According to the BBC..

Muslim leader urges hijab caution

Dr Badawi said the hijab should not be worn if it caused attacks.
A leading Muslim figure has suggested Islamic women should stop wearing veils, amid a rise in hate crimes.
Dr Zaki Badawi, head of the Muslim College in London and chairman of the Council of Mosques and Imams, issued the advice amid a wave of race attacks.
Religious hate crimes, mostly against Muslims, have risen six-fold in London since the bombings, new figures show.
There were 269 such crimes in the three weeks after 7 July, compared with 40 in the same period of 2004.
Most were verbal abuse and minor assaults, but damage to mosques and property with a great "emotional impact" also occurred, police said.
Dress is meant to protect from harm, not to invite it.
Dr Badawi said: "In the present tense situation, with the rise of attacks on Muslims, we advise Muslim women who fear being attacked physically or verbally to remove their hijab so as not to be identified by those hostile to Muslims.
"A woman wearing the hijab...could suffer aggression from irresponsible elements. Therefore, she ought not to wear it. Dress is meant to protect from harm, not to invite it."
He said the Koran justified abandoning the hijab, saying it should help Muslim women be "identified and not molested", but if it led to harassment the ruling was it should not be worn.
Dr Badawi is seen as a moderate Islamic leader.
'Communities retreating'
Met Police Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur said he had never seen so much anger among young Muslims.
Counter-terrorism powers are not targeting any community in particular but are targeting terrorists
Hazel BlearsHome Office minister
Communities were frustrated by the increased use of stop-and-search and the new "shoot-to-kill to protect" policy for suicide bombers, he said.
"There is no doubt that incidents impacting on the Muslim community have increased."
And he warned: "It can lead to these communities completely retreating and not engaging at a time when we want their engagement and support."
Mr Ghaffur said there were 68 "faith hate" crimes in London alone, in the first three days after the 7 July attacks which killed 52. "

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8 comments:

أبو سنان said...

Real or imagined, this is the reason why some women in the USA have stopped wearing the veil, including an Iraqi lady in my office. It is also the reason why many brothers, fathers and husbands are doing their best to keep their family members from wearing it. Often the women disregard what the male family members say. Like one such young Palestinian woman told me "I feel I owe it to God, not to my brother or father. If I am killed for my religion, then I go to heaven. Either way I win."

It is kind of the exact opposite stereotype that some people have of the male family member forcing their women to wear it.

SillyBahrainiGirl said...

yeah moodz.. it happens to the best of us at times ;)

it's summer... dont lose ur kool! it isnt worth it ;(

SillyBahrainiGirl said...

no problem...c ya around ;)

Jane said...

Dr Badawi is w well thought of man in the UK his warnings are meant with the best intentions. However as an Athesist with a Christian upbringing I will feel ashamed if any Muslim women feels she has to stop wearing the hijab because of islamophobia here in Britian. Because it means what I believe in, tolerance, freedom of expression has been stamped out a little bit more in the UK.

But enough of the seriousness thank you for wishing me Happy Birthday!

SillyBahrainiGirl said...

u are more than welcome...
u r right.. this world is becoming more and more intolerant as the days go by!

SillyBahrainiGirl said...

shawarmaboy,
it is with a heavy heart that i have to tell u that the other night me and hubby decided to have a shawarma party

we raided this shawarma shop and bought shawarma for about BD10, which we and a bunch of other people feasted on until the wee hours of the morning ;)

does this make u feel any better?

SillyBahrainiGirl said...

oops.. forgot to mention that it's from this new shawarma shop called shawarma, which serves it in different flavours:

the native bahraini
the sizzling mexican
the spicy indian
french
italian
chilly, etc

Cassandra Says said...

All this talk of shawarmas is making me hungry.
I'm very sad to see the rise in intolerance in the UK. Here in the US I actually had some idiot at a ticket desk try to stop me getting on a plane because I had Saudi stamps in my passport ("what were you doing there?"), but I had hoped the madness would not spread to the UK. How very depressing.

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