Category Archives: Women

Assembly for the Protection of Hijab concerned by anti-hijab propaganda

Posted on by Bob Pitt

prohijab_logoIn the wake of the July 7th attacks in London, there has been a sharp rise in attacks against Muslim women in Hijab who are visible and vulnerable targets. This has lead a small minority of Commentators to attack the Hijab and label it a traditional Arabian dress rather than an edict of religious code, thus in their view unnecessary.

There can be no doubt about the obligation of Hijab in Islam. The Islamic scholars world-wide unanimously agree on this. Protect-Hijab is concerned by the manner in which the attacks in London are being unashamedly used as a smokescreen by individuals to attack aspects of the Islamic faith to serve individual agendas.

While we all remain concerned about the well-being of our fellow Muslim women, we reject calls by a tiny fraction of scholars who call for the removal of the Hijab in defence against attacks on Muslim women. Britain is a place of tolerance and Protect-Hijab feels it is necessary now more than ever to educate society on the issue of the Hijab, rather than submitting to the threat emanating from some misguided members of our society who blame all Muslims for terrorism.

Assembly for the Protection of Hijab press release, 29 July 2005

‘When will you Brits wake up?’ French journalist asks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“In the ten years I have lived in London, I often wondered when it would happen. I don’t mean when British-born suicide bombers would blow themselves up, killing dozens of their fellow citizens – I would never have thought that possible – but rather, when British multiculturalism would finally show its inherent weaknesses.

“France and Britain have always had opposite views and policies about foreigners and their integration into society. British people often fail to understand the underlying principles of the French approach, prefering to brand it as intolerance, or even blatant racism – as, for example in the recent headscarf ban.”

Agnes Poirier of the French “leftist” newspaper Libération – who goes on to argue that “The message to Muslims has been, in effect, that it is all right for them to be a separate country-within-a-country” – joins the right-wing campaign to blame the London bombings on multiculturalism.

Evening Standard, 29 July 2005

Take off hijab to avoid harm: UK Muslim scholar

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Zaki BadawiA leading British Muslim scholar has said that Muslim women living in the European country, where Muslims have been suffering mounting abuse and harassment since the July 7 London attacks, can take off their hijab.

“I have issued a fatwa that Muslim women in Britain have an Islamic right to take off their hijab at this point of time if attacked or fearing to be attacked,” Dr. Zaki Badawi, the Dean of the Muslim College in London, told IslamOnline.net over the phone from the British capital.

Badawi said they have registered more than 1500 assaults against hijab-clad women during the past three days only, in addition to a flood of threat letters.

He asserted that in Islam hijab is originally meant to identify Muslim women, so that they might not be attacked or harassed. The scholar cited the Qur’anic verse which reads: “O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognized and not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.” (Al-Ahzab: 59)

“If hijab becomes a reason of harm for Muslim women in Britain at this time, then I tell them to take it off so that they would not be recognized and consequently attacked,” said Egyptian-born Badawi. “Muslims (in Britain) are scared and each feels he/she is a suspect. The picture is, indeed, gloomy and we are trying all we can to address it.”

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Fascists propose to ‘protect Britain from Islamic terror’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Protecting Britain from Islamic terror isn’t rocket science”, the BNP announces, “but it will take the courage to throw political correctness where it belongs – in the litter-bin of history. And the day when that happens is getting closer. In the days since the start of the terror campaign, BNP activists all over Britain have been working harder than ever to spread the message that the Muslim terror threat has its roots in bad political decisions made by successive Labour and Tory governments. Now is the time to make people understand that the only chance they have of a return to safety and security is to get rid of the politicians who have brought us ‘diversity’ and death.”

Proposals include ethnic profiling of suspects, an instant halt to immigration from Muslim countries, banning the veil (“What is the point of having CCTV cameras if terrorists can disguise themselves as the wives of Muslim fundamentalists and prowl our streets undetected behind veils and hoods?”), deporting illegal migrants, and sacking all Muslims “studying chemistry, biology and computer communications in our universities, or working in jobs giving them access to installations such as water treatment plants”.

