Islam Unveiled - Real Stories

Can Islam ever truly become part of the modern world? Why is a religion that claims over a billion followers across the globe now seen as the world’s greatest bastion of sexism and misogyny? And is this true?

This major series takes the viewer on a dazzling ride across four continents and fourteen centuries, embarking both on a journey of the heart and a quest of the intellect. It is a quest that reveals surprising truths about women’s lives in the Muslim world today, and traces back to their cultural roots beliefs and practices that to many Westerners seem cruel and archaic.

Burqas "Make A Mockery Out Of Islam": Raheel Raza (2015)

Ezra Levant of TheRebel.media talks with liberal Muslim activist and author Raheel Raza about the court's decision to allow women to wear face coverings while taking the Canadian citizenship oath.

Raza says the burqa and niqab should be made unconstitutional. She also points out that "Islamophobia" is really "an industry" invented by Islamists to attack the West. "The whole premise is based on a lie."

Levant and Raza tease out the contradictions in the pro-burqa arguments. She adds that when she debates this issue, it is always with Muslim men. "They can't even find a woman who will come and talk about this issue."

Germany's Bavaria to Ban Full-face Veil

BBC: The German state of Bavaria has announced plans to ban the full-face veil in government workplaces, schools, universities and while driving.

"Communication happens not only via language but also looks, facial expressions and gestures," said state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann. » | Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Angela Merkel: Burqa Has No Place in Germany

German chancellor Angela Merkel tells delegates at the Christian Democratic Union’s conference in Essen on Tuesday that a ‘full facial veil is inappropriate’ and should be banned. It is the first time she has endorsed her party’s call for a partial ban on burqa and niqab

Read the Guardian article here

Germany: AfD Politician Wears Niqab to Thuringian Parliament

Should There Be Restrictions on Wearing the Niqab? - Five-minute Video Debate

Columnists Nabila Ramdani and Joan Smith discuss whether any restrictions should apply to the wearing of the Islamic full-face veil (niqab) in public. Is Britain on the way to a French-style ban? Is the matter one of national importance? Or are the number of people wearing the niqab in Britain too small for it to be a serious concern?

Italy's Lombardy Bans Burqas After Terror Attacks

THE TELEGRAPH: Northeastern region of Lombardy has amended legislation in order to outlaw the burqa and niqab from public offices and hospitals

Lombardy, the most populous and wealthiest region in Italy, has approved a ban on wearing the Islamic veil and burqa in hospitals and local government offices in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Europe.

Current law across Italy already prohibits helmets, clothing or any other items that make identification difficult in public places without a justifiable motive.

But the new legislation in Lombardy, which comes into force on January 1, 2016, marks the first time an Italian region has explicitly outlawed Islamic face coverings.

Simona Bordonali, head of security, civil protection and immigration in Lombardy, said “serious terror attacks” in recent weeks had forced the region to reinforce its security measures. » | Alice Philipson, Rome | Friday, December 11, 2015

Contre le niqab, des électeurs votent masqués

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Des citoyens québécois ont ainsi protesté contre l'autorisation du niqab lors des cérémonies à la citoyenneté canadienne.

A Saint-Hubert, en banlieue sud de Montréal, Catherine Leclerc est arrivée, la tête et le haut du corps enveloppé dans un voile intégral (niqab) noir afin d'accomplir son devoir civique à son bureau de vote.

«Ce symbole du niqab, ce n'est pas un symbole religieux, c'est un symbole politique, un symbole d'oppression de la femme que l'on ne devrait pas tolérer dans une société égalitaire», a-t-elle déclaré à sa sortie.

Comme cette jeune femme, de nombreux Québécois ont voté aux législatives canadiennes avec soit un sac de pommes de terre sur la tête, soit un masque de soudeur ou d'autres accoutrements cachant leur visage. » | afp/nxp | lundi 19 octobre 2015

Stupid Is as Stupid Does! Muslim Women Should Be Allowed to Wear the Veil in Court, Top Judge Suggests

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Lord Neuberger, the President of the Supreme Court, says that judges should show respect toward different cultures

Judges should allow Muslim women to appear in court wearing a full-face veil, Britain’s most senior judge has suggested.

Lord Neuberger, the President of the Supreme Court, said it was crucial that courts and judges “show, and be seen to show” respect towards different customs.

He said this included having an understanding of the “different cultural and social habits” of those appearing as witnesses, defendants or jurors in cases.

His comments, in a lecture about the need for courts to be less intimidating, come at a time of uncertainty over the place of the Muslim niqab, or full face-veil, in the legal system. » | John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor | Thursday, April 16, 2015

Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau Face Off Over Niqab Debate

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau face off over a growing debate about whether wearing a niqab is a choice and when it should be allowed.

Niqabs ‘Rooted in a Culture That Is Anti-women,’ Harper Says

Prime Minister Stephen Harper answers a question
during Question Period in the House of Commons
in Ottawa on Tuesday, March 10, 2015.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Stephen Harper says the practice of covering one’s face with a niqab is “rooted in a culture that is anti-women” – his bluntest effort to date to explain why the Conservative government is fighting the use of these veils during Canadian citizenship ceremonies.

