FIFA Dress Code Bars Iran Girls From Youth Games
ASSOCIATED PRESS: ZURICH — Iran's girls' soccer team was thrown out of the Youth Olympics because FIFA rules prevent players from wearing an Islamic headscarf.

Thailand replaces Iran in the August tournament, the governing body of Asian soccer said on its Web site Monday.

The hijab scarf — worn by girls and women to observe Islamic dress code — was not allowed under FIFA rules relating to on-field equipment, the Asian Football Confederation said. Iran's national Olympic committee had urged soccer's international ruling body and the International Olympic Committee to review the ban.

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke rejected the Iranian Olympic panel's request in a letter to the national soccer federation. He said the FIFA executive committee had "no choice but to take the decision."

FIFA maintains that soccer's international rulebook contains a section on player equipment, stating that "basic compulsory equipment must not have any political, religious or personal statements." >>> | Easter Monday, April 05, 2010

Iran Demands Fifa Lifts Olympic Games Football Hijab Ban
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran has demanded that Fifa overturn a ban on its girls football team from the Youth Olympic games after the team was kicked out for wearing Islamic scarves that contravene international rules.

Players of Iran's women national football team. Photograph: The Telegraph
Iran's national Olympic committee had called on Fifa, football's world governing body, and the International Olympic Committee to review the ban on the hijab.

The hijab is worn women beyond the age of puberty to observe Islamic rules on modesty and interaction of the sexes.

"We have asked the heads of these international sports organisations to review and annul Fifa's decision," Bahram Afsharzadeh, the Iranian Olympic committee secretary general said. "Hijab is related to the Islamic culture and Muslim women can't take part in social activities without it." >>> Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Al hamdu lillah! Women Barred from Cairo Clubs as Backlash Stirs Against the Hijab
Many Egyptians feel alarmed and besieged by the tilt towards religion. Photo: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: Yasmine al-Mehairy did not even really want to be there. She had been invited to a friend’s birthday party at an upmarket nightclub called 35, in the Four Seasons hotel. She was parked illegally but only planned to hand over a bouquet and spend ten minutes inside. But when the bouncer pointed at her headscarf as the reason she could not enter, Ms al-Mehairy decided to fight.

“I ended up arguing with the guy for longer than I would have stayed in the first place if he just let me in,” said the 29-year-old IT professional, who eventually gave up and called her friend to meet her at the door and accept her birthday flowers.

Egypt’s steady drift towards religion has been well documented. But now there are signs of a backlash. In trendy clubs and cafés across Cairo, the hair and neck-covering scarf known as the hijab is increasingly being shunned as unacceptable dress.

Several bars and restaurants where alcohol is served now essentially ban veiled women from entering. The policy is more open in some places than others but seems to apply to at least half a dozen Cairo venues.

“They always give you the ‘there’s going to be alcohol’ reason,” said a Western-raised veiled Arab woman who has lived in Cairo since 2006. “In Egypt it’s mostly that they don’t like the look of it. They want to maintain some sort of prestige,” the woman, who did not want her name to be published, told The Times.

Club and restaurant managers refused to comment on the record about the ban, but several questioned why a devout veiled woman would even want to attend venues that served alcohol. One manager of a Cairo club, however, said that the restrictions were less about protecting the veiled women from “sinful” environments than about shielding the club’s core clients from having to look at veiled women. “It causes a lot of discomfort and doesn’t create the atmosphere I need to make money,” the manager said. “I can either make my regulars comfortable or I make the other 1 per cent comfortable.” >>> Ashraf Khalil in Cairo | Saturday, February 27, 2010

Frankreichs offenes Gesicht: Die Schleierdebatte vor dem Hintergrund der Ideen von 1789
NZZ ONLINE: Frankreichs Diskussion um die Vollverschleierung muslimischer Frauen muss in der geistigen Tradition von «1789» gesehen werden. Die Nation besteht aus freien Bürgern. Das kommt im Kontakt mit dem Staat in offenen Gesichtern zum Ausdruck.

Die Szene bleibt unvergesslich: Anlässlich der Pariser «Street Parade» rennt eine junge Frau auf die in voller Montur aufmarschierte Bereitschaftspolizei zu, dreht sich um und entblösst in dreister Hocke ihren Hintern. Umgehend umzingeln die Ordnungshüter die Demonstrantin und nehmen sie eingeübt in Gewahrsam. Die Freiheit und die offene Gesellschaft brauchen, das ist wenig bestritten, immer moralische Bindungen, mitunter gar staatliche Regeln.

