This one may make your head hurt. From a court in New South Wales:
MUSLIM woman sentenced to six months' jail for making a deliberately false statement that a racist policeman tried to forcibly remove her burka has been freed on appeal.
Judge Clive Jeffreys said he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt it was Carnita Matthews, a 47-year-old Muslim woman from Woodbine, NSW, who accused the police of racism…
Fair enough. So why aren't you sure it was Mrs. Matthews?
. . . because the person who handed in the complaint to police was wearing a burka at the time.
To reach the level of proof of identity to prove the case, it appears Mrs Matthews would have been required to identify herself by lifting her burka at the police station to prove her identity – which is what started the uproar in the first case.
So, if I follow correctly, we can never establish the identity of the woman who falsely accused the police of demanding she remove her burka because to establish her identity the police would have to demand she remove her burka thereby rendering her false accusation true.
As to what Mrs. Matthews looks like in or out of her burka, I'm none the wiser. She was flanked by a phalanx of young Muslim men who prevented anyone getting a look at her.
Mrs Matthew's lawyer Stephen Hopper defended them, saying: "They are obviously happy with the result and are expressing it in a way that is culturally appropriate to them".
. . . by yelling "Allahu Akbar!" and attacking cameramen. You can't get more "culturally appropriate" than that.
