Category Archives: Hijab

Muslim mothers protest against French education minister’s demand that they leave hijab at home

Posted on by Bob Pitt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbEn3hF7b_g

Angry Muslim mothers and rights groups in France rally against a controversial proposal that bans Muslim moms from taking part in their children’s extracurricular activities at school.

Protesters chanted slogans against French Education Minister Luc Chatel, who has asked Muslim mothers that want to accompany their children on field trips to leave home their veils, whether they are the version that also covers the face or the simple headscarves.

With chants of “Mothers excluded, children humiliated”, the female demonstrators criticized the French government for what they described as controlling their lives and their children’s education, a Press TV correspondent reported Monday.

In 2004, France banned students from wearing Islamic shawls but the official anti-discrimination body now says the ban applies only to students and not their parents.

There is concern that a vaguely-worded decree would ultimately prevent women that wear the Islamic headdress from even entering the school or lead to humiliations that render them second-class citizens.

The protesters argue that the proposal fuels Islamophobia and flies in the face of women’s rights. “It’s always women they point their finger at. In 2004, it was a young girl who was expelled from school and today it’s their mothers,” said N’della Paye with Feminists for Equality Collective.

The recent development follows efforts by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to pass anti-Muslim laws, including the recent burqa ban, to seek re-election by gaining the support of the National Front, some observers believe.

Most teachers welcome the participation of parents in school activities with open arms. However, many mothers wonder whether the message being conveyed is that Muslims are a bad influence on children.

Press TV, 3 May 2011

Belgium moves closer to banning veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Belgium has taken a major step toward banning burqa-type Islamic dress in public when its lower house of parliament overwhelmingly backed the measure.

After Thursday’s approval, the senate still has several weeks to decide whether to put the bill up for further discussion and another vote.

The Belgian legislature already came close to approving such legislation last year, but the process was held up at the last moment when the governing coalition collapsed.

On Thursday, the bill was approved by an overwhelming majority of 136-1 and two abstentions.

Associated Press, 28 April 2011

Update:  See also the statement by the far-right alliance, Cities Against Islamisation, which declares itself “satisfied with Burka ban in Belgium”. Its chairman, Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang, is quoted as saying: “Burka ban is just the first step, the recognition and subsidising of Islam in Belgium has to be revoked. Islam doesn’t belong on European soil.”

The statement adds: “The vote also illustrates once again the pioneering role that parties like the Vlaams Belang and others play. Cities Against Islamisation hopes the burka ban in Belgium may lead to the reduction and forcing back of Islam. After this first symbolic victory the next step is to undo the recognition and subsidizing of Islam. Islam is a totalitarian conquestial religion, a threat to our European values and our western way of life.”

Gang of schoolgirls attack Muslim woman wearing headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A gang of schoolgirls attacked a Muslim woman after mocking her for wearing a headscarf. Four teenage girls, two wearing school uniform, kicked and knocked the woman to the ground before trying to remove the item of religious dress during the incident in North Cheam between 7pm and 9pm on Wednesday, April 13.

The 26-year-old was walking along Stonecot Hill towards London Road, near the territorial army centre, when she noticed she was being followed by the girls, who were teasing her about her headscarf. One of the girls kicked her, before she crossed the road in an attempt to get away. The girls caught up with the victim, kicked her again, and during a struggle to remove the victim’s headscarf, kicked her again after she fell to the ground.

The attackers fled after a car pulled over to help the woman. The driver then took the woman home.

Police are now appealing for information to catch those responsible. One of the girls is described as 5ft 7in tall, of medium build with long blonde hair extending to her mid-back, and wearing a white shirt and navy skirt school uniform. Another wearing the same uniform was 5ft 6in tall, with dyed red hair. A third is described as Eastern European in appearance with small eyes.

Anyone with information should call Sutton Police Station on 0300 123 1212 and ask for the Community Safety Unit quoting reference number 4004250/11.

Sutton Guardian, 21 April 2011

The ‘Islamification’ of Tower Hamlets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scaremongering about the threat of “Islamification” facing the east London borough of Tower Hamlets has been popular in the right-wing press since Andrew Gilligan’s witch-hunting Channel 4 documentary Britain’s Islamic Republic was broadcast last year. Several papers this week have published articles on that theme.

Continue reading →

Scotland and the veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

When a gang of youths launched a terrifying attack on a young Scottish Muslim family in broad daylight, the victims were left in no doubt about why they were targeted: the veil. Glasgow-born Samina Ansari and her loved ones were assaulted because she was wearing a traditional Islamic hijab, which covers the hair, but not the face.

It happened last year, when Ansari, her husband and their baby were driving along a main road. The gang, armed with bricks and chains and accompanied by a snarling dog, surrounded the car, shouting “get the Paki bastards” and “go back to your own country”, before attempting to smash the car windows.

Samina locked the doors while her husband frantically dialled 999, fearing for the safety of the baby in the back seat. One man brought the chain down on to the windscreen, while another tried to smash in through the passenger window. Luckily, the young Muslim mother was able to speed off when the men moved away from the front of the car.

“It was racist,” she said. “But it was also Islamophobic. It only lasted a minute-and-a-half, but the trauma lingered for months. I felt too scared to go out walking with my baby in a pram. It was horrible.”