Keine Zwischenmächte

Undenkbar indessen wäre, dass der französische Staat in ähnlicher Weise in Polizeiformation gegen eine die Burka oder den Niqab tragende Frau vorginge. Und doch wird über ein Verbot dieser Ganzkörperschleier in Frankreich derzeit diskutiert. Dabei steht weniger ein allgemeines Verbot im Vordergrund als eine Einschränkung dort, wo der Bürger mit dem Staat in direkten Kontakt tritt. Es geht nicht einfach darum, ein in der Öffentlichkeit seltenes, unerwünschtes Kleidungsstück zu verbannen, sondern darum, einem emanzipatorischen Freiheitsrecht Ausdruck zu verleihen. >>> Manfred Rist, Paris | Freitag, 19. Februar 2010

Abdur-Raheem Green: Suspicions about Islam

Covering Egypt – Egypt
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New Dark Age Alert! MPs Pass Law to Stone to Death Adulterers in Indonesian Province
As darkness falls over the world, our politicians continue to be in denial about the dangers of Islam. I speak not of radical Islam, but of Islam itself. For Islam truly is the problem; and it’s the greatest problem facing the civilized world today.

The silly word games our politicians play, the useless, banal games to try and separate this Islam from that one, the games they play to exonerate themselves from action – action which they are too cowardly to take, are really not helpful. On the contrary, these games hinder our ultimate success over the cult that is Islam, over the world’s greatest force for darkness, backwardness, inhumanity, and barbarity.

We need to roll back the frontiers. We need to push back the enveloping tide of ultimate backwardness – the evil forces which will take us back to the ‘New Dark Age’. The process of taking the world back to benightedness has begun; it needs to be halted forthwith, it needs to be halted without further delay. – © Mark

THE TELEGRAPH: Married people who commit adultery could be stoned to death under new law unanimously passed on Monday by MPs in the devoutly Muslim Indonesian province of Aceh.

Muslim women are seen in Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia Photo: The Telegraph
The law, which will come into effect in 30 days, also decrees that homosexuals could be caned and jailed for eight years.

Those convicted of rape or consuming alcohol could be face up to 200 lashes of the cane meted out in public.

The 69-seat house in the semi-autonomous province voiced no reservations over the new law, an extension of the Sharia code already in force.

Gambling and drinking were already banned after Aceh introduced elements of Sharia law in 2001, when it became compulsory for women to wear headscarves. >>> Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok | Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Port du voile : Al-Qaïda menace la France
lePARISIEN.fr: Le numéro deux d'Al-Qaïda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, s'en est violemment pris à la France pour sa prétendue hostilité au voile islamique, estimant qu'elle «va payer pour tous ses crimes», rapporte ce mardi le centre américain de surveillance de sites islamistes SITE.

«La France prétend être un pays laïque alors que son coeur est plein de haine pour les musulmans», a déclaré le chef d'Al-Qaïda en réponse à une question d'un site islamiste sur une prétendue hostilité de la France au port du hijab.

«La France va payer pour tous ses crimes», a-t-il conclu. >>> leparisien.fr | Mardi 04 Août 2009

Three Policewomen Spend Full Day Dressed in Muslim Burkhas in Controversial 'In Your Shoes' Exercise
MAIL ONLINE: Three female police officers were ordered to dress up as Muslim women for the day just to see what it felt like.

They wore traditional burkhas as part of a scheme designed to help police interact better with the Islamic community.

Two covered their faces with hijab headscarves and niqab veils, leaving only narrow slits to see through, and another wore Muslim dress and a headscarf showing her face.

Critics yesterday lined up to denounce the scheme as ‘political correctness gone mad,’ and accused South Yorkshire Police of losing sight of its main objective.

Douglas Murray, of the Centre for Social Cohesion think-tank, said: ‘You just couldn’t make it up.

‘The victims of crime must be amazed that the police have so much time on their hands that they can spend a day playing dress-up.

‘This is a complete waste of police time and taxpayers’ money. It’s not the duty of police to empathise with particular sections of the community. It is the duty of the police to prevent crime and catch criminals.

