according to Mr Andiwal. The explosives were never successfully detonated and there were no other casualties.

Criminal accessory in the UK: The niqab now helps aggressive teenagers in London hide from the law, reports the Daily Mail:

Two youths were seen wearing niqab-style face masks and wielding a sword after a 14-year-old boy was stabbed, locals have claimed. One was heard to say 'I'm going to kill him' as the pair walked calmly down a residential street chatting at about midday yesterday. The schoolboy was knifed in the chest just yards away at 5pm on Tuesday. He collapsed in a pool of blood in front of drinkers outside a pub as they enjoyed an after work pint. A terrified local, who saw the sword-wielding teens but did not want to be named, said: "I saw two boys wearing Muslim women's headgear but normal clothes otherwise and you could see only their eyes. One of them was carrying a sword with a huge blade over a foot long which looked like something you would use to gut a lamb. I saw them and my heart was gone. I've never been so terrified. Although I could only see their eyes I could see their hands as well and they were two black boys, tall, probably about six feet and I would guess they were 16 or 17 years old."

(June 18, 2008) June 19, 2008 update: The text at the Daily Mail has been changed; for the full original version, see a comment on this website, "Boy, 14, fights for life after being stabbed in football game row by sword wielding youths wearing niqabs."

Dutch pickpockets don head covering robes of Muslim women: Dutch police report a 'sharp increase' of Bulgarian or Romanian pickpockets who are dressing up as pious Muslimas and going after marks in nearly all the marketplaces of Rotterdam. (June 27, 2008)

Attack on a governor in Iraq: Iraqi insurgents deployed a man dressed as a woman – presumably in burqa or niqab – in a failed assassination attempt on a provincial governor, Raad Rashid al-Tamimi of Diyala province. Tamimi escaped unharmed but at least one other person was killed and several were wounded. (Aug. 13, 2008)

Shi'i pilgrims in Iraq: Twin suicide bombings by burqa'ed women killed 22 and wounded at least 73 Shi'i pilgrims in Iskandariyah, Iraq, as the pilgrims made their way to Karbala, the police chief of Babil province, General Fade Reza, noted that the government does not have enough female police to search the pilgrims. "During the day it is possible to identify them but at night it is more difficult. Because of the burqa, sometimes you cannot even tell if they are men or women." (Aug. 14, 2008)

Attack car in Bahrain: The Bahraini Ministry of Interior reports that men wearing abayas attacked three Bahraini nationals with Molotov cocktails as they were traveling traveling in a private car on a highway, "smashing the windows and setting the front seat alight." The statement the incident as an "act of terrorism." (Oct. 2, 2008)

U.S. Troops kill Taliban commander disguised in a burqa: During large-scale gun battles and airstrikes by NATO and Afghan forces, killing 53 terrorists, a U.S. team surrounded a house yesterday in Ghazni Province and ordered everyone out. Six women and 12 children left the building, but one of the women turned out to be Haji Yakub, a Taliban commander wanted for directing roadside bomb and suicide attacks. He attacked the soldiers and was killed. (Nov. 29, 2008)

Burqa'ed woman has role in Mumbai terrorist assault: The attack in Mumbai that left nearly 200 dead and traumatized the city included a hidden woman, according to Damien McElroy of the Daily Telegraph:

Investigators said that an urgent alert had been issued to officers to find the woman referred to by Azam Amir Qasab [the only surviving terrorist] as "sister." Eyewitnesses had seen Qasab buying dried fruit with the burqa-wearing woman near Mumbai's main train just minutes before the attack was launched. Residents near the Cama hospital, which was attacked by Qasab and a partner Abu Dera Ismail Khan, had said a woman helped Qasab after the attack on the station. A shopkeeper also insisted at least one woman had accompanied the pair.

