The burka is an alien, cultural monstrosity…. and it CAN be banned in Britain
By Dr Taj Hargey
Last updated at 2:26 PM on 12th April 2011
The practice of face-masking using a burka or niqab is not mentioned in the Koran. All that is required under Islamic law is that both genders dress modestlyThe decision by the French government to outlaw all forms of public face-masking, including the burka and niqab, is welcomed by all thinking Muslims around the world.
The Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford which has pioneered an enlightened and egalitarian Islam salutes France for its bold legislative steps to eradicate this hideous tribal dress code that is deliberately given a completely false veneer of Islam.
However, since Britain tackles social problems in its own particular way and has different ways of doing things, the scourge of this foreign face-masking fad that is unfortunately growing in popularity in the Muslim community has to be confronted imaginatively and not exclusively through legal channels.
What is critical is that every effort should be made to disparage and discourage this tribal trend and cultural custom from infesting British society.
France, like other Western nations, has sovereign rights to implement any laws passed by democratic consent. Its National Assembly overwhelmingly approved legislation making all facial concealment in public a criminal act. Although France is entitled to exercise its legislative powers, this is too blunt an instrument to combat the blight of burkas on Europe’s streets.
What is required is an orchestrated and multilateral strategy to expose the twisted theology and cultural sexism that underpins this pernicious foreign fashion.
It is important to understand why the burka and niqab have been expediently transformed into an emblem of Islam. Under the rapacious influence of Saudi Wahhabism and other extremist sects, many Muslim women in France and elsewhere have been conditioned by the repressive masculine fraternity that it is a religious necessity to completely conceal female identity in public.
All the Koran requires is that both genders dress modestly. But the misogynistic clergy defies the Koran text and distorts the reputed sayings (hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad (recorded over 250 years after his death) to elevate an archaic pre-Islamic convention into a contemporary religious imperative.
France has sovereign rights to implement any laws passed by democratic consent but its banning of wearing veils in public is too blunt an instrument to combat the blight of burkas on Europe’s streetsSadly, even here in the UK, most uninformed Muslims have succumbed to this vile Wahhabi-Deobandi propaganda to condone female face-masking on spurious theological grounds or inconsistent and bogus civil rights arguments.
Face-masking is a pre-Islamic Byzantine and Persian practice and is non-existent in the Koran. Indeed, since Muslim women are banned from hiding their faces while praying or when they perform the pilgrimage, why do they need to do so in the public realm?
Dr Taj Hargey, an Imam of the Oxford Islamic Congregation, believes burkas are the product of male chauvinism and not religious necessityWomen should be reminded that as face-masking is not found in Islam’s transcendent text, it is therefore a non-Koranic and un-Islamic habit, not a fundamental feature of their religion. Islam is not a faith of superficial symbolism.
All educated Muslims must resist the importation of this Saudi and Taliban face-mask, not only because it is cultural, non-religious and a security risk, but also because it disempowers women by making them invisible and isolated while discriminating against men who cannot hide their faces in public.
Furthermore, face-masking inhibits effective social interaction and community cohesion. Moreover, it poses a burgeoning health hazard as fully shrouded women are not exposed to natural sunlight thereby lacking essential Vitamin D, which leads directly to increasing rickets and infant morbidity in the UK.
Forward-looking and progressive British Muslims who resist the Talibanisation of Islam in the UK should lead a coordinated campaign to rid this country of this alien cultural monstrosity.
Two days before the French law became operative, a group of integrated Muslims in Oxford burned the burka as a mark of our collective disgust and disdain.
What needs to be done now is to introduce a twin track strategy of LMR (lampooning, mocking and ridiculing face-masking) which will be combined with a systematic programme of re-education and information that will empower Muslim women and make them realise that this tribal rag and cultural cloth is not intrinsic but incidental to Islam. It is purely the product of male chauvinism and not religious necessity.
Dr Taj Hargey is Imam of the Oxford Islamic Congregation and Chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1375770/France-burka-ban-Burka-alien-cultural-monstrosity-CAN-banned-Britain.html#ixzz1JJQgCZ85
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