The Prime Minister was responding in the House of Commons to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who has sharply criticized the Tories for seeking to ban the covering of women’s faces when they are swearing a citizenship oath and has accused Mr. Harper of Islamophobia.

Mr. Trudeau responded outside the Commons Tuesday by declaring that “this government is doubling down on the politics of fear.”

A debate over reasonable accommodation in Canada is playing out again, this time over the niqab. Mr. Harper is arguing, as a Conservative fundraising e-mail recently put it, that is “not the way we do things here,” while Mr. Trudeau is championing religious freedom as protected by the Charter of Rights.

Some Muslim women wear face-covering niqabs in public, and the Liberals defend their right to wear the veil during citizenship ceremonies. Mr. Harper, whose government is appealing a Federal Court ruling that would allow people to cover their face while reciting the oath of citizenship, strongly disagrees. » | Steven Chase | Ottawa | Pub. Tuesday, March 10, 2015 | Updated: Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Harper Says Majority of ‘Moderate Muslims’ Support View on Niqab Ban

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Stephen Harper’s Conservatives find themselves on the defensive regarding their relationship with Muslim Canadians, a rare position for the governing party that has made courting ethnic communities a staple of its election strategy.

The Prime Minister, who upset some Muslim Canadians this week by saying the face-covering niqab is “rooted in a culture that is anti-woman,” stood up in the Commons Wednesday to enumerate support for his government’s campaign to ban the use of the veil when taking the oath of Canadian citizenship. A small minority of Muslim women wear the niqab in Canada.

He listed groups such as the Coalition of Progressive Canadian Muslim Organizations, which, Mr. Harper told the Commons, have declared: “Most Canadians believe that it is offensive that someone would hide their identity at the very moment where they are committing to join the Canadian family.” » | Steven Chase | Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Let Muslim Primary School Teachers Wear Full-face Veil in Class – Rowan Williams

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Former Archbishop of Canterbury says ‘panic’ about the niqab is 'largely misplaced' even if young children cannot see their teacher’s face

There is no need to “panic” about Muslim primary school teachers wearing the full-face veil in class, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams, has insisted.

He said concerns that young children would struggle to learn from a woman whose face was covered were “largely misplaced” and that there are other ways to "read” what people are saying.

The former Archbishop’s remarks, in an interview for the Christian think-tank Theos, reopen the debate about the place of the niqab in British public life.

It follows a political storm last year after the then Home Office minster Jeremy Browne called for a national discussion about restrictions in some settings such as schools to prevent young women from having the veil “imposed” on them.

David Cameron rejected the idea of a ban but said he would “back up” schools and courts that ask women to remove veils. » | John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor | Monday, November 10, 2014

Iraq: Isis Warns Women to Wear Full Veil or Face Punishment

'Anyone who is not committed to this duty and is motivated by
glamour will be subject to accountability.'

THE GUARDIAN: Sunni insurgents issue guidelines in mosques on how clothes should be worn to prevent women 'from falling into vulgarity'

Islamic State (Isis), the al-Qaida offshoot that seized large swathes of northern Iraq last month, has warned women in the city of Mosul to wear full-face veils or risk severe punishment.

The Sunni insurgents, who have declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria and have threatened to march on Baghdad, also listed guidelines on how veils and clothes should be worn, part of a campaign to violently impose their radical brand of Islam.

"The conditions imposed on her clothes and grooming was only to end the pretext of debauchery resulting from grooming and overdressing," the group said in a statement.

"This is not a restriction on her freedom but to prevent her from falling into humiliation and vulgarity or to be a theatre for the eyes of those who are looking."

A cleric in Mosul told Reuters that Isis gunmen had shown up at his mosque and ordered him to read their warning on loudspeakers when worshipers gather.

"Anyone who is not committed to this duty and is motivated by glamour will be subject to accountability and severe punishment to protect society from harm and to maintain the necessities of religion and protect it from debauchery," Isis said. » | Reuters in Baghdad | Friday, July 25, 2014

European Court Upholds French Full Veil Ban

There are calls beyond France too for public wearing of the
niqab to be banned

BBC: The European Court of Human Rights has upheld a ban by France on wearing the Muslim full-face veil - the niqab.

A case was brought by a 24-year-old French woman, who argued that the ban on wearing the veil in public violated her freedom of religion and expression.

French law says nobody can wear in a public space clothing intended to conceal the face. The penalty for doing so can be a 150-euro fine (£120; $205).

The 2010 law came in under former conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.

A breach of the ban can also mean a wearer having to undergo citizenship instruction. » | Tuesday, July 01, 2014

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS: French ban on the wearing in public of clothing designed to conceal one’s face does not breach the Convention »

Vollverschleierung: Studentin darf mit Niqab nicht zur Uni

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Ohne Schleier an die Uni: Eine Studentin muss in Gießen für Seminare und Vorlesungen ihre Niqab ablegen. Ein angemessener wissenschaftlicher und akademischer Diskurs sei vollverschleiert nicht möglich, entschied die Hochschule.

