Category Archives: Hijab

South Shields woman jailed for drunken attack on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A drunken mum is behind bars today after a shocking race-hate attack – in which she pretended her child had been killed in Afghanistan.

Michelle Eager tried to pull off Zakir Mohammed’s religious headgear before spitting at her and then hitting the 24-year-old in the face. The 41-year-old, who was hurling foul abuse, then turned on Mrs Mohammed’s 17-year-old niece, Atif Khan, and also hit her in the face.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that Eager, who was drunk, yelled at the women “you are from Afghanistan – you are not in Afghanistan now”. She then told them her son had been killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan – which was a lie.

Continue reading →

Baby, 18 months old, ordered off plane at Fort Lauderdale airport

Posted on by Bob Pitt

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Eighteen-month-old Riyanna has been called a lot of things: cute, adorable and now … a suspected terrorist.

She was called that on Tuesday night at the Ft Lauderdale Airport. She and her parents had just boarded a JetBlue flight when an airline employee approached them and asked them to get off the plane, saying representatives from the Transportation Security Agency wanted to speak to them.

“And I said, ‘For what?'” Riyanna’s mother told only WPBF 25 News on Wednesday. “And he said, ‘Well, it’s not you or your husband. Your daughter was flagged as no fly.’ I said, ‘Excuse me?'”

Rihanna’s father was flabbergasted. “It’s absurd,” he said. “It made no sense. Why would an 18-month-old child be on a no-fly list?”

Continue reading →

Man arrested for attack on Muslim woman in Solihull

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Shirley man has been summoned to appear at Solihull Magistrates Court after he allegedly ripped a veil from a Muslim woman’s face in Touchwood.

Police reported that Ian Brazier, 26, had grabbed the victim, also 26, by her head and removed her face covering as she walked past the Disney store, on March 3. It’s alleged that he then threw the veil to the floor and left the shopping centre. A Solihull Police spokesman said the woman had not been physically harmed but was left severely shaken by the incident.

Continue reading →

Muslim woman wins $5 million punitive damages from AT&T for discrimination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Susann BashirA Kansas City woman who converted from Christianity to Islam has been awarded $5 million in punitive damages by a jury who found the telecommunications giant AT&T created a “hostile work environment” after her conversion, according to a judge’s order issued Friday.

Susann Bashir, a 41-year-old married mother, sued AT&T unit Southwestern Bell for what she said was a pattern of offensive and discriminatory conduct by her supervisors that began when she converted to Islam in 2005, six years after she started working for the company as a network technician.

After Bashir started wearing a religious head scarf known as a hijab, and attending Friday mosque services, her managers and co-workers called her names including “terrorist,” and told her she was going to hell, said her attorney Amy Coopman. A manager repeatedly told her to remove her hijab, insulted her for wearing it, and once physically grabbed Bashir and tried to rip the hijab off her head, according to the suit.

Continue reading →

Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein honoured for campaign to overturn FIFA hijab ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MWSF Awards 2FIFA’s youngest vice-president, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein has been honoured for his efforts to overturn the ban on the hijab in football at the inaugural Muslim Women’s Sport Foundation (MWSF) Ambassador Awards, held at Wembley Stadium last night.

Prince Ali, elected in January 2011 and FIFA’s youngest ever Executive Committee member, was given a Special Recognition Award for his achievements and contribution to Muslim women’s sport.

Continue reading →

Now deal with Wilders has collapsed Dutch minister says ‘burqa ban’ law is no longer needed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Outgoing interior minister Liesbeth Spies says the burqa ban she helped prepare can be scrapped along with a proposed ban on holding dual citizenship.

Now that the cabinet has fallen, she says she “wouldn’t shed a tear” if parliament were to scrap the controversial Freedom Party-sponsored bill. “Now the cabinet has fallen, there’s no longer any payoff,” she told national daily de Volkskrant on Wednesday.

Continue reading →

Hijab in Brussels schools: ban may spread

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Le Soir reports that two secondary schools in Brussels are considering banning the hijab.

In 2008, despite a petition with 4,000 signatures objecting to the change in policy, the Institut des Ursulines in Molenbeek decided to ban the headscarf. Since then only 4 out of 98 secondary schools in the city have allowed Muslim pupils to wear the headscarf.

Now two of them, the Institut des Filles de Marie in Saint Gilles and the Athénée Alfred Verwée in Schaerbeek, are considering changing their rules and imposing a ban.

Hollande says he’ll retain French veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France’s socialist presidential candidate says that, if elected, he won’t seek to overturn a law banning face-covering Muslim veils enacted by President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives.

François Hollande, who leads Sarkozy in all polls, and most other Socialists abstained from the 2010 vote in the National Assembly to ban mesh-screen burqas and niqabs – which have slits for the eyes.

On RTL radio Friday, Hollande said he would keep the ban, but “have it applied in the best way.” He did not elaborate.

Controversy surrounded the law that took effect last year. Muslim leaders say it unfairly stigmatizes Muslims. Supporters insist it helps defend France’s secular state. Only a tiny number of women wear the veils.

The presidential election runoff is May 6.

Associated Press, 27 April 2012

Dutch ‘burqa ban’ may go after government falls

Posted on by Bob Pitt

With the collapse of the Dutch centre-right government, the Netherlands may now drop some of its most eye-popping proposals aimed at Muslims and other immigrants and could soften its strong anti-immigration rhetoric.

A ban on Muslim face veils, such as the Arabic-style niqabs that leave the eyes uncovered and Afghan-style burqas that cover the face with a cloth grid, is less likely to go ahead after the government collapsed at the weekend.

Continue reading →

Amnesty International finds bias against European Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Amnesty InternationalA new report from Amnesty International has found that some European Muslims are regularly denied employment and educational opportunities because of widespread cultural and religious stereotypes that lead to discrimination against them.

The report, titled “Choice and Prejudice: Discrimination Against Muslims in Europe“, examines the lives of Muslims in Switzerland, France, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands. It found that individuals who wear specific forms of dress, like a head scarf, or other symbols associated with Islam, do worse with jobs and schooling because of prejudicial attitudes and legal impunity in these European states.

Continue reading →