Category Archives: Hijab

Media: ‘Muslim woman = ruthless gunman’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

WPC Killer“The sharp differences in how the papers reacted to the verdict in the trial of the killers of policewoman Sharon Beshinivsky this week exposed the media’s vicious racism and Islamophobia. After all, it’s tough being a newspaper editor. Should we use page 1 to bash the Muslims, or the asylum seekers? Decisions, decisions…”

Media Workers Against the War examine press coverage of the baseless story about a suspected murderer fleeing the country disguised as a Muslim woman in a veil.

They conclude: “The truth is that the Times, Express, Sun and Guardian seized on the flimsiest of hints of a story in order to fill their pages with anti-Muslim bile.”

MWAW website, 22 December 2006

‘Can you spot the villain in the veil?’ asks Daily Star

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Can You Spot the Villain“Can you go one better than Britain’s security staff and spot the villain in the veil?” the Daily Star asks its readers.

“Ministers are facing a storm of criticism after resisting calls for routine checks on anyone wearing one while boarding a plane in the UK. That went against the wishes of an overwhelming 99% of Daily Star readers, who voted in our poll yesterday that Muslims should be forced to remove veils before boarding a plane.

“The outrage follows the astonishing revelation that a Muslim asylum seeker had hidden under a veil to escape justice over the killing of policewoman Sharon Beshinivsky, 38. Somalian Mustaf Jama, 26, skipped security at Heathrow as he jetted out of the UK to his homeland by donning a woman’s niqab. His brother Yusuf Abdillh, 20, was convicted earlier this week of murdering Pc Beshenivsky in Bradford in November last year.

“Jama’s escape has highlighted the poor state of Britain’s airport security and raised fears that political correctness is preventing full checks from being carried out on veiled passengers. But despite the public outrage, the Goverenment is refusing to order checks on ALL veiled passengers.

“To prove how tough this makes identification, we have veiled up some of the world’s most notorious criminals, plus a few famous faces. Can you tell the goodies from the baddies?”

‘Off with the veil at UK airports’ says Sun

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Sun today launches a campaign to close the veil loophole making a mockery of Britain’s airport security. We told yesterday how a member of the gang which killed WPC Sharon Beshenivsky sneaked out of Heathrow by donning a Muslim niqab, with just a slit for eyes. Now we are calling on Home Secretary John Reid to turn passport control at every airport in the country into a veil-free zone.“

Sun, 21 December 2006

Murder suspect may have fled in pantomime horse outfit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pantomime horseDetectives said on Wednesday that a man wanted for questioning over the murder of a female police officer could have fled the country disguised as a Muslim woman wearing a full veil.

Mustaf Jama, 26, is thought by police to have escaped to his native Somalia at the end of last year after passing through security checks at Heathrow Airport wearing a niqab and using his sister’s passport, according to newspaper reports.

Muslim groups accused the media of Islamophobia by raising the controversial subject of the veil without any real evidence.

Asked whether Mustaf Jama had used a full Muslim veil to evade checks, a spokesman for West Yorkshire police said: “It’s a possibility. He could have been wearing a pantomime horse outfit as well. But until we get him, we won’t know for sure.”

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Scarf race rap

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A drunk repeatedly ordered a Muslim woman to remove her hijab headscarf, a court heard yesterday. When frightened Majida Oweti – on a bus with her husband and baby – refused, Gavin Bowers threatened to rip it off. He was thrown off by the driver but made throat-slitting gestures to the woman.

Bowers, 28, earlier admitted religiously aggravated harassment. He got a 28-week suspended sentence and two years supervision at Southampton Crown Court.

The Sun, 19 December 2006

Mad Mel on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

madmel“One of the lethal confusions generated by the multicultural paralysis is the reluctance to acknowledge ideological weapons being deployed against the free world which masquerade as religious piety”, Melanie Phillips tells us.

And yes, she does mean the veil. She refers us to an interview with Chahdortt Djavann which “explains how the veil is an Islamist symbol which plays a role analogous to the use of the swastika by Nazism”.

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 18 December 2006

Racist BNP foiled over school ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

bnp-islam-posterBritish National Party councillors have been branded a “bunch of racists” after they attempted to ban halal meat from borough schools in Barking & Dagenham. Jeanne Alexander, the borough’s executive councillor for children services, made the outburst as the assembly examined a raft of controversial proposals tabled by the far right party.

Councillors were asked to consider banning halal meat from schools, Islamic headdress from public buildings and flying the union flag throughout the year. But the 12 BNP councillors elected to the council earlier this year did not have enough political weight to push through any of the proposals last week. All of their 12 motions were either defeated or amended beyond recognition by the Labour party.

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‘Speaking on our own terms’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Muslim women are fast becoming the battleground on which the future of Islam and Muslims in the UK and beyond is being fought. At his much-anticipated speech on the future of multiculturalism last Friday, Tony Blair recommended that the Equal Opportunities Commission open an official investigation into the kind of access women are given in Britain’s mosques. This of course was said in the same breath as he reiterated his support for Jack Straw’s now stale remarks on the face veil and announced sanctimoniously that face veils ought to be removed in jobs where to face-to-face communication is required.”

Q-News editor Fareena Alam at Comment is Free, 13 December 2006

Blair stirs up Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“On his return from Washington, Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a speech to a selected audience at his Downing Street residence. The subject of his remarks was not the criticisms made by the Iraq Study Group of US – and by implication British – foreign policy failures in Iraq. Instead he sought to deflect any examination of his criminal war policy by launching yet another provocative attack on Muslims….

“In a blatant infringement of religious and cultural liberties, Blair made clear his support for restrictions on the Muslim veil and implied his backing for the sacking of Aishah Azmi, a Muslim teaching assistant, for refusing to remove her veil in the classroom. ‘It really is a matter of plain common sense that when it is an essential part of someone’s work to communicate directly with people, being able to see their face is important’, he said.

“As to ‘equality’ for all citizens, this was further belied by Blair’s announcement that the Equal Opportunities Commission is to look at restrictions on women in place in some mosques. But he made no suggestion that some Anglican and Evangelical churches be subject to similar inquiries for their opposition to the ordination of women priests and their campaign against homosexual rights legislation, let alone the Catholic Church.”

World Socialist Web Site, 12 December 2006

US right-winger provides advice on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Under the heading “Britain confronts militant Islam”, a writer for the US right-wing/neocon NRO offers his take on current debates in the UK over multiculturalism. Regarding the veil he observes:

“If this wretched garment, in at least its more stringent forms, has more to do with misogyny than piety, so the hostility it provokes owes less to outraged feminism than to the mounting unease felt by many Europeans at the presence of the increasingly assertive and increasingly extremist Islam rising within their midst…. there is something about the very appearance of the veil (and I am here referring to the burka and the only marginally less appalling nikab, a get-up that generously allows a clear view of the wearer’s eyes) that is alien, dehumanizing, and, in the context of Europe’s current troubles, thoroughly ominous. Little more than walking shrouds, these women seem like the harbingers both of future theocracy and the slaughter that comes in its wake.”

As for the suggestion that racial hatred legislation should be adequately reinforced in order to defend Muslims: “That’s madness. That’s cowardice. That’s appeasement.”

National Review Online, 11 December 2006