Category Archives: Hijab

Burqa bans in all public places have no place in a liberal democracy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writing in the Leicester Mercury, Professor Jill Marshall of the School of Law at the University of Leicester, author of Human Rights Law and Personal Identity, takes issue with the French ban on the face veil:

In 2011 it became a criminal offence to wear face coverings, including the burqa and niqab, in any public place in France. This summer the European Court of Human Rights decided this law did not violate human rights. It interferes with rights to religious freedom of expression and our private life, “personality” or “identity” rights. However, these interferences are justified by the “rights and freedoms of others”: “living together” argued by the French government.

As the two dissenting judges say this is notion is “far-fetched and vague”. It makes a mockery of rights to freedom of expression, religious or otherwise, identity or personality.

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Connecticut Muslims told to remove headscarves at roller rink

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Connecticut woman says a roller rink’s request that she either remove or cover her traditional Muslim head scarf was discriminatory.

Marisol Rodriguez-Colon of Windsor tells WTIC-TV that she and her sister-in-law went to the Ron-A-Roll indoor rink in Vernon on Sunday for her niece’s birthday party. She says inside, a woman who identified herself as a manager, told them they would have to either remove their hijabs or wear helmets. She was told the rink has a policy prohibiting headwear.

Rodriguez-Colon said removing her scarf was “not an option,” and they left.

Rink management issued a statement reiterating the no headwear policy and saying helmets are offered for safety purposes.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations says it has filed a complaint with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

Associated Press, 24 November 2010

See also CTnow.com, 23 November 2010

Update:  See “Connecticut roller rink defends policy on headscarves after Muslim woman complains”, Fox News, 24 November 2010

Let Muslim primary school teachers wear full-face veil in class – Rowan Williams

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rowan_WilliamsThere is no need to “panic” about Muslim primary school teachers wearing the full-face veil in class, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams, has insisted.

He said concerns that young children would struggle to learn from a woman whose face was covered were “largely misplaced” and that there are other ways to “read” what people are saying.

The former Archbishop’s remarks, in an interview for the Christian think-tank Theos, reopen the debate about the place of the niqab in British public life.

It follows a political storm last year after the then Home Office minster Jeremy Browne called for a national discussion about restrictions in some settings such as schools to prevent young women from having the veil “imposed” on them. David Cameron rejected the idea of a ban but said he would “back up” schools and courts that ask women to remove veils.

Lord Williams’s previous forays into the issue of Islam led to one of the biggest crises of his time at Lambeth Palace, when he said in 2008 that it seemed unavoidable that aspects of Sharia law would be adopted in the UK. He was speaking about the growth of arbitration tribunals which already operate on Sharia principles.

His latest remarks come amid an-depth academic discussion about his latest book, The Edge of Words, which examines the meaning of words and language in discussions about God.

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Muslim student’s headscarf torn off as she’s branded ‘terrorist p*ki’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 19-year-old Muslim student was subjected to a sickening racial attack in Piccadilly Gardens yesterday – as her headscarf was torn from her head.

Maryam*, a first-year photojournalism undergraduate at Staffordshire University, was confronted by a group of white girls after expressing her disgust at the way they were treating a beggar.

Yet she was subjected to a torrent of racial and physical abuse by the gang, which left her in tears. The gang shouted: “Go back to your country you f*cking terrorist p*ki, I will bomb your face off.” Then they slapped her face, before pulling her headscarf off and kicking her on the left side on the hips.

“What bothered me was what she said. The words hit me more than the physical attacks,” Maryam said. “You know when you hear these things being said and you get really upset that people are saying these things, but try having someone screaming it to your face. I felt weak. I feel horrible from shock I started crying. My friend, from the shock stood there didn’t know what she was doing.”

The group of girls had initially hit out at a Hijabi beggar, telling her to “go back to your own country” and “if I went to your country and begged for money I would get kidnapped and killed”.

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Woman who had her veil ripped off her face hits out after sheriff allows racist attacker to dodge jail

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shirin Akter and Emiliano Sanchez
Shirin Akter and her attacker Emiliano Sanchez

A mum whose religious veil was ripped off her face in the street last night hit out at the sentence handed to the racist who carried out the attack.

Emiliano Sanchez, 59, confronted Shirin Akter outside a Lidl store and asked her: “Why are you wearing this? This is not the Quran and it is not allowed in this country.” The Spaniard then pulled off her niqab and minutes later said to a Lidl worker: “Did you see that P**i? I told her to take that thing off her head.”

At Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, Sanchez admitted harassing Shirin and acting in a racially aggravated manner towards her in the city last November. Sheriff Alayne Swanson said the offence was “serious enough” for Sanchez to be jailed but instead ordered him to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work in the community.

Mother-of-one Shirin, 32, who wears a full-face niqab in public for religious reasons, said last night: “He should have been sent to jail. The fact that he wasn’t sends out the wrong message to people. Racism is something which shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere.