"The man started firing towards the hospital immediately after entering," said one eyewitness. "Moments before, the woman, in a salwar kameez underneath her burqa, had even tried to enter the hospital by climbing a water pipe. As the man continued firing, the woman, who wasn't armed, knocked on one of the houses. They then asked the family for water." While Qasab and his fellow gunman were cornered in a police ambush, the woman got away.

"Ireland too grey for the burqa": Miriam Casey, of the Osteoporosis Unit in St James's hospital in Dublin warns that Muslim women wearing the burqa in cold countries like Ireland are at increased risk of pelvic fractures during childbirth because of vitamin D deficiency due to a lack of sunlight, writes Colin Gleeson in the Times (London). Also, babies born to such women are more prone right after birth to "serious complications such as seizures, growth retardation, muscle weakness and fractures." Subsequently, as toddlers, "carrying the weight of the torso can force the development of a bow-legged appearance and a waddling gait. Later, there can be rickets, which is caused by vitamin D deficiency, with swollen wrists and bones that fail to fuse in adolescence."

In contrast, the sun in hot countries, she maintains, gets through the cloth enough for them to absorb adequate amounts of vitamin D. "Ireland's temperate climate doesn't have the intense sunlight that keeps burqa-clad women from becoming vitamin D-deficient in their own countries." Further, darker skins produce vitamin D far less efficiently than fair skins, sometimes as little as 1 percent as much. (December 28, 2008)

"Banks and Stores Push Back Against Head Coverings" is the name of my new weblog entry that looks at the response by banks, jewelry stores, and other retail services to the assault by "women" in head coverings. (January 15, 2009)

Woman steals jewelry across Europe: A woman wearing a hijab has over a 10-year period repeatedly conned jewelers in Germany, Switzerland and France of a million or more euros. She poses as a wealthy Persian Gulf client, then replaces their real gems with faked ones. (February 3, 2009)

Jewelry store in Glasgow robbed: Two Asian men, around 5' 10" to 6' tall, wearing burqas and sunglasses, and carrying handbags, robbed ATAA Jewellers in Glasgow around 4 p.m. on April 4. The robbers threatened the staff with guns and after escaping threw their Muslima clothing away. No one was injured but two female members of store staff were taken by ambulance an infirmary as a precaution.

Hanzala Malik, a Glasgow councillor in whose district the attack took place, said that "If retailers are uncomfortable about customers coming into secured premises and dressed in burkhas, they are perfectly within their rights to deny entry. Banks don't allow people wearing helmets into their premises. … in this day and age if you want to wear that dress and expect to be served, I don't think you should feel hurt if you are not." (April 6, 2009) Apr. 27, 2009 update: Wasting no time, the Muslim owners of ATAA Jewellers have taken steps to ban niqabs from their store.

Niqab humor: For a break from the terrorists and criminals, take a look at Bill Maher's fashion show of five niqab'ed lovelies. (May 23, 2009)

Burqas suffocate: Beyond depriving the body of vitamins (see the Oct. 29, 2007 entry), burqas are hot, stifling, and don't allow for proper air circulation. Here's an 18-year-old Afghan woman on the subject: "When I wear a burqa it gives me a really bad feeling. I don't like to wear it. My family are not really happy with me wearing a chador namaz [the long, billowing dress widely word in Iran], they tell me to always wear a burqa. But I don't like it, it upsets me, I can't breathe properly." And here is her cousin, in her early 20s: "My family says I have to wear it, they say the chador namaz is bad. You understand that if you don't wear a burqa and your face is open, people will just gossip about you. But it does give me bad headaches, it puts a lot of pressure on my head, especially if it's sewn too tightly." (July 7, 2009)

Attacks in Afghanistan: A ramping up of burqa terrorism from eastern Afghanistan:

Six suicide bombers in wigs and burkas and armed with rifles and suicide vests tried to enter government buildings in Gardez, in Paktia province, but were shot dead before reaching their targets, authorities said. "At 10:50 am (0620 GMT)... six suicide attackers armed with Kalashnikovs, grenade-launchers and suicide vests arrived near the intelligence office in a Corolla car," the Afghan National Directorate for Security (NDS) intelligence agency said in a statement. The attackers "dressed as women, wearing wigs and burkas, walked towards the guards at the NDS gates, pretending to submit an application paper. One of the guards realised the man was armed, he opened fire... and killed one of the men," it said. Two more attackers were killed as agents manning the gates opened fire, it said, adding that one of the bombers managed to set off his explosives, killing two agents.

