Opposition in Ireland calls for headscarf ban

Ireland calls for headscarf ban

By Zainab Hemani

The two main opposition parties in Ireland recently demanded public schools in Ireland not to allow young Muslim girls to wear the religious headscarf. Labour�s Ruairi Quinn said immigrants who came to Ireland needed to fit into Ireland�s culture.
�If people want to come into a western society that is Christian and secular, they need to conform to the rules and regulations of that country. A manifestation of religious beliefs in such a way is unacceptable and draws attention to those involved. I believe in a public school situation they should not wear a headscarf,� the Labour spokesman on Education and Science said.
Brian Hayes, his Fine Gael counterpart backed this. He told The Muslim News, �I think it would be sensible if we had a uniform policy, in other words that the hijab would not be allowed in public schools because we don�t really allow religious symbols within public education. [However] it is to each individual religious school to decide themselves whether or not they want hijab to be allowed in those schools.�
When asked whether other religious symbols should be allowed in public schools, such as the Christian crucifix or the Jewish kippah, Hayes said that in public schools, we should have the same policy and no huge, overt religious symbols or cultural symbols.
�It should apply for everyone in public education. However, in individual religious schools, it is a matter for Catholics, Protestants and Muslims to decide. My argument is not to do with religious schools that under our constitution have a fundamental right to their own policy, their own ethos. My argument is in relation to public schools. I think we should have one uniform position over there,� he added.
Hayes also told The Muslim News that this issue needed to be debated before a decision was made. �I have no hard and fast position on this. If a position is arrived at the end of that debate which is nuanced and is including with the Irish tradition, then that�s fine with me. We cannot become subservient to different cultural and religious expressions. There are many young Muslim women who don�t wear hijab and they are fine,� he argued and added that public schools in Ireland made up only 20% and that the rest of 80% were religious schools.
When asked for his opinion on the matter, Hassan Mansour from Belfast Islamic Centre told The Muslim News in a statement that he disagreed with Quinn and considered his statements as religious discrimination. �I believe the enforcement of the removal of headscarves would create unrest within the communities. It may cause further disintegration and division, depending on the resources available to the Muslims. If they can, then more Muslim schools would be built to accommodate the students,� he said.
�The headscarf is a religious obligation and Muslim women should have the choice to wear them if they wish to do so and follow the Rules of God. Democracy, which is always waived in front of our faces calls for the freedom of speech and expression, however, we always see that it does not apply to Muslims as it does to others,� he added.
Integration Minister, Conor Lenihan, said he had no problem with students wearing the hijab. �For those that wear the hijab, it�s an issue of modesty. It�s not so long since Irish women wore headscarves to church, so we have to respect that,� he said adding that there have been no cases in Ireland of Muslim students being prevented from wearing the hijab in school. �If there was a school which banned the hijab I would like to know on what grounds,� he stated.
The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) stated that the headscarf had not been an issue until now. NCCRI Director, Philip Watt, said anyone advocating a ban on the hijab might or might not have fully considered the consequences of such a ban in respect of all religious symbols and obligations in schools. �The banning of obligations and symbols in schools which are widely accepted in other parts of Europe and the rest of the world will potentially damage Ireland�s image and interest abroad,� he said.
The Education Act states that school boards should respect diversity in people�s values, beliefs and traditions. However, individual school authorities are responsible for the drawing up of school rules, including school-uniform requirements.

The Muslim News

Muslim headscarf divides, Denmark

Muslim headscarf divides, disturbs in Denmar

COPENHAGEN (AFP) — After years of thinly veiled hostility between Copenhagen and the Muslim world, a beauty pageant and a proposed law have Danes locking horns over one potent symbol of Islam: the headscarf.

When Iraqi-born Huda Falah, 18, won Denmark’s first Miss Headscarf competition earlier this month because of “her blue headscarf and her beautiful, irresistible style,” many Danes simply smiled, shrugged and moved on.

Others saw the pageant as emblematic of the growing influence of Islam in Denmark and what some perceive as its anti-democratic and woman-hostile spirit.

“The headscarf symbolises that women are inferior to men (and) I don’t think this is something we should promote through a beauty competition,” Inger Stoejberg, a high-ranking member of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s Liberal Party said in a newspaper interview ahead of the pageant.

Naser Khader, a Muslim member of parliament, agreed, calling instead for a competition for “the best arguments against the headscarf.”

A number of Imams meanwhile slammed the pageant as disrespectful to Denmark’s 200,000 Muslims, who make up 3.5 percent of the population and the country’s second largest religious community after the state-run Lutheran Church.