“I was left scared to go out with my six-year-old daughter and was living in fear of being attacked again. I was afraid every time I went out that it could happen again – it’s not the way people should have to live.

“I was very upset after the attack. I had a full face veil with just my eyes showing. It is important to me because it is my religious faith and I feel comfortable in public with it on.”

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Britain First Rochester election mail leaflet dubbed illegal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Royal Mail has said it will not deliver a leaflet for the right wing party Britain First in the Rochester and Strood by-election because it believes it to be illegal.

The company said it could refuse to carry election mail if it considered the contents threatening or abusive.

The leaflet features a woman wearing a veil with the word “warning” and refers to a campaign against a planned mosque.

Britain First said it had free speech rights and would challenge the move. The party said the leaflet highlighted its key policy – opposition to a new mosque.

Paul Golding, from Britain First, said: “Royal Mail is compelled by law to put out each candidate’s election address. “They’re breaking the law by not putting this out. They’re actually breaking the law and basing it on ‘it may be unlawful’. That’s not good enough.”

When asked whether the leaflet could be seen to be prejudiced against Muslims, he said: “No. Not at all. We’ve just simply said we’re against the mega-mosque. We don’t want it built.”

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FT profiles former far‑leftist turned far‑right Islamophobe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fabien Engelmann du gauchisme au patriotismeThe Financial Times has published a profile by Roula Khalaf of Fabien Engelmann, a leading figure in the Front National who in March this year was elected mayor of Hayange in northeastern France.

Engelmann is described as a “one-time leftist union activist”. But that isn’t the half of it.

He is a former longtime militant in the revolutionary socialist organisation Lutte Ouvrière, which he joined in 2001 and remained a member of until 2008, when he contested the municipal elections as an LO candidate. Engelmann then left LO and joined another far-left organisation, the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste. He broke from the NPA in 2010 in protest at its decision to stand a hijab-wearing Muslim woman candidate, Ilham Moussaïd, in that year’s regional elections.

Having gravitated to the far-right “secularist” organisation Riposte Laïque – led by another ex-Trotskyist, Pierre Cassen – Engelmann joined the FN later in 2010, becoming a member of its political committee and an adviser to Marine Le Pen.

Roula Khalaf writes:

As you would expect, Mr Engelmann has strong views about immigration and the supposedly menacing Islamisation of French society. His problem is the Kosovar and Albanian migrants housed in the town and living on benefits. They are, he says, a “new immigration”, families that produce five to seven children, feed off the French state and want to impose a “middle ages dogma and a religion that is not ours”.

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Far-right ‘anti-burqa’ stunt at Australian parliament

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Australian parliament anti-burqa protestThree anti-burqa protesters have attempted to enter the Australian parliament dressed variously in a Ku Klux Klan hood, a motorbike helmet and a niqab.

The men, members of group called Faceless which has previously protested at other public buildings, cleared the front entrance security checkpoint on Monday, but were asked to remove their head coverings and stayed in the front hall area for only a short time.

Sergio Redegalli, Nick Folkes and Victor Waterson were trying to test parliamentary security rules in Canberra after the presiding officers – the Speaker, Bronwyn Bishop and the Senate president, Stephen Parry, revoked an earlier decision to segregate people with facial coverings in the public galleries.

The group called for a ban on the wearing of the burqa in Australia, claiming the garment was “contrary to women’s rights”.

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‘From Headscarves to Football Scarves’ visit Emirates Stadium

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Headscarves to Football Scarves at Emirates Stadium

The Luton-based initiative ‘From Headscarves to Football Scarves’ went on a trip to Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium last Saturday.

Organiser of the event, Butch Fazal, said: “It was superb, we had a great time and the girls were blown away by being pitchside.”

The group has big plans for the future, not just limited to more stadium trips for Luton girls.

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Melbourne: Muslim woman suffers broken arm in racist attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Abrar Ahmed with her motherA Muslim woman is nursing a broken arm after being pushed onto a road in an unprovoked racist attack in Melbourne’s north.

The attack occurred outside a Lalor shopping centre in the middle of a weekday earlier this month. The 48-year-old woman, who was wearing a hijab and a “long Islamic dress”, had been shopping at Lalor Plaza and was on her way home when she was attacked. The woman’s daughter, Abrar Ahmed, saw the incident unfold from her car.

“A man approached my mum and said, ‘You Muslims, go back to where you came from’,” Ms Ahmed said. “As my mum turned around to see who was yelling at her in such a disgusting way, she saw this really big guy. He pushed her on the ground, she landed in the middle of the road. When she fell on the ground she broke her arm. She heard her bone crack.”

Ms Ahmed, who organised a recent protest against racism in the CBD, said attacks like the one on her mother were not uncommon. “A lot of other Muslim women, they have been going through worse assaults, they are being attacked in very different ways and they don’t have the courage to speak out.”

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