The Burkha Ban According to Saudiwoman

By Effendi | Published: July 22, 2010

There are plenty of muslim men who live in the west and oppose the European niqab ban. But when it comes to upholding the right of women to oppose the burqa, they tend to become uncharacteristically silent or they talk about their new-found appreciation of Damian Green and ‘Britishness’. Authentic voices of muslim women who live in muslim countries and oppose the niqab where it is compulsory by law are even fewer. One of them is Saudiwoman and this is her comment on the burkha ban:

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Covering the face has been a highly emotional and politicized issue in the Muslim community for the past two decades. I have written about it before and called it the sixth pillar of Islam. It has become a false banner for Islamic piety. Islam is now reduced to a dress code. It does not matter if you lie, steal or slander your friends and neighbors, if you cover your face you are perceived by society as an untouchable religious God fearing person.

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Posted in Freedom of Religion, Islamism | 3 Comments

The Mad Mullahs

By Faisal | Published: July 22, 2010

On March 30 1953, TIME published an article called The Mad Mullahs on extremist sectarian violence that had erupted in Lahore. It places the blame squarely on the  activities of the ‘Ahraris’. In 1953 the term ‘Islamist’ had not yet been coined but the events that are described are almost identical to sectarian violence perpetrated by the ‘Punjab Taliban’ in Lahore last month. Nothing changes.

It was a minor revolution which swept this capital of the fertile Punjab province—a revolution engineered by fanatical mullahs against the Pakistan government. Five and a half years ago, when millions of frightened refugees were pouring into newly created Pakistan, the mullahs were the people’s leaders. They had a strong voice in the government. But when the country began establishing industries, hospitals, schools and banks, the mullahs protested that these innovations clashed with Islamic law. When Pakistani women shed their veils and emerged from purdah (complete seclusion in the home), the more fanatic mullahs were outraged. When the time came for Pakistan to draw up a constitution, the mullahs demanded that it be based on the Koran. (Result: Pakistan, a nation of 76 million, is still without a constitution.) The government of Prime Minister Kwaja Nazimuddin avoided an open clash with religious leaders, but paid less attention to their counsel.

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Posted in History, Islamism | 2 Comments

Relativism is the death of liberalism

By Faisal | Published: July 22, 2010

Gauri Viswanathan interviews Salman Rushdie for The Hindu. An excerpt:

GV: The question of relativism is a very interesting one in your work: it seems to work for you when it comes to resisting a single origin from which all things and beings derive. But you draw the line when it comes to saying that cultural difference cancels out a single standard of justice.

SR: I don’t know how unfashionable this is, but I think there are universals. I think there are things that are universally true and I think there are such things as universal rights. They are not culturally specific, in my view. The argument made by relativists is that it is culturally specific to argue that there are universals. I think there are other ways of approaching it.

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Posted in Moral relativism | 1 Comment

Saudi disillusionment with the Religious Establishment

By Effendi | Published: July 21, 2010

I love Saudiwoman. She runs a blog which works as a Heat Magazine alternative for Celebrity Saudi Imam watchers.

She has recently been blogging on how Saudis are thoroughly  disillusioned with their religious establishment. Given the spate of public fatwas, counter-fatwas, showdowns and cockups, it is small wonder that Saudis are collectively experiencing acute imam fatigue.

Here’s the rundown:

It’s a right old mess of sheikhs. Saudiwoman explains:

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Posted in Islamism, Sharia | Leave a comment

When Tariq Met Mona

By Faisal | Published: July 21, 2010

Take a look at the video of the fascinating discussion on the banning of the niqab which saw the Mona Eltahawy, British-Egyptian feminist take on Tariq Ramadan’s dishonest dissembling.

The debate was electric, not least because this is probably one of the only times you will ever hear the “Muslim right wing” as a stakeholder in the niqab debate identified on British TV.

Kirsty Wark: But the question, surely, is not whether there are feminist reasons for wearing the veil or not. It is ‘why is wearing the veil becoming more prevalent rather than less prevalanet’?

