“I can't agree with banning somebody from wearing something that they want to wear. I see forcing someone to not wear a burqa as about as bad as forcing someone to wear one. Both are intolerant attitudes.”
I think you need to widen the question away from just the facemask, ellipsis (as I have tried to do). Although this question was posed to address the facemask, the issue really is “why should it be worn?” The answer is that a repressive religion (or at least some adherents to that religion), heavily male dominated, has decreed that it should be. The way the religion is set up (by men, for men and for the subjugation of women) the women have little choice. To say they should be free to wear it or not is naïve. They have no choice and no recourse to anybody or anywhere should they wish to exercise such a choice. As for choosing to wear it – what woman, in her right mind, would freely choose to wear such a garment?
“Instead, consider how and why Christianity has been declining in the UK, “
Simple. Because people in the UK and in Western Europe are no longer fearful of the consequences should they fail to comply. Most have realised that there is no afterlife, nothing to be afraid of following death, no Inquisitions scrutinising your behaviour whilst you are alive. As Andy says, being a Christian is like belonging to a golf club. Nobody knows you are a follower, nothing identifies you as such (unless you wear a cross round your neck), no special considerations are made. By contrast Muslims still retain the fears born 1400 years ago because, as Andy says, “Being a Muslim is woven into the fabric of everyday existence, life starts and ends with it, and everything else is of secondary importance.” And as if that were not bad enough, tolerance of other religions (or of none) or even tolerance of different factions within Islam is anathema to most Muslims. It’s not just about the Burqa. Islam, together with all its manifestations – mosques, mullahs, Sharia law, the Burqa, the Niqab, Friday Prayers, polygamy (only for the chaps, natch), misogyny, homophobia, Halal slaughter, the lot - has no place in Western Europe.
It’s no use asking “what’s to be done?” As I have often said, it took Europe 800 years to expel the last invasion of Muslims and with today’s “enlightened” attitudes I can’t see an expulsion being achieved in less time than that. But people don’t have to like having such a repressive and offensive religion in their midst.