Who's afraid of the veil?

Who's afraid of the veil?



A
columnist should never tackle the same topic two weeks in a row, advise
masters of the trade. So forgive me for ignoring this counsel and
barging in headlong where we have been before – ad nauseam. But I
couldn't help myself when I came across this posting on Arab News
Online.

Taking part in the raging debate over the ban on the
Muslim veil that came into force in Nicolas Sarkozy's France this week, a
reader who identifies herself as "A Muslimah" writes: "Time
and time again in 'free, democratic' societies women are manipulated
and taught to believe that their freedom is directly linked to the
removal of their clothing. Such emphasis has never been placed on men,
though. It's the removal of women's clothing and not the choice to wear
whatever they like that – women are brainwashed into believing –
preserves their freedom, as is evident from this (French) ban on the
veil."


Her whole post deserves to be read by everyone, and widely shared. But I have to round it off with her closing lines: "Yet,
those supporting the ban would have us believe Muslim women are the
ones who are manipulated and suppressed. But it's hardly surprising to
see free societies ban women from covering their bodies. These are the
nations in which women are used daily as mere commodities for buying and
selling. The lands of the living Barbie dolls, where the daily
objectification of women and young girls as sexual playthings has
reached the mainstream. The female physique has become public property.
Women must be on public display at all times."


Need
I add more? I am yet to come across a more fitting and
right-on-the-nose take on the issue. Perhaps only a Muslim woman could
have spotlighted the absurdity and rank hypocrisy of this whole circus
in the continent that takes pride in its image as the land of freedom
and civil liberties.

In the land of Magna Carta, no eyebrows
are raised if you go around in your birthday suit, go French kissing or
get intimate in public. In fact, such actions only prove your liberal
ethos and qualification to be part of Western societies. But you are a
grave threat to peace and stability of the state the moment you cover
your face. How ridiculous can you get.



Do the Europeans even
realise the absurdity of their actions? Did President Sarkozy watch the
scenes of French cops rounding up and rouging up veiled women in
nationwide crackdown even as head-to-toe fully clothed Christian nuns
watched? This is why I believe this debate has more to do with politics,
rather than religion.

This is not about individual freedoms,
religious tolerance or Islam's incompatibility with France or Europe.
There are two issues at the heart of this conflict. First is
old-fashioned politics. Even as Europe's politicians, from Belgium to
France and from Switzerland to Denmark, trumpet their liberal values and
secular democratic credentials, they tap into the deep-seated
insecurities and paranoia of their Caucasian and Christian European
populace for swift electoral gains, or power.

So Sarkozy,
hoping of re-election, not just comes up with this weird idea of banning
the veil and punishing those refusing to take off the piece of cloth
that is part of their religious beliefs; he presides over a national
debate as to why Muslims cannot be part of the liberal and democratic
French society.

His interior minister, Claude Gueant, under
fire for terming the French campaign against Libya's Qaddafi a new
crusade, has gone to the extent of saying the problem is with "the
growing numbers of Muslim populations."

In the Alpine paradise of Switzerland they have outlawed mosque minarets because they do not blend in with a European skyline.

In
Denmark and other Scandinavian countries and in Holland, they have
found another way of rejecting the Muslims – by targeting their sacred
icons and beliefs, from caricaturing the Prophet to attacking the Quran
in films and art.

Paradoxically, all this is done in the name
of Europe's liberal ethos and tolerance. So even as they pontificate to
us about an individual's freedom to say and do what he or she wants,
they are targeting the very same freedom by forcing the Muslim woman to
take off the veil.

The second – and core – issue at the heart
of this conflict is the deepening fear psychosis of the white,
predominantly Christian West about Islam and the Muslims eventually
running over and taking over the West and annihilating their entire
civilisation. Looked at it from their perspective, you would understand
their insecurity and growing paranoia.

On the one hand, their
numbers are diminishing, and not just in Europe. The continent that
ruled the world for nearly four centuries is shrinking and aging fast.
It is yet to recover from the destruction and depletion of its numbers
during World War I and II. To maintain its ascendancy, it needs a young
population, and lots of it. It's precisely for this reason that,
willy-nilly, it has had to take in the growing numbers of immigrants
from around the world, especially from those lands that it not long ago
ruled. The new arrivals are heading to the West not merely because it
offers greater economic opportunities and freedom; many of them are
victims of the long years of colonisation of Asia and Africa by European
powers.

On the other hand, notwithstanding these compulsions,
the West finds it difficult to reconcile itself to the reality of its
changing demographic profile and what it sees as a cultural and
intellectual invasion, especially from Islam and Muslims.

European
pundits have long talked about Europe turning into Eurabia and London
into Londonistan. While in the past few decades millions from Arab and
Muslim lands have migrated to the West in search of a better life,
Muslim ranks in the West have been expanding also because more and more
white Europeans and Americans are turning to Islam for guidance and
inspiration.

With excessive materialism and moral decay
destroying the family unit and society as a whole, more and more people
are finding spiritual solace in Islam. So if the religion is the fastest
growing in the world today despite a relentless global crusade against
its followers, you know where to look for answers.

Therefore,
we need to look from this perspective at this wave of Islamophobia, from
burning the Quran to banning the veil. More important, Muslims must
desist from responding to these bouts of bigotry with bigotry. Hatred
cannot fight hatred. Only love and understanding can. As the Quran
suggests, when faced with adversity we must fight it with something that
is better.

The current wave of Islamophobia is largely
fuelled by ignorance, myths and insecurities. You can counter it with by
promoting knowledge and true understanding of the faith that came not
just for the Arabs but for the whole of mankind. Not an easy task by any
means. We have no other choice, though.

غلبناكي معنا

معلش

بس الموضوع كدا ما حبيت اقص منه

بس اخذ دورة انجليش برجعلك ابو جالود

موضوع يستحق القراءة لانه في الفترة الاخيرة كثر الكلام عن حظر الحجاب في فرنسا والتي دائما ما كنا نتفاخر
بها وبغيرها من دول الغرب بانها بلاد الحرية والعدالة ولكن الحمد لله جاء هذا الموضوع ليبين لنا حقيقة الاوروبيين وما يكنوه للاسلام من كره وحقد
اشكرك اخي جالودي على الموضوع الجميل والرائع

اشكرك واشكر جودك الرائعه سيد جالودي
لك مني كل تقدير
على الموضوع الي ما قراه منه ولا اشي والحمد الله

احترامي صديقي