Mona Eltahawy: I think it has become more prevalent because the space has been left completely uncontested to the Muslim right wing which does not respect anyone’s rights whatsoever except for this one right to cover a woman’s face. No one has pushed back against the Muslim right wing. I detest the political right wing but I equally detest the Muslim right wing and I will not sacrifice women. Integration has largely failed across Europe even in the UK, with multiculturalism. But we’re not going to sacrifice women for it.

Posted in Human Rights, Islamism | 16 Comments

Reading, Writing and Ramadan

By Guest | Published: July 20, 2010

This is a guest post by Uncle Daud

According  to advice given to Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Muslim pupils should not attend swimming lessons in the month of Ramadan, because:

Schools with a significant number of Muslim pupils should try to avoid scheduling swimming lessons during Ramadan to remove unnecessary barriers to full participation.”

Nor does it end with restrictions to swimming lessons:

It also suggests re-scheduling sex education classes during the holy lunar month, as Muslim followers who have reached puberty are required to avoid sexual thoughts during this period.

But who is behind this ‘advice’ imposed on schools, delivered in the manner of a religious edict or a ‘fatwa’? Who else but the excitable people at the Muslim Council of Britain:

“The council said the document, produced by its Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education, was based on information from the Muslim Council of Great Britain”

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Posted in Education, Islamism | 12 Comments

The Hijab Debate

By Effendi | Published: July 20, 2010

This is re-post by Yossarian

This is a very interesting take on the hijab debate – a video about a British Muslim woman who decided to take off the hijab after realising she was wearing it not for personal pious reasons but political ones – contrary to what Islamists claim. She is of the opinion that it’s better for society that men learn how to function appropriately around unveiled women than that society shroud women from men and place the blame for men’s behavioural inadequacies on women’s shoulders.

Watch it through as she visits various Muslim women around the world and investigates their attitudes towards the hijab.

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Hat tip: Averroes Press

Posted in Fashion, Identity Politics | 8 Comments

If you’re looking for a way out

By Effendi | Published: July 20, 2010

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has started an opt-out programme for Islamists trying to leave extremist groups.

Participants and their family or friends can now find help via email or telephone with the new “HATIF” service, which stands for Heraus Aus Terrorismus und Islamistischem Fanatismus, or “Leaving terrorism and Islamist fanaticism.”

“Hatif” is also the Arabic word for telephone.

“The main goal of HATIF is to prevent violence in the name of Islam,“ the intelligence agency the Verfassungsschutz said.

The service, offered in both Turkish and Arabic, will not try to lead people from the religion of Islam, but instead provide safe options for those hoping to extract themselves from extremist circles, the agency said.

Candidates and their families will receive help changing locations, seeking occupational qualifications and deflecting threats.

The report concludes:

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Posted in Islamism | Leave a comment

Wish you were here

By Faisal | Published: July 20, 2010

Pictures from Afghanistan from a bygone age before it was decimated by the Soviets, the USA, Hafizullah Amin and, much later, the Taliban.

Pop music without fatwas

The old guard

Education for girls

Jobs for women (in skirts and cute head scarfs)

More jobs for women

University with some decadent gender mixing thrown in

Honest jobs in industries

Adequate fuel and electricity

Big hat tip: Tarek Fatah

Posted in History | 7 Comments

The Niqab Ban in Syria

By Faisal | Published: July 19, 2010

In CiF, Faisal al Yafai discusses the under-reported limited ban of the full-face veil by the Syrian government; where teachers wearing the full niqab in public schools have been removed.

Islamists groups in Syria will decry this as a gesture to suppress its growing influence in the country as the only viable opposition to the secular authoritarian Syrian government. But the dynamics are complicated. The influence of the Salafis, who regard the Islamist tendency to equate temporal power (their own, preferably) with divine authority as a perversion of Islam.

Islamist response to this criticism is to embrace and include conservative Salafi doctrine into its politics which has the effect of pushing the Islamists further to the right. The case of the niqab ban is an example in point. Islamists are not unanimous in their agreement of the religious mandate of the full niqab, however they support the niqab for women because (a) they do not want to alienate the support of the ultra conservatives (the Salafis) and (b) the niqab has become a flashpoint in faith identity politics which the Islamists have claimed as their ‘political space’.

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Posted in Islamism, Secularism | 4 Comments

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