I work for a security company (I won't name) in a mall. If it were up to us we would ban the hoodies. It isn't out of meanness or "conservatism" but because the youths wearing the hoodies scare the bejesus out of the folks that actually spend the money at the mall. Hoodies (not the sports style), with the hood up over a ballcap, distort the body shape making the person look bigger, taller and more aggressive. As mentioned before some of the prints on them are deliberately "scary" or bear markings that espouse "gang" activity (guns, knives, brass knuckles, etc.)

Although Burkas (or their equivalent) were used to smuggle weapons and other materials in the first gulf war by Kuwaiti women and although we have recently seen a spate of female suicide bombers in Iraq, the Burka itself doesn't seem to bother the shoppers in our area. The DC area is highly mixed culturally so it isn't rare or threatening.

Luckily for us the mall is private property. It doesn't matter your religion or fashion sense. If the general populace is threatened or intimidated by your behavior or appearance we can ask you to leave/force you to leave.

Usually as long as a person isn't breaking any laws we'll leave them alone.

As far as going after the easy target, the boys wearing the hoodies are much more likely to decide to fight. We don't allow bandanas (known as "colors")to be worn in the mall at all because of previous gang problems.