Dan Pipes says it’s time to ban the near all-concealing burqa and niqab – but not the merely hair-covering hijab.

He relates how such bans, or disputes about them, are advancing, for example, in French public schools and in an English school.

Pipes makes a good case that burqas and niqabs should be banned in all public spaces because they pose “a security risk. Anyone might lurk under those shrouds – female or male, Muslim or non-Muslim, decent citizen, fugitive, or criminal – with who knows what evil purposes.”

He also points to findings that covered women and their breast-fed children lack sufficient amounts of vitamin D, which the skin absorbs from sunlight and are at risk of rickets.

“The time has come everywhere,” he argues persuasively, “to ban from public places these hideous, unhealthy, socially divisive, terrorist-enabling, and criminal-friendly garments.”