A later report indicates that a total of 12 people were killed and 22 injured in an attack by about 15 buraq'ed male suicide attackers. The Afghan government sees this "commando-style" raid as a new Taliban tactic. (July 22, 2009)

170 crimes in Jordan in 2 years: The situation in Jordan appears to be worse by an order of magnitude than anywhere else – or is it just that the reporting is better? From an article by Suha Philip Ma'ayeh, "Crime wave by men wearing the khimar" (khimar is a head covering for Muslim women that reaches about the waist; it may or may not be combined with a partial or full face covering):

In the past two years, police have dealt with 170 crimes committed by 50 people who wore concealing Islamic clothing to hide their identities, according to police officials.

Police are still looking for two men who were wearing the niqab when they opened fire on policemen in a western Amman neighbourhood in July and escaped. It was not clear if they were militants or robbers. Last year, two niqab-wearing men were arrested after robbing Société Générale Bank in Amman at gunpoint and taking US$37,000 (Dh1360,000).

" … it is evident that the number of criminal cases where the niqab is used has increased," Jamal Bdour, the director of the Criminal Investigations Department at the Public Security Department, told a press conference in July. Public cautions by the police regarding the niqab and khimar have triggered a debate in the country over how to tackle the use of the garments in crimes, with some calling for them to be restricted or even banned.

Mohannad Mubaydeen, a columnist with the daily Al-Ghad, angered religious pundits in a column last month titled "Corruption under the niqab." "The issue is not the philosophy of the niqab nor its legitimacy, but it lies with how it has become invested in malpractices that lead to disastrous results," he wrote. "Has it become a safety tool to conceal any act that is above the law and public morality?"

Imad Hajjaj, the country's leading cartoonist, joined in, publishing a controversial cartoon in Al-Ghad depicting Abu Mahjoob, a famous Jordanian cartoon character, and his big-bellied friend, Abu Mohammed. Both were disguised in niqabs, making a list of the things they can evade, from police and money lenders to swine flu and social kisses from men.

Comment: How interesting were Jordanian authorities to ban the niqab ahead of governments in Western states. (August 3. 2009)

Frenchman flees Dubai in niqab: I am pleased to report, finally, a benign case of a man dressing up in niqab. It concerns Herve Jaubert, a French businessman with a clandestine background who used the headgear to escape what appears to be undeserved punishment in Dubai. His project, to build leisure submarines for the wealthy, crashed with the economic downturn and left him accused of embezzling $3.8 million.

Andrew Higgins of the Washington Post tells the story:

Herve Jaubert dressed in niqab.

Fired from Exomos, the submarine company, and unable to get his passport back, Jaubert hatched an elaborate escape plan. He sent his wife and their two boys to Florida. He had diving equipment shipped out from France—broken down into small bits to avoid arousing suspicion. Then, using a phony name, he bought a Zodiac dinghy and sailboat. Using Google Earth, he surveyed the UAE coastline for an escape route. He found an isolated beach and arranged for a friend to take the sailboat out into international waters.

On the eve of his escape, the former spy checked into a hotel near the beach, put on his diving equipment and donned a long abaya, the body-covering cloak worn by strictly observant Muslim women. He said he then went down the beach and swam underwater to a nearby harbor, where the only patrol boat in the vicinity was moored. He clambered aboard and sabotaged the fuel line to make sure the craft could not give chase, he said.