The trauma of the attack pushed Samina into launching a campaign to educate the Scottish public about the veil and Muslim women’s decision to wear it. She accepts she faces an uphill struggle. Across Europe, hostility is growing against this most visible sign of Islamic faith, with many seeing it as provocative and political, or a sign of male oppression and the subservience of women.

Samina Ansari and the charity she works for, Amina Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, have made a documentary, Hijab – The Light Behind the Veil, to promote their reasons for wearing the hijab and describing the prejudice they face for donning a veil on a day-to-day basis.

At the launch of the film, politicians, police officers and community leaders gathered to watch it in the hope of gaining a greater understanding of Muslim women’s faith. The film will be distributed to public bodies to help teach state officials about the veil in the words of Islamic women.

Sunday Herald, 17 April 2011

Unfortunately, presumably in the interest of “balance”, the report finds it necessary to quote mad Maryam Namazie of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran on the veil:

“Is wearing it a choice for women, given you have an Islamic movement gaining political power and making it compulsory wherever they can? … I think the full-face-covering niqab should be banned. We also need to stand up to Islamism’s demands to restrict rights for citizens in society.”

Racist leaflets delivered to residents of Cumbrian town

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A leading anti-fascist campaigner has slammed a racist leaflet delivered to homes in Millom. The leaflet refers to the Muslim burka, a veiled dress traditionally worn by women, as a “black crow like tent” and describes the British Government as “treacherous”.

Paul Jenkins, chairman of Unite Against Fascism north west, said: “Whoever is getting this sort of thing out there is completely unacceptable. In the same way in the 1930s Hitler’s Nazis targeted Jews, now far right groups and others are trying to scapegoat Muslims. Muslims are not to blame for the cuts or other problems. Our communities are better united than divided.”

Sergeant Ashley Bennett of Copeland Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “We have been made aware of several leaflets being posted through doors in the Millom area over the last week. They read like they have been written by a person of Islamic faith however upon closer examination they appear to be spoof in nature.

“They have clearly been done on somebody’s word processor as they have not been professionally published and printed. That said we take all forms of racism very seriously and are investigating the matter.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 0845 3300247.

North West Evening Mail, 15 April 2011

So whose liberty, equality, fraternity is really at stake?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Matt French niqab ban cartoonA decent article on the French veil ban, in the Daily Telegraph of all places (and no, it’s not by Peter Oborne). There’s a good editorial in the Financial Times too, which states:

“The ban’s defenders, who range across the spectrum of French politics, pretend the veil is a threat to France’s republican values. But this republican bigotry is in reality a cheap populist ploy, in large part dictated by the electoral calendar at a time when the xenophobic National Front is again scoring well in the polls.”

(The cartoon is from the Telegraph as well, via Inayat’s Corner.)

Store manager in Missouri refused to sell mattress to veiled Muslim woman ‘for security reasons’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Syeeda Hussaini has suffered from neck pain the past few years, to the extent that it’s difficult for her to drive and get a good night’s rest. So on a recent weekend, she, her husband, and their three kids loaded up the car and drove less than a mile to Mattress Firm. Her husband, Mohammad, encouraged her to lie on different beds to see which one felt best.

She said the store manager approached, but oddly didn’t want to help. He told the family that he wouldn’t sell them a mattress for security reasons, she said.

Hussaini, 27, who is Muslim, covers all but her hands, feet and eyes in public to show respect for femininity and her religion. She said the manager told her she needed to show her face for service. Mohammad, a pathology resident at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, tried to explain that his wife dressed this way to be modest, much like Catholic nuns. But the manager stomped off, they say.

Hussaini wrote a letter to a regional representative of the company after the March 12 visit to the store. An official at Mattress Firm headquarters in Houston said the company “has a zero tolerance policy on racial and religious profiling.” Spokeswoman Sunni Goodman would not comment specifically about the manager, but she confirmed the encounter happened. “As soon as we were informed of the incident, we took appropriate action to address the situation,” she said. The manager no longer works for Mattress Firm.

There have been other recent complaints in the region. Advocates said emotions are running high since a Muslim community center was proposed near ground zero in New York and since a Florida pastor burned a Quran, the holy book of the Islamic faith.

“It’s harder to be a Muslim in the United States now than at any time since 9/11,” said James Hacking III, a lawyer and head of the Muslim task force of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. On Monday, two of Hacking’s Muslim clients filed a lawsuit in St. Louis County against Bankers Life and Casualty Co., and Daniel Colvis, a branch manager in Chesterfield, alleging violations of the Missouri Human Rights Act.

Ali Badran and Warrad Warrad of Florissant, who were sales agents at the life and health insurance company, claim that Colvis “repeatedly made disparaging and defamatory comments” about their race, religion and ethnicity in front of other employees. Colvis is accused of making hostile comments to the plaintiffs including, “please don’t blow yourselves up.” He allegedly told Warrad to shave off a neatly trimmed beard and asked both of them if they were related to Osama Bin Laden and if they danced on 9/11.

Colvis fired Badran in 2009 and Warrad in 2010, even though they had stronger sales histories than non-Muslim agents, according to the lawsuit.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 16 April 2011