BNP news article, 26 July 2005

Lords to rule on Muslim clothes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The case of a girl excluded from school for wearing Muslim dress is set to be heard in the House of Lords. Shabina Begum, 16, won a landmark ruling in March when the appeal court upheld her right to wear the jilbab, which leaves only the hands and eyes exposed. The court ruled that the ban breached human rights. The school, Denbigh High in Luton, Bedfordshire, has now won leave to take the case to the Lords and the governors are due to decide within the next few days whether to go ahead. The case could set a precedent for schools and Muslim children across Britain.

Sunday Times, 24 July 2005

Qaradawi – advocate of democracy and women’s rights

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi2“Al-Qaradawi has written at least 50 books attempting to reconcile Islam with democracy and human rights and he is one of the most important proponents of women’s rights in contemporary Islam. All this is utterly at odds with the teachings of fundamentalist imams, who see democracy and women’s rights as alien concepts imported from the infidel West. He practises what he preaches: his three daughters are highly educated. Each one holds a doctoral degree in the natural sciences, drives and works.”

Hugh Miles, author of the excellent Al-Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World, provides an accurate assessment of Dr al-Qaradawi in, of all places, the Daily Telegraph. This message is obviously not to the liking of the Telegraph‘s editorial staff, who head the article “Two faces of one of Islam’s most important clerics” and append a number of quotes from Qaradawi, drawn from MEMRI and other sources, which are designed to portray him as an extremist.

Daily Telegraph, 20 July 2005

‘The real suicide bomb is multiculturalism’ says Mark Steyn

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“It was the Prime Minister’s wife, you’ll recall, who last year won a famous court victory for Shabina Begum, as a result of which schools across the land must now permit students to wear the full ‘jilbab’ – ie, Muslim garb that covers the entire body except the eyes and hands. Ms Booth hailed this as ‘a victory for all Muslims who wish to preserve their identity and values despite prejudice and bigotry’. It seems almost too banal to observe that such an extreme preservation of Miss Begum’s Muslim identity must perforce be at the expense of any British identity…. Is it ‘bigoted’ to argue that the jilbab is a barrier to acquiring the common culture necessary to any functioning society?”

Mark Steyn takes up the apparently endless right-wing refrain that the London bombings were due to multiculturalism and the failure to impose a uniform “British” (read: white majority) culture on all citizens.

Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2005

Drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay speaks out

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HitchensChristopher Hitchens joins in the attack on Galloway: “By George Galloway’s logic, British squaddies in Iraq are the root cause of dead bodies at home. How can anyone bear to be so wicked and stupid? How can anyone bear to act as a megaphone for psychotic killers?”

So, if the atrocities weren’t motivated by the British government’s participation in Bush’s wars of imperialist aggression, what grievances did lie behind them? Christopher explains:

“The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won’t abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art…. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.”

Daily Mirror, 8 July 2005

Muslim leaders join condemnation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim leaders have condemned the terror attacks on London and called for full co-operation with police.
Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Inayat Bunglawala called on worshippers to pray for victims at Friday prayers.

And Ahmed Sheikh, president of the Muslim Association of Britain, said he feared a backlash and added that the Muslim community would feel less safe. He warned that Muslims, especially women in headscarves, might fall prey to vigilante attacks..

BBC News, 7 July 2005

See also Islam Online, 7 July 2005

Muslim woman sues real estate company, alleges discrimination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

scarfsuit9.jpgAn Orlando Muslim woman is suing a Florida real estate company for religious discrimination after being told she could not wear a head scarf and long sleeves at work.

Danine Hammond, 27, said the office manager of Chapel Trace Apartments in east Orange County told her she couldn’t wear her hijab, a head scarf donned by some Muslim women.

Hammond is suing the Miami-based Housing Trust Management Co., which owns the complex, under Florida’s Civil Rights Act and requesting that the company compensate her for lost pay and benefits, punitive and compensatory damages, and legal fees, according to the lawsuit.

“I feel I have the right to work here in the U.S., and I shouldn’t have to compromise my religion,” Hammond said during a news conference Wednesday at the entrance to the complex, where she lives.

Orlando Sentinel, 23 June 2005

Robert Spencer offers this as an example of the “clash of civilizations”.

Dhimmi Watch, 1 July 2005

Over at Militant Islam Monitor, they’re convinced that it’s another CAIR-inspired plot to destroy western society.

Militant Islam Monitor, 24 June 2005