Jaubert then set out to sea in the dinghy to the boat his friend had positioned just outside the UAE's territorial waters, and they sailed toward India. After eight days at sea, the pair arrived in Mumbai—an account corroborated by his traveling companion. With a new passport issued by the French consulate, Jaubert flew to join his wife in Florida, where he is writing a book he has titled "Escape From Dubai."

(August 10, 2009)

A rash of armed robberies in the UK: The Daily Mail reports on three recent robberies involving men in burqas:

• On July 7, a man in black burqa entered First Choice Travel in Broadwalk, Dunstable, threatened two female workers with a knife, stole cash, and escaped through the back door.

• On August 16, a man in black burqa entered the Thomson travel agency on George Street in Luton, threatened female staff with a knife, and stole a large amount of cash.

• A burqa'ed man and two accomplices witih covered faces, armed with a handgun and an axe, burst into Michael Jones Jewellers on the High Street in Banbury, Oxfordshire, at about 2:20 p.m. yesterday, threatened four members of staff, and stole Rolex, Cartier and Breitling watches worth about £150,000. A fourth accomplice drove them off in a black Audi.

Police have released CCTV footage of the first two, similar incidents, but the height and build of the burqa'ed thieves appear to be different. (August 26, 2009)

"Niqabs and Burqas –The Veiled Threat Continues": I wrote up new developments over the past two years in this column today. (September 2, 2009)

Attempted mega-terrorism in Pakistan: The Pakistani police prevented an attack by three gunmen wearing burqas on an oil storage facility in Karachi. The trio attempted to enter the high-security facility late on Sept. 14; when stopped by security guards, they opened fire, killing one guard, then escaped, leaving behind their burqas, purses and hand grenades. "We suspect they wanted to carry out a big terrorist attack which our prompt police action thwarted," said Police Chief Waseem Ahmed. On Tuesday, the police arrested four male suspects, thought connected to the Taliban, and found more burqas, purses, and weapons. (September 15, 2009)

Attempted post office robber in England: Two slim, Asian male robbers dressed in burqas attacled a post office in Bradford, England, pistol-whipped the manager and struck him on the head with the butt of a handgun when he could not open a safe, then fled empty-handed when a customer looked through a window. Detective Inspector Steve Snow called the attack planned and called the thieves "determined individuals who were prepared to use violence in order to steal from innocent members of the public." (November 28, 2009)

Hotel bombing in Somalia: A male suicide bomber managed to gain access to the Shamu Hotel in Mogadishu that was hosting a graduation ceremony for Banadir University attended by government officials by dressed as a woman in full abaya and veil, killing at least 19, including three Somali cabinet ministers and two journalists. (December 3, 2009)

Bank robbery in France: The staff of a post office in Athis Mons, just south of Paris permitted two burqa'ed men into the banking section of the office. They threw off the coverings, one of them pulled out a handgun concealed beneath the Islamic garb, and they took about €4,500 from staff and customers.

Comment: This robbery comes at a delicate moment, when the French government seeks to ban the burqa in public spaces, and could help tip the balance in favor of such a prohibition. (February 7, 2010)

"Arab envoy finds wife-to-be bearded behind veil": For a humorous touch comes this testimony (from Dubai's Gulf News) to the niqab as disguise for physical unattractiveness. It concerns an unnamed Arab ambassador who

called off his wedding after discovering his wife-to-be, who had worn a face-covering veil whenever they met, was bearded and cross-eyed. … The envoy had only met the woman a few times, during which she had hidden her face behind a niqab, or face-covering veil, the paper said. After the marriage contract was signed, the ambassador attempted to kiss his bride-to-be, upon which he discovered she had facial hair and was cross-eyed, it said. The ambassador told an Islamic Sharia court in the United Arab Emirates that he was tricked into the marriage as the woman's mother had shown his own mother pictures of her sister instead of her, the report said. He sued for the contract to be annulled and also demanded the woman pay him 500,000 dirhams (136,000 dollars) for clothes, jewelry and other gifts he had bought for her. The court annulled the contract but rejected the ambassador's demand for compensation.

