Empty bus seats mistaken for women wearing burqas [View all]

Last week, a photograph that appeared to show six women wearing burqas on a bus sparked a heated debate in a private Facebook group for Norwegians critical of immigration. For many members of the group, which is called “Fedrelandet viktigst” or “Fatherland first,” the image encapsulated the problems Norway was facing after an influx of Muslim immigrants in the past few years. It also played into a continent-wide debate about Islamic dress across Europe. Norway's right-wing government recently proposed a law that would ban some forms of dress worn by Muslim women in schools and universities — the first Scandinavian country to do so.

Some group members took the picture — posted with the comment, “what do people think of this?" — as proof that a ban was needed. More than 100 soon commented on it...However, when you look at the photograph above more closely, it may become apparent that the photo itself is irrelevant to any debate about Islam in Norway. Why?

Well, those are not burqas.



They're bus seats.

Johan Slattavik, the user who initially posted the photographs to Fedrelandet viktigst, told WorldViews in a Facebook message that he had been bored one night so he decided to play “a little practical joke.” Slattavik said he was curious to see how people would react. “I laid out the photo to see what happened,” he said, adding that he was shocked so many people fell for it. “I ended up having a good laugh,” Slattavik said.

Norway is one of a number of countries in Europe that has proposed laws that restrict the wearing of burqas and niqabs, but these restrictions have faced criticism from those who say they further isolate Muslim immigrants. After Germany proposed a ban on full-face veils last year, some German journalists argued that burqas and niqabs were worn by only a tiny fraction of Muslims in the country...