The fact that the controversy followed on the heels of a nationwide debate over whether judges should be allowed to sit on the bench while wearing the headscarf, or hijab, made it all the more touchy.

“Some Muslims have the feeling they are being pilloried by Danish society,” sociologist and Liberal Party MP Eyvind Vesselbo told AFP.

Although Denmark counts no Muslim judges, a court ruling late last year that the headscarf would be permitted on the bench sparked public outcry.

Following a virulent campaign by the far-right, anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party (DPP) calling the hijab a “symbol of tyranny” that, if allowed inside a courtroom, could usher in Islamic law in Denmark, Justice Minister Lene Espersen proposed a law to overturn the court ruling.

“We have decided to prohibit the wearing of (all) religious or political symbols while exercising the function of a magistrate, because a judge must be neutral and impartial,” she said at the end of April.

According to a poll published last month, the bill, which is expected to pass in parliament later this year, received support from 51 percent of the Danes, while 44 percent were opposed to a ban.

The polemic, which echoes a similar debate last year on whether the head-covering scarf should be allowed in parliament, was only the latest example of what many Muslims feel is mounting persecution and alienation under Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s centre-right government.

Although DPP is not part of the coalition it is an important ally that has helped Rasmussen stay in power since 2001.

Under its influence, the government, an unwavering supporter of the US-led “war on terror”, has introduced some of Europe’s most restrictive immigration laws, which many feel are specifically aimed at curbing new arrivals from Muslim countries.

Copenhagen has also, in the name of freedom of expression, stubbornly refused to apologise for the publication of 12 cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper in September 2005.

The drawings sparked angry and in some cases deadly protests across the Muslim world in early 2006, with demonstrators torching Danish embassies and flags and boycotting Danish companies.

Another wave of protests came early this year after the most controversial of the drawings, depicting the prophet’s head with a turban in the shape of a bomb with a lit fuse, was widely republished.

Not all government ministers agreed with the decision to ban the headscarf and other religious symbols from the courtroom.

Most critical was Integration Minister Birthe Roenn Hornbech, who slammed DPP’s campaign on the issue as “fanatically anti-Muslim”.

“Without a nuanced debate (we risk) creating many extremists, because the Muslims feel offended,” she warned.

Two Lutheran priests also protested the law proposal in an open letter published last week, claiming it violated the freedom of religion accorded by the Danish constitution and was an assault on all people of faith.

“You begin with the judges, and once you’ve started setting up barriers there is no stopping the process,” Torsten Johannessen and Helge Baden Nielsen wrote.

According to sociologist Vesselbo, “the debate for or against the hijab in court has become a debate for or against Muslims,” at a time when many Danes feel their country and traditions have come under siege by Islamic extremists. That sense of vulnerability was enhanced earlier this month when a suicide bombing at the Danish embassy in Pakistan killed six people. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said was “revenge” for the Prophet Mohammed drawings.

Danish intelligence has also repeatedly warned that Al-Qaeda and other Islamic militants are planning attacks on Danes and Danish interests abroad as well as in Denmark, where integration of the Muslim population is becoming ever more challenging.

The headscarf debate risks “putting back by 10 years” attempts in Denmark to integrate Muslims, Vesselbo warned.

“Muslims feel yet again that they are being trampled on, that they are not welcome, that they are not liked,” he said, insisting that delaying integration “goes against the interests of society.”

AFP

Mother reacts to Obama headscarf ban

Hebba Aref, a young Muslim woman, was banned from sitting behind Sen. Barack Obama during a campaign rally on Monday in Detroit.

Audience members behind the podium cheer prior to the appearance of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Vice President Al Gore at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Monday, June 16, 2008.

by Katie Fretland

Neveen Aref didn’t think her children would be treated differently in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills. She and her husband moved to the United States from Egypt seeking the freedom America promised. But on Monday, her daughter said she was discriminated against at the very place which she hoped would signify unity — a Barack Obama rally.

A campaign volunteer told a friend of Hebba Aref that she could not sit behind the podium where Obama spoke if she wore her hijab, a Muslim headscarf. The space behind the podium is generally filled with pre-screened people, because that space is seen during videos and photographs with the candidate.

“What happened to [Hebba] is unfair,” Neveen Aref said. “We are in 2008. Particularly coming from Obama, I think this ridiculous.”

“Hebba is a lawyer who graduated from one of the best top 10 schools in America,” she said. “I raised her up well with her brothers. We left home because of the dream… to raise our kids in this community.”

“I think this is unfair,” Aref said. “Unfair to her, unfair to everybody who is a minority.”