‘After this are they planning to dress as members of other communities such as Hindus and Buddhists?’ >>> Andy Dolan | Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Somalia: A State of Terror
MACLEANS: Somalia may become the world’s next extremist stronghold

When a Maclean’s reporter reached Somali journalist Abdi Ahmed Abdul on his cellphone as he walked back to his home through the streets of Mogadishu, he quickly ended the call, apologizing later that evening by explaining that it would not be safe for him to be heard speaking English by members of al-Shabab—the Islamist militia that controls much of the country and whose leadership has been linked to al-Qaeda. “I am scared,” Abdul said. “If they see me talking to somebody in English, I’d be in danger. If anybody is speaking in English, they think he is a spy. It means I am passing information to foreigners, what they call Christians or infidels, people they don’t like.”

Abdul lives near one of the main markets in Mogadishu, a place he calls a “stronghold of the Shabab.” He asked that his real name not be printed. “If they read this, they will come and look for me and blow my brain up.” His family has fled twice to other parts of the country. He’s considered leaving himself, but is now afraid to try.

Abdul’s description of Somalia under al-Shabab is similar to that of Afghanistan during the Taliban’s rule. Al-Shabab’s rule is guided by a medieval and repressive interpretation of Islam, and it has attracted foreign jihadists—who may have international ambitions—to Somalia.

This spring, Abdul says, two teenage boys and a teenage girl were sentenced to be lashed 100 times for having premarital sex. The sentence has not yet been carried out, but in June, four men accused of stealing cellphones all had a hand or foot hacked off with machetes after they were convicted by an al-Shabab Islamic court. And in October, a 13-year-old rape victim was stoned to death in front of some 1,000 spectators. “It happens—the amputations, the stoning to death, the whippings, forbidding music,” he says. “They tell women to wear the hijab. They banned films. They even control the memory cards of mobile phones to check if there are pornographic films or films that are anti-Islamic. No cinemas. No music. They even force people to pray.”

Al-Shabab, meaning “the Youth” in Arabic, grew out of the Islamic Courts Union, which briefly controlled Somalia in 2006. Ethiopian troops and covert American Special Forces toppled the Islamic Courts Union in 2006 and 2007, and a “transitional” government was installed in its place. The most radical elements from the ICU then formed new Islamist groups, such as al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam, meaning “Party of Islam,” to oppose the government, which since January has been led by Sheik Sharif Ahmed. Ahmed was previously leader of the Islamic Courts Union but is a moderate Islamist compared to those in al-Shabab.

Al-Shabab receives money and arms from Somalis in the diaspora, from wealthy Arabs in the Gulf, and from Eritrea. Along with its allies, it controls all but a few pockets of Somalia outside the de facto autonomous regions of Somaliland and Puntland—the latter of which has become famous of late as an epicentre for piracy. The Transitional Federal Government has not been toppled because of the protection of some 4,000 African Union soldiers. Its writ barely extends over a few square blocks of Mogadishu. In recent weeks, Somalia’s security minister, Omar Hashi Aden, was killed in an al-Shabab suicide car bomb attack, and scores of parliamentarians have left the country. Barely half remain. “Even an AK-47 bullet fired by the opposition groups can hit the presidential palace,” says Abdul.

Abdul says most Somalis don’t support the Shabab, but are “ruled by fear.” Some still fight against it. When militants desecrated graves and mosques sacred to followers of the spiritual Sufi branch of Islam, normally peaceful Sufis took up arms on the side of the government against al-Shabab, defeating them in several battles in central Somalia. >>> Michael Petrou | July 16, 2009

Everywoman: The Veil

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Wearing the Burqa Is Neither Islamic Nor Socially Acceptable
THE INDEPENDENT: To deny face-to-face interaction is to deny our shared humanity

I am a Shia Muslim and I abhor the burqa. I am offended by the unchallenged presumption that women covering their heads and bodies and now faces are more pious and true than am I.

Islam in all its diverse forms entitles believers to a personal relationship with Allah – it cuts out middlemen, one reason its appeal extended to so many across the world. You can seek advice from learned scholars and imams, but they cannot come between your faith and the light of God. Today control freaks who claim they have a special line to the Almighty have turned our world dark. Neo-conservative Islamic codes spread like swine flu, an infection few seem able to resist.

The disease is progressive. It started 20 years ago with the hijab, donned then as a defiant symbol of identity, now a conscript's uniform. Then came the jilbab, the cloak, fought over in courts when schoolgirls were manipulated into claiming it as an essential Islamic garment. If so, hell awaits the female leaders of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Soon, children as young as four were kitted up in cloaks and headscarves ("so they get used to it, and then later wear the full thing," said a teacher to me who works at a Muslim girls' school) and now for the graduation gown, a full burqa, preferably with dark glasses.

