[lit-ideas] Re: Religion & Public Reason
- From: Eric <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:58:13 -0400
Some counterclaims by others:
http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2009/09/time-to-ban-niqab-in-us.html
It is a well known fact that most Muslims do not wear the niqab. Rather,
it is a garment worn by women in a few Arab countries, but
unfortunately, due to increased Wahhabi proselytizing around the globe,
more and more women are being told that it is necessary in order to be
considered a good Muslim. Its pre-Islamic history is evident in Yemen,
where some tribes socialize women to keep their faces covered before
their own husbands and children until death. Yet, many Muslims and
Muslim clerics demand that it be worn to keep women marginalized in society.
http://www.siawi.org/article660.html
Lifting the Veil on the Niqab
There is no requirement in Islam to cover one’s face — the niqab is the
epitome of male control over Muslim women
by Tarek Fatah
http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=153585
Jordan offers a glimpse into the potential for niqabs and burkas as
illegal accessories. One news report indicates that 50 people committed
170 crimes using Islamic garments during the past two years, or roughly
one incident every four days - a crime wave that has prompted some
Jordanians to call for restricting or even banning these Islamic head
coverings. No other country reports nearly so many head-garment-related
crimes, but Philadelphia, Pennsylvania boasts multiple robberies (three
banks and one real estate leasing office) in a 16-month period in
2007-08, including the murder of a police officer. The United Kingdom
has the West's second-worst record. Jewelry stores - some owned by
Muslims - have been targeted in the West Midlands, Glasgow and
Oxfordshire. Two travel agencies were attacked in the adjoining towns of
Dunstable and Luton, while an armored truck driver was assaulted in
Birmingham. Robbery is not the only motive; teenagers in London used
niqab-style face coverings when stabbing a younger boy. OTHER CRIMINAL
incidents in the West include East European pickpockets wearing Islamic
headgear in Rotterdam, and a burgundy burka'ed armed robbery at the
People's Bank in Hiddenite, North Carolina (population: 6,000). The man
who abducted Elizabeth Smart, 14, of Salt Lake City, forced her to wear
a niqab-like garment that hid her in plain sight for nine months. In
response, banks, credit unions, jewelry stores and schools are limiting
access to persons who are covered. For example, the Carolina Federal
Credit Union of Cherryville, North Carolina, not far from Hiddenite,
steers anyone wearing hats, sunglasses, or hoods to an isolated teller
where special security measures obtain. Terrorism: Taliban reliance on
burka'ed terrorism, often of the suicide variety, makes Afghanistan the
current world epicenter of this tactic. On two occasions, authorities
foiled would-be suicide bombers before they could act - one a Russian
male convert to Islam with 500 kilograms of explosives in an automobile
in Paktia Province, the other an Afghan woman hiding a bomb in
Jalalabad. Usually, though, violent intentions are hidden by the burka,
becoming apparent only after an attack begins: • A Taliban commander,
Haji Yakub, was killed wearing a burka as he tried to escape a house in
Ghazni Province while attacking US forces. • A Taliban operative,
Mullah Khalid, attacked a police patrol in a crowded market in Farah
Province, killing at least 12 people (seven police, five civilians). •
A suicide bomber in Helmand Province killed a Pashtu-speaking British
soldier before being shot in the forehead. • About 15 suicide bombers
in burkas armed with suicide vests, Kalashnikovs and grenade-launchers
drove to government buildings in Paktia Province and killed 12 people.
Iraq suffered three such incidents (a male insurgent disguised as a
pregnant woman, an attempted assassination of a governor and two suicide
bombers killing 22 Shi'ite pilgrims), while Pakistan suffered two (one,
operating from a rickshaw, killed 15 people). The attack in Mumbai last
year that left nearly 200 dead included a mysterious burka'ed woman.
Elsewhere, incidents involved an attack on French tourists picnicking in
Mauritania and a Molotov cocktail attack in Bahrain. AS A SIDE problem,
new studies in both England and Ireland have found that covered women
(and their breast-fed children) tend to get rickets due to an
insufficiency of vitamin D, which the skin absorbs from sunlight. Oh,
and on the bright side, Herve Jaubert, a Frenchman falsely accused of
embezzling $3.8 million, managed to escape Dubai by donning a niqab. I
have previously called for a ban on "these hideous, unhealthy, socially
divisive, terrorist-enabling and criminal-friendly garments" from public
places.
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