(February 10, 2010)

Strangled in go-kart accident: A 24-year-old young Muslim woman died when part of her burqa got caught in the wheels of a go-kart she was driving at Bob's Farm near the town of Port Stephens, north of Sydney, strangling her and causing the vehicle to crash. (April 8, 2010) Apr. 13, 2010 update: In the Netherlands, a woman wearing a hijab also got it entangled in a go-kart in 2007 and was partially suffocated. She, however, survived – and went on to sue the Linnaeushof playground in Bennebroek for €11,000 on the grounds that it had insufficient safety measures and supervision.

Accessory to a street robbery: The Australian Associated Press reports on a two-step robbery in the Miranda section of Sydney, Australia: It began when a 35-year-old man working as a distributor of cash to jewellery businesses withdrew a large amount of cash at a shopping center.

While making the withdrawal, he noticed two men who appeared to be following him around the shopping centre. He returned to his vehicle in the car park when one of the men approached him and told him his tyre was going flat. The man became suspicious and drove away to change his tyre in a nearby street before driving to a shopping centre in Hurstville. There, he was approached by a man wearing a full black burqa, [threatened with a pistol], … and sunglasses and told to hand over the cash, police said today in a statement.

The Sydney Morning Herald ran a poll along with this story, asking "Where do you stand on the wearing of the burqa in public in Australia?" The final tally showed 19 percent in favor of allowing the burqa in public and 81 percent for prohibiting it, with 10,140 votes counted – a decisive margin that would probably be replicated throughout the West. (May 6, 2010)

Another jewelery store robbery: In the second male burqa'ed robbery of the day, a man turned up under cover at Capri Jewellers in Bury, England, north of Manchester. The Manchester Evening News tells what happened:

Security staff thought the raider was a woman who had come to browse on her own and pressed a security button to allow him into the store. But moments after the door was opened three other masked men, one of them carrying a shotgun, barged their way inside. Police said the gang stole a large amount of jewellery, including bangles, rings and lockets, before they escaped towards Alfred Street in a waiting car, believed to be a silver Toyota Yaris. … The gang of four men, all described as Asian, left behind two canvass holdalls branded "Wei Bao." Det Sgt Chris Jameson, of Bury CID [Criminal Investigation Department], said: "The store has very tight security so the ruse used to gain entry shows a level of detailed planning."

For further details, see the Bury Times account. (May 6, 2010)

A third robbery of a travel agency in the Dunstable region: For the third time in less than a year, a burqa'ed knifeman attacked a travel agency, this time the Thomson Travel in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, on May 8. The attaacker, believed to be of mixed race, carried a square black bag with a long shoulder strap and wore black plimsolls; his burqa was described as black with a silver or grey floral design pattern. He threatened two female members of the staff and forced one of them to fill his bag with a large amount of money from an office and the cash register before escaping through the front entrance.

For more on the similar robberies last summer, see the August 26, 2009, entry. Detectives are unsure if the three incidents are related. "The pattern the offenders have followed is strikingly similar. They walk in, dressed in a burka, approach members of staff quite calmly by knifepoint. They leave the shop very calmly and walk off." That said, the robbers appear to be of different sizes. (May 12, 2010)

Two males, one German, arrested in Pakistan wearing burqa: It's not clear what trouble the trio was intending, but they were caught at a security checkpost on the border between North Waziristan and Bannu city being driven in car. man, A German, said to be in his mid-20s, was with two tribesmen, one of whom also wore a burqa, and a girl – the idea being to pretend they made up a family. A senior police officer in Bannu thought the German might have links with terrorists. (June 22, 2010)

Related Topics:  Criminality, Muslims in the West, Radical Islam, Sex and gender relations, Terrorism receive the latest by email: subscribe to daniel pipes' free mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.