Aref said her daughter was upset when she returned from the rally. The family lost sleep over what happened, she said.

Her daughter’s friend, Ali Koussan, also told his family what happened at the rally. Koussan’s mother, Lucille Koussan, of Dearborn, Mich., was in the stands at the rally when her son sent her a text message about what happened. At first she thought it was a joke.

“I was definitely disappointed, as were my other sons,” she said. “I personally believe that Sen. Obama wasn’t aware of this particular situation. But I think they would like a personal confirmation that this was a deviated instance.”

For now, the families are keeping an open mind and waiting for the Obama campaign to make the next move. They received an apology from a campaign aide, but they hope for a personal apology to Hebba and a second woman who is reported to have also been banned from that seating area for wearing a headscarf.

The Swamp

Also you can read,

Obama entangled in row over Muslim headscarf

Muslim Women Wearing Head Scarves Refused Seats Behind Obama

Emotions run high over Maclean’s article

B.C. hearing told story promotes hatred of Islam. Others see this as an issue of free speech

Jun 07, 2008 04:30 AM

Western Canada Bureau Chief

VANCOUVER–A high-profile B.C. Human Rights Tribunal heard yesterday that an article published in Maclean’s magazine drew responses from readers that called for the mass killing, deportation and forced conversion of Muslims.

Faisal Joseph, the lawyer representing the Canadian Islamic Congress, said there is a conspicuous link between the 2006 article published in Maclean’s and real evidence of hate.

“There has never been a case in this country where there has been such clear, concise evidence of hatred,” said Joseph in his closing summation yesterday to the three-member tribunal hearing the case.

The tribunal looking into the article, “The Future of Islam,” published by Maclean’s in 2006, yesterday concluded a week of testimony that drew larger than normal crowds for a human rights hearing. The article is an excerpt of a book, America Alone, by Mark Steyn.

The hearing has become polarized between those who see a freedom of speech issue and those who see hatred against a religious community.The tribunal was called after two members of the Canadian Islamic Congress – president Mohamed Elmasry and Dr. Naiyer Habib – complained, saying the article promotes hatred against Islam and incites fears Muslims are taking over the world by criminalizing the religion and its followers.

Dr. Habib, a B.C. cardiologist, testified that a handful of Muslims hold extremist views. He said he was ashamed to see Islam demonized in that way.

But Steyn has countered there is no hate in his article, just the use of incontrovertible statistics about the growing number of Muslims, compared to declining births among women in the European Union, Canada, Japan and Russia.

At the start of the week, Steyn supporters waved blank signs to signal their belief the hearing would lead to a loss of free speech.

“This trial shames this province,” Steyn said outside the hearing yesterday. “No genuinely free society should be this comfortable with state regulation of opinion.”

Steyn and Maclean’s have dared the tribunal to rule against them.

Steyn said yesterday that if his side loses, “we can take it to a real court and if necessary up to the Supreme Court of Canada” to win the “liberties of free-born Canadian citizens that have been taken away from them by tribunals like this.”

During the week, while Steyn supporters continued appearing in the public gallery, a growing number of Muslim Canadians also began attending to show their concerns about what they consider is a growing hatred for their religion.

Read More at Toronto Star

University hijab ban upheld

Jun 06, 2008 04:30 AM

Suzan Fraser

Associated Press

ANKARA–Turkey’s top court has ruled that Islamic headscarves violate secularism and cannot be allowed at universities, deepening a divide between the country’s Islamic-oriented government and secular institutions.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government had tried to allow hijabs at universities as a matter of personal and religious freedom.

But yesterday’s Constitutional Court verdict said constitutional amendments that were passed by parliament in February went against secularism.

The headscarf issue is an explosive one in Turkey, where the government is locked in a power struggle with secular groups that have support from the military and other state institutions.

The verdict is likely to bode ill for the government. Turkey’s chief prosecutor is seeking to disband the ruling party on grounds that it is “the focal point of anti-secular activities” in a separate case at the Constitutional Court.

The prosecutor – who has also asked that Erdogan and other party officials be banned from politics for five years – has cited attempts to allow headscarves at universities as a case in point.

Many see the hijab as an emblem of political Islam, and consider any attempt to allow it in schools as an attack against modern Turkey’s secular laws.

There was no immediate comment from the government. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said the government wanted to see the court’s reasoning behind the decision before commenting.

But Bekir Bozdag, a senior legislator of the ruling party, said “the Constitutional Court has overstepped its power and interfered in democracy.”

“However, this verdict is binding and will be obeyed,” he added.

Devlet Bahceli, the leader of a nationalist party that backed the amendments, predicted the decision would accelerate “the divide over religion.”