Eine Studentin der Universität Gießen darf nicht mit einem Ganzkörperschleier an Hochschulveranstaltungen teilnehmen. Ein angemessener wissenschaftlicher und akademischer Diskurs sei durch ihre Verschleierung nicht möglich, "weil Mimik und Gestik als wichtige Aspekte der Kommunikation nicht zur Verfügung stehen", teilte eine Uni-Sprecherin mit. Das habe man der Studentin in einem persönlichen Gespräch erläutert. » | fln/dpa | Dienstag, 13. Mai 2014

Should the Burqa Be Banned? BBC Newsnight with Sam Harris (March 2012)

What's It Like Being a Muslim Woman in Scotland Today?

HERALD SCOTLAND: 'A THREAT", "a foreigner" and "oppressed".

Those are the three phrases Scotland's young people think of when it comes to Muslim women, according to a study of people aged 11 to 24 by the Amina Muslim Women's Resource Centre in Glasgow.

Staff from Amina, who visit schools and youth groups to educate young non-Muslims about racial stereotyping, found the results shocking considering young people are considered more open-minded and tolerant than their parents and grandparents.

While many Muslim women say such stereotypes do not shape their daily lives, others claim there is a growing hostility towards them.

In the coming weeks, three major events will address the question of what it means to be a Muslim woman in Scotland. One will address how the debate surrounding the Islamic veil is affecting Scottish communities, while the others will look at the experiences of Muslim women and Islamophobia in Scotland.

One young Muslim woman summed up her experiences of being seen as a threat, a foreigner or an oppressed victim, saying the sense of distrust was "subtle" and "something you can feel", adding: "You go in an environment where you are the only person with brown skin: people will be polite to you but you can feel there is a distance, something not spoken ... This is how we feel."

This, as well as the more outrageous incidences of racist abuse, is what these events hope to address. » | Special report by Matty Sutton and Imran Azam | Sunday, November 24, 2013

David Cameron Supports Muslim Veil Ban in Schools and Courts

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: David Cameron has promised to support institutions such as schools, courts and immigration centres which ask people to remove Muslim veils.

The Prime Minister said that he would issue new guidelines to judges, teachers and immigration officers telling them when they can ask people to remove clothing such as the niqab, which conceals the whole face.

He told the BBC that generally people should be allowed to wear what they want, but said that exceptions should be made so that public bodies and staff could function properly.

“We’re a free country and people should be free to wear whatever clothes they like in public or in private. But we should support the institutions that need to put in place rules so that those institutions can work property,” he said.

Mr Cameron was speaking to the BBC at the start of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. » | James Kirkup, Political Editor | Sunday, September 29, 2013

Burkas Cast a Veil over Us All – So Ban Them

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Cultural values that oppress and diminish women have no place in our society

Am I a racist? That’s what I was called on Twitter this week. It happens every time I express my loathing for the burka and the niqab, both hideous shrouds that hide a woman’s face from the world and prevent her – and, therefore, her children – from playing a full part in society.

My accuser on Twitter, one Imran Bhaloo, said it was offensive and racist of me to call a burka a shroud. “You have no right to evaluate culture,” he said. “A burka is not better or worse than a short dress, especially when you’re wearing it to impress someone. At that point, it ceases to be a choice. So how free are you?”

Actually, Mr Bhaloo, I do have a right to “evaluate culture”, as you call it. Mercifully, this is a country in which critical thinking is permitted: if we believe a practice stinks, then we say so. For example, if the Daughter comes downstairs wearing a skirt shorter than a text message, I culturally evaluate it and tell her to get changed pronto.

You ask me how free am I? Well, I’m a lot freer than those poor girls, as young as 11, who attend the Madani Girls’ School in east London. The school, it was revealed yesterday, requires all pupils to wear a burka, or a full-face veil and a long black coat, outside the premises. According to the school’s website, the uniform rule “conforms to the Islamic Code of dressing and must be adhered to at all times”.

How free is an 11-year-old who only sees her city through a letterbox slit, and who is obliged to dress in a way that intimidates people, prevents any connection being made, and ends up stoking even more racist feeling? How free are the children at the Ayesha Siddiqa Girls’ School in west London, which, like other private Islamic schools, requires pupils to wear a burka or jilbab (headscarf)? The Ayesha Siddiqa school had an emergency Ofsted inspection earlier this year that raised concerns about the 120 girls’ “welfare, health and safety”. » | Allison Pearson | Wednesday, September 18, 2013

My comment:

Finally, Brits are coming to the conclusion that the Islamic veil / burqah / niqab / hijab should be banned. It's taken a long time. Many of us have been saying this for years; but we were shouted down by the thought police (and the MSM) for being too intolerant and un-pc. Interestingly, Brits had a go at the French too, for being intolerant of diversity when they banned the burqah. But now, it seems, they have been proved right. They were, of course, right all along.

The burqah has no place in a progressive society. Ban it! – © Mark

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