White liberals frame this sinister development in terms of free choice and tolerance. Some write letters to this paper: What is the problem? It is all part of the rich diversity of our nation. They can rise to this challenge, show they are superhuman when it comes to liberty and forbearance.

They might not be quite so sanguine if their own daughters decided to be fully veiled or their sons became fanatic Islamicists and imposed purdah in the family. Such converts are springing up in Muslim families all over the land. Veils predate Islam and were never an injunction (modesty of attire for men and women is). Cultural protectionism has long been extended to those who came from old colonies, in part to atone for imperial hauteur. Redress was necessary then, not now. >>> Yasmin Alibhai-Brown | Monday, July 13, 2009

Egypt Mourns 'Headscarf Martyr'
BBC: The body of a Muslim woman, killed in a German courtroom by a man convicted of insulting her religion, has been taken back to her native Egypt for burial.

Marwa Sherbini is being hailed as the shahida, or martyr, of the Hijab. Photo: BBC
Marwa Sherbini, 31, was stabbed 18 times by Axel W, who is now under arrest in Dresden for suspected murder.

Husband Elwi Okaz is also in a critical condition in hospital, after being injured as he tried to save his wife.

Ms Sherbini had sued her killer after he called her a "terrorist" because of her headscarf.

The case has attracted much attention in Egypt and the Muslim world.

German prosecutors have said the 28-year-old attacker, identified only as Axel W, was driven by a deep hatred of foreigners and Muslims. >>> | Monday, July 06, 2009

Iranian Women: Are They Covering Up?
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Belgium Gets First Deputy Wearing Muslim Headscarf
Mahinur Ozdemir. Photo: Google Images
EURONEWS: In Brussels, Mahinur Ozdemir, 26, has become the first deputy wearing a Muslim headscarf to be sworn into the regional parliament.

Coming the day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the burqa was not welcome in France, Ozdemir’s colleagues said it was about personal choice.

After the ceremony, Ozdemir, from the Democrat Humanist Centre, said she wanted to be recognised for her achievements and not her headwear.

“Unfortunately, I have been reduced to nothing more than this scarf, and frankly it is hard to remove yourself from it,” she said. “Underneath this veil there is a personality, there is someone who is engaged, who wants things to change, who wants to move forward and execute lots of projects for the people of Brussels.”

During her election campaign, Ozdemir was targeted by hardline activists due to her headscarf. She served as a member of the municipal council in Shaerbeek, which is known as the “Turkish neighbourhood” of Brussels. [Source: euronews] | Wednesday, June 24, 2009

NZZ Online: Belgien wieder voll im Kopftuch-Dilemma: Streit um Antwerpener Schulen und eine Abgeordnete mit dem Hijab

In Belgien ist die Diskussion um das Kopftuch muslimischer Frauen wieder voll entbrannt. Während in Antwerpen Muslime gegen das Kopftuchverbot an einer Schule protestierten, legte im Brüsseler Regionalparlament die erste Abgeordnete im Kopftuch ihren Eid ab.

Zwei Ereignisse haben in Belgien die Diskussionen um das Kopftuchtragen muslimischer Frauen wieder voll entbrennen lassen. Im Brüsseler Regionalparlament legte die türkischstämmige Christlichsoziale Mahinur Özdemir ihren Eid als Abgeordnete im Hijab ab – eine absolute Premiere in Belgien. Dies rief natürlich in Teilen der politischen Landschaft Widerspruch hervor; die französischsprachigen Liberalen vom Mouvement réformateur (MR) wollten gar die Möglichkeit prüfen, mit einem Vorstoss das Tragen von «religiösen und philosophischen Symbolen» in den Sitzungen aller belgischen Parlamente zu verbieten. Die flämischen Liberalen wiederum fanden, das Parlament sei keine Amtsstelle, und nahmen deshalb am Kopftuch der Abgeordneten Özdemir keinen Anstoss. >>> win. Brüssel | Thursday, June 25, 2009

Barack Obama Extends His Hand to Islam's Despots
THE TELEGRAPH: The American President may not know it, but his 'Muslim world' is split by a war of ideas, says Amir Taheri.

Barack Obama's message was lost in a haze of rhetoric. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
What do you do when you have no policy, but want to appear as if you do? In the case of Barack Obama, the answer is simple: you go around the world making speeches about your "personal journey".

The latest example came last Thursday, when Mr Obama presented his "address to the Muslim world" to an invited audience of 2,500 officials at Cairo University. The exercise was a masterpiece of equivocation and naivety. The President said he was seeking "a new beginning between the US and Muslims around the world". This implied that "Muslims around the world" represent a single monolithic bloc – precisely the claim made by people like Osama bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who believe that all Muslims belong to a single community, the "ummah", set apart from, and in conflict with, the rest of humanity.

Mr Obama ignored the fact that what he calls the "Muslim world" consists of 57 countries with Muslim majorities and a further 60 countries – including America and Europe – where Muslims represent substantial minorities. Trying to press a fifth of humanity into a single "ghetto" based on their religion is an exercise worthy of ideologues, not the leader of a major democracy.

Mr Obama's mea culpa extended beyond the short span of US history. He appropriated the guilt for ancient wars between Islam and Christendom, Western colonialism and America's support for despotic regimes during the Cold War. Then came the flattering narrative about Islam's place in history: ignoring the role of Greece, China, India and pre-Islamic Persia, he credited Islam with having invented modern medicine, algebra, navigation and even the use of pens and printing. Believing that flattery will get you anywhere, he put the number of Muslim Americans at seven million, when the total is not even half that number, promoting Islam to America's largest religion after Christianity.

The President promised to help change the US tax system to allow Muslims to pay zakat, the sharia tax, and threatened to prosecute those who do not allow Muslim women to cover their hair, despite the fact that this "hijab" is a political prop invented by radicals in the 1970s.

As if he did not have enough on his plate, Mr Obama insisted that fighting "negative stereotypes of Islam" was "one of my duties as President of the United States". However, there was no threat to prosecute those who force the hijab on Muslim women through intimidation, blackmail and physical violence, nor any mention of the abominable treatment of Muslim women, including such horrors as "honour-killing". The best he could do was this platitude: "Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons." >>> By Amir Taheri | Saturday, June 06, 2009

Hijab : Obama égratigne la France
LE FIGARO: Le président américain Barack Obama a défendu aujourd'hui au Caire le port du voile pour les musulmanes en Occident, prenant le contre-pied de la France.



C'est par trois fois que M. Obama a pris la défense du voile islamique dans son discours prononcé à l'Université du Caire, critiquant le fait qu'un pays occidental "dicte les vêtements" qu'une musulmane "doit porter".



Au nom de la laïcité, la France a banni en 2004 dans les écoles les signes religieux ostentatoires avec une loi interprétée comme ciblant surtout le voile islamique. La polémique fait également rage au Canada et en Allemagne alors qu'en Belgique, 90% des écoles le bannissent et il est jugé "discriminatoire" par un décret du Conseil d'Etat.



"Il est important pour les pays occidentaux d'éviter de gêner les citoyens musulmans de pratiquer leur religion comme ils le souhaitent, et par exemple en dictant les vêtements qu'une femme doit porter", a-t-il lancé.



Sans jamais citer la France ou d'autres pays, il a enchaîné en affirmant qu'"on ne doit pas dissimuler l'hostilité envers une religion devant le faux semblant du libéralisme".


"Je sais qu'il y a un débat sur ce sujet", a encore dit M. Obama avant de trancher sur ce sujet toujours controversé en Occident devant un public trié sur le volet, parmi lequel de nombreuses femmes voilées. 



"Je rejette", a-t-il ainsi affirmé, "les vues de certains en Occident" pour qui le fait "qu'une femme choisisse de couvrir ses cheveux a quelque chose d'inégalitaire".
Il a encore souligné que "le gouvernement américain s'est porté en justice pour protéger le droit des "femmes et des filles à porter le voile" et "punir ceux qui voudrait leur dénier".



Pour la première fois, une américaine musulmane portant le voile, Dalia Mogahed, d'origine égyptienne, a fait son entrée à la Maison Blanche comme conseillère de Barack Obama.



Mais la question du port du voile, notamment à l'école, met aussi à l'épreuve des gouvernements et opinions publiques dans des pays musulmans. [Source: Le Figaro] AFP | Jeudi 04 Juin 2009

LE FIGARO: Voile islamique : Obama prône la tolérance en Occident

Dans son discours au Caire jeudi, le président américain a pris le contrepied de la France en se positionnant pour le droit des musulmanes à porter le voile dans les pays occidentaux.

Prenant le contre-pied de la France, Barack Obama a défendu jeudi au Caire le port du voile pour les musulmanes en Occident. Au nom de la laïcité, la France a banni en 2004 dans les écoles les signes religieux ostentatoires, dont le voile islamique. La polémique touche également le Canada, la Belgique et l'Allemagne. «Il est important pour les pays occidentaux d'éviter de gêner les citoyens musulmans de pratiquer leur religion comme ils le souhaitent, par exemple en dictant les vêtements qu'une femme doit porter», a dit jeudi Obama. Sans citer aucun pays, il a estimé : «On ne peut dissimuler l'hostilité envers une religion derrière le faux-semblant du libéralisme.» «Je rejette, a-t-il ajouté, les vues de certains en Occident» qui voient «comme une inégalité le fait qu'une femme choisisse de couvrir ses cheveux». Une musulmane voilée, Dalia Mogahed, travaille à la Maison-Blanche comme conseillère d'Obama. Une première. [Source: Le Figaro] Philippe Gélie | Vendredi 05 Juin 2009

Veil Crackdown: Iran 2007

The Muslim Viewpoint: Finally, Hijab in the Danish Politics?
Yes, "a historical day” indeed! The day Europe started moving in retrograde motion - officially! And when will we “finally” have a church in Mecca (Makkah) to mark our “historical day”? When will Westerners “finally” even be allowed to enter Mecca? And when will Westerners be able to walk down the streets in Saudi Arabia wearing mini-skirts or tight trousers? Now those truly would be “historical days”.

This is not a sign of integration at all; on the contrary, it is a sign that Muslims in Europe are NOT integrating, still less assimilating.

The Muslims of Europe are hell-bent on taking the advanced, Western world back to the Dark Ages, to a New Dark Age, as I wrote in my book.

This image of Asma is redolent of a woman in the pre-Victorian Age – the Middle Ages, in fact! If Muslims call this progress, and I'm sure that very, very many of them do, there is something seriously wrong with their judgement! – ©Mark

Asmaa Abd El-Hamid. Photo courtesy of Islam Online
ISLAM ONLINE: “A historical day,” that’s how the Danish media described the day when Asmaa Abd El-Hamid, a 27 Danish Muslim veiled politician of a Palestinian origin, attended a council meeting as a substitute for a member of the Unity List. It was the first time in Odense, the third biggest Danish city where she attended the meeting, and in the whole Danish history that witnesses a veiled woman taking part in a Local Council meeting.

Ms. Abd El-Hamid told IslamOnline.net (IOL)’s European Muslims Page that she is intending to put forward the social, economical, and international issues in the coming meetings as they are placed at the top of her agenda. By holding this position she is planning to discuss her main issues, such as the social equality between Muslims and Non-Muslims in both education and recruitment, the recognition of the independent Palestinian state, and the rejection of the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan.

Asmaa has a lot of creative social and political ideas which she aspires to work on. Although Ms. Abd El-Hamid regards this step as "unprecedented," she is not only aiming at the veil’s existence in the parliament or in the political field. She also insists that she has been elected for this position "by both Muslims and non Muslims votes." >>> By Salma El-Gazzar | Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Norway Anti-Immigration Opposition Party Wins Support
BLOOMBERG: Support for Norway’s Progress Party rose this month, with one pollster ranking it the country’s biggest political group, as voters backed its anti-immigration stance less than six months before parliamentary elections.

While governments in other parts of Europe lose support as voters condemn their handling of the financial crisis, Norway’s Labor government is struggling in polls after it tried to push through laws banning blasphemy and allowing police women to wear the hijab. The laws were withdrawn after a public outcry. Justice Minister Knut Storberget, whose ministry issued the proposals, has since gone on sick leave.

“People are losing their jobs, the economy seems to be going into recession but people are focusing on these issues instead,” said Torkel Brekke, professor of culture studies and oriental languages at the University of Oslo. “It tells you how important issues of identity are to small European countries and how people feel insecure about immigration.” >>> By Marianne Stigset and Meera Bhatia | Friday, March 27, 2009

Muslim Legal Assistant Taunted by Boss over Her Headscarf Wins £75,000 Damages
MAIL Online: A Muslim legal assistant has won £75,000 damages after being called 'tent 'ead' in an email sent by her boss.

The comment was one of several discriminatory incidents that Saleca Parkar, 31, who wears traditional dress, including a headscarf, endured at a corporate law firm.

Mrs Parkar took her former company to an employment tribunal claiming discrimination on the grounds of her race, sex, religious beliefs and pregnancy.

The case was settled this week before evidence was aired. >>> By David Wilkes | December 4, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>