The court’s 11 judges voted 9-2 to annul the amendments, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. At least seven votes would be required to disband the party.

A brief statement from the court said the amendments were annulled because they were in violation of some articles of the constitution, including one that states “the Turkish Republic is a secular state” and another declaring that altering the secular nature of the republic “cannot even be proposed.”

Onur Oymen, a senior legislator of the opposition Republican People Party, said the verdict spelled the end to such amendments.

“From now on, no one will be able to attempt to change the Constitution,” Oymen told NTV television.

“This decision reminds the ruling party what it can or cannot do despite winning 47 per cent of the votes,” Husamettin Cindoruk, former parliament speaker, told NTV television.

“This decision has set the boundaries and reshaped the state.”

In February, parliament passed constitutional amendments to allow headscarves to be worn at universities – but not in schools or state offices. The secular opposition immediately appealed the ruling to the top court.

Turkey’s 70 million people are predominantly Muslim.

But secularists feared that lifting the ban at universities would erode Turkey’s secular nature and create pressure on all female students to cover themselves.

Pious female students have been forced to remove their hijabs at the entrance to campuses. Some have attended classes wearing wigs.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded modern Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, banned religious attire in daily life.

The ban has been vigorously enforced in public office and schools after a 1980 military coup

Toronto star

hijab ban may cause tensions

Intercultural adviser warns hijab ban may cause tensions

BANNING THE hijab or other religious symbols which are important to minorities is “likely to result in tension with those communities where no tension existed before”, according to the director of the State’s advisory body on intercultural affairs.

In a detailed intervention in the debate over whether Muslim pupils should be allowed wear the headscarf in State schools, Philip Watt of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism said most schools had already found their own “sensible and sensitive compromise” by allowing it to be worn provided the colour was consistent with the school uniform.

He argued that it made sense for boards of management to continue to decide on future policy, with some non-prescriptive guidance from the Department of Education, but stressed that allowing the hijab did not mean that all religious symbols and obligations should necessarily be allowed.

Among the issues that schools would have to consider were health and safety, and the need to maintain effective communication in classes.

Mr Watt suggested that those advocating a ban on the hijab “may, or may not, have fully considered the consequences of such a ban, for example in respect of all religious symbols and obligations in Irish schools”. While much of the focus had been on the Muslim headscarf, other religious symbols were worn in Irish schools, including the Sikh kara (a bangle), the Sikh patka (a scarf worn by boys and young men), the Jewish kippah or skullcap and Christian crucifixes. The pioneer badge, the sacred heart and crucifixes are worn by some teachers.

“The banning of religious symbols or obligations solely aimed at one religious community or indeed all religious faiths is potentially discriminatory and likely to be tested in Irish law,” Mr Watt said. “In 2004 the French government considered the issuing of a ban on the wearing of the hijab in French schools, but after legal considerations decided that the only way that such a ban would be legal would be to ban virtually all religious symbols and obligations, including large crucifixes.”

Fine Gael education spokesman Brian Hayes and his Labour counterpart Ruairí Quinn said separately last week that they opposed the wearing of the hijab in the country’s secondary schools, though Mr Hayes made a distinction between State-run VEC schools and those run by religious orders, which decide their own rules. “There is enough segregation in Ireland without adding this to it. Segregating in this way is not helpful to Muslims and not helpful to anybody,” Mr Hayes said.

In yesterday’s statement, Mr Watt also sought to correct the impression that all Muslims are recent immigrants. Just under a third of the 32,500 Muslims in the Republic are Irish.

An Irish Times / TNS mrbi poll conducted last week found that 48 per cent of people feel the wearing of hijabs should be allowed in State schools. Some 39 per cent disagree and 13 per cent have no opinion.

The Irish Times

Muslim anger at Opposition calls for school ban on hijab

MUSLIM girls should not be allowed to wear a headscarf in public schools, the two main opposition parties said last night.

Labour’s Ruairi Quinn said immigrants who come to Ireland need to conform to the culture of this country.

“If people want to come into a western society that is Christian and secular, they need to conform to the rules and regulations of that country,” the Labour spokesman on education and science told the Irish Independent.

His comments come amid mounting controversy over guidelines on the wearing of the hijab, commonly worn by Muslim girl in state schools.

His stance on the issue was backed by his Fine Gael counterpart Brian Hayes, who says it makes “absolute sense” that there is one uniform for everyone.

The Fine Gael education spokesman said the wearing of the hijab was not a fundamental requirement to be a Muslim, but more an example of modesty and cultural mores.

Recently, Nicholas Sweetman, