Category Archives: Hijab

Canada: face veils banned for citizenship oaths

Posted on by Bob Pitt

LEBANON MPSThe government is placing a ban on face coverings such as niqabs for people swearing their oath of citizenship, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday. The ban takes effect immediately.

As a result, Muslim women will have to remove their niqabs or any other face-covering garments, such as burkas, before they can recite the oath of citizenship to become Canadians. Citizenship judges will be directed to enforce the rules at ceremonies over which they preside.

It’s a “public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly,” he said, calling it “frankly, bizarre” that women were allowed to wear face veils while they swear their citizenship oaths.

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Newly elected New Zealand MP calls for ban on veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Richard Prosser (2)The New Zeland press has been covering the political philosophy of Richard Prosser, one of the eight New Zealand First candidates elected to parliament in the recent elections.

In addition to bringing back military service and arming taxi drivers (“His views sound like those of a redneck to me”, the director of the Taxi Federation responds) Prosser proposes a ban on the “burqa”.

His message to veiled Muslim women is: “This is my culture and my country, not yours. Get some respect and conform.”

Sweden: first police cadet with a headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Donna Eljammal

Donna Eljammal (26) is Sweden’s first police cadet with a headscarf. She had wanted to join the police long before she started wearing a hijab.

“Ever since I was little. I want to help others and move instead of just sitting in front of a computer.”

A few years ago it became possible to wear a headscarf or turban as part of the police uniform, after some debate.

Islam in Europe, 5 December 2011

See also The Local, 6 December 2011

And Polis Tidningen, 30 November 2011

Muslim woman, 52, racially abused by Telford gang

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim woman was spat at and abused by a gang of six teenagers in Telford who pulled off her religious headdress in a racially motivated attack.

The gang, who were all male, surrounded the 52-year-old woman and started aggressively pushing and shoving her as she walked along a footpath by the skate park near William Reynolds Infant School in Woodside on Tuesday. Chris Ammonds, spokesman for Telford police, said the woman was abused between 6pm and 6.20pm.

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Australia: new initiatives to combat anti-Muslim hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims are being urged to report hate crimes under a special disaster plan to deal with the fallout from terrorist attacks. Under the Muslim Emergency Management Plan, backed by the state and federal governments, Victorians will be given advice on how to react to anti-Muslim incidents, even if they are considered minor.

Muslim victims of abuse are encouraged to save evidence, take photos and report any incident to police and their local mosque or Islamic organisation. And in another initiative, Victoria Police is introducing new strategy to deal with violence and threats motivated by prejudice.

It comes amid growing concern over inter-racial tensions in Melbourne’s suburbs and against the backdrop of fears of further terrorist attacks that could strain relations further.

Police are being asked to develop databases on crime motivated by race or religion, so that offenders can be prosecuted. The “prejudice-motivated crime strategy” focuses on crimes linked to race, religion, sex, age, disability or homelessness.

Muslims told the Herald Sun they faced increasing abuse on the streets because of their religion. “A lot of women get yelled at and told ‘Go home’, or ‘There’s no place for you here’, especially women wearing the burqa,” a Muslim source said. “It happens in shopping centres, at the park or just when you are walking along in the street.”

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Bakery that refused headscarf-wearing Muslim woman a job denies discrimination against husband

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Country Style Foods GrimsbyA Grimsby bakery – found to have discriminated against a headscarf-wearing Muslim woman on religious grounds – is asking top judges to block a similar case being brought by her husband.

Country Style Foods Limited was ordered to pay Latvian-born Anastasija Bouzir about £7,000 in compensation following an employment tribunal’s ruling that it failed to offer her a job at its bread factory in Wickham Road, after she wore a Muslim headscarf to her interview.

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Ontario: suspended sentence in niqab assault case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A woman who pleaded guilty to assault after pulling off a Muslim woman’s face veil at a Mississauga, Ont., shopping mall was given a suspended sentence on Friday.

Rosemarie Creswell pleaded guilty to assault after mall security footage showed her pulling off Inas Kadri’s traditional face veil, known as a niqab, at Sheridan Centre in Mississauga in August 2010. Kadri was with her two small children when the attack occurred.

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Ontario: woman has niqab pulled off in assault

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim woman from Mississauga, Ont., who had her niqab pulled from her face at a local mall, says her young children no longer feel secure with only her nearby.

Inas Kadri, whose assault at Sheridan Centre in Mississauga was caught on a security camera, spoke to CBC News on Tuesday as she awaits the sentencing of the woman who attacked her.

Kadri was shopping with her three-year-old son and two-year-old daughter when she was approached by two women. One of the women began swearing at her, about her religion and her veil, telling her, “Leave our country. Go back to your country,” Kadri said.

The woman can be seen in the video grabbing Kadri’s veil and pulling her off-camera. The attacker walked away while Kadri ran for help.

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Drunk abused Muslim woman in headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A mother-of-three ­racially abused a ­Muslim woman before spitting in the face of a police officer, a court has heard.

India McConnell, of Netley Road, Newbury Park, stood in front of a woman wearing a burka before shouting a racist slur and telling her to “go home”. Redbridge Magistrates’ Court heard the 27-year-old had been drinking the previous day and all night before the incident at 8.45am in Ilford Lane at its junction with Winston Way on October 4.

In a statement read out by the prosecution lawyer, a witness said Miss McConnell pulled up her top mimicking the ­woman’s head scarf before shouting the abuse. The witness said the woman was with four children, two in prams, who were “horrified”. He asked why she was shouting to which she ­replied: “This is England. She should go back home.”

He said she was becoming confrontational and she tried to get him into a side road. Fearing for his safety he called police. On seeing police Miss McConnell ran off through the car park of the Exchange Ilford, the court heard on Thursday. She was detained and arrested by Pc Simon Jackson and taken to Barkingside Police Station in a van. She had been kicking the door and when it was opened by Mr Jackson she remained aggressive and spat in his face, magistrates were told.

Miss McConnell pleaded guilty to using racially aggravated threatening and abusive words or ­behaviour but insisted she was not racist. She was bailed and will be sentenced on December 1.

Ilford Recorder, 14 November 2011

Via ENGAGE