This is a guest post by Al-Qanaas Al-Masri
********************
Sohaib Saeed, a leading light of the Scottish Islamic Foundation and a former spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, has publicly expressed his opposition to countries and individuals that believe that women should be forced to veil or wear hijab.
In a letter to The Metro opposing Sarkozy’s suggestion that the Burka should be banned, and which was published on the Scottish Islamic Foundation’s website last week, Sohaib wrote that that “Forcing a lady to remove a garment is as abhorrent as forcing her to don it.”
Although Sohaib does not spell it out, his uncompromising defence of liberal values can only be seen as a blunt criticism of countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia that force all women – Muslim and non-Muslim - to wear the hijab, as well as a criticism of opposition Islamist groups around the Middle East and elsewhere that aspire to similarly force dress codes on women.
Many organisations have previously accused Sohaib Saeed and the Scottish Islamic Foundation of being hard-line Islamists – Sohaib’s clear opposition to forced veiling makes it clear how far this is from the truth.
3 Comments
Saeed’s comments are very encouraging. However, I wonder if he still thinks that Yusuf al-Qaradawi is a shining example of moderate Islam – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jul/09/religion.politics
Granted he said this in 2004, would be interesting to see if he has changed his mind on that….
Congratulations to Sohaib Saeed. Good to see the Scottish Islamic Foundation standing up for secular, liberal values!
Sohaib’s clear opposition to forced veiling makes it clear how far this is from the truth.
One statement does not a moderate outlook convey. He also makes a false equivalence: nobody is ‘forced to remove’ their hijab in France or elsewhere, unless the law or custom dictates it. However, there are plenty of girls in the UK who are forced to wear it from puberty and sometimes beforehand. By making it into some sort of liberty issue, which I might add has been the popular Islamist stance, he hopes to court the sympathetic libertarian in all of us, but we should not allow him this intellectual sleight-of-hand. After all, there are plenty of taboos which have helped to reinforce social norms and dress codes in the UK: I would never dream of walking down the street naked or wearing a large phallus on my head, indeed it’s quite possible I could be prosecuted for such behaviour. There are advocates for nudity and extreme libertarianism too, but should we as a society indulge their minority whims?
When Saeed comes out and advocates Muslim girls marrying and having relationships with non-Muslim men then I might be convinced of his supposed commitment to moderation. Until then, the jury’s still out.