Most of my dust-ups & unfriendings on social media have been over anti-semitism or defense of the burqa as a civil liberties issue. When it comes to anti-semitic hatred it’s an expeditious thing. Press the block button & they’re gone. But you just can’t believe people give a rat’s ass about what women wear or why they feel the need to vilify veil wearers as robotically controlled. So sometimes you find yourself irresistibly drawn into debates on the matter. At what point in life do you smarten up & avoid the Facebook brawls?

Let me just make one point now that burqa opponents don’t want to hear: when you go after the rights of women to wear the veil in a climate of Islamophobia, you open the women to attacks in the courts & the streets & you undermine civil liberties, most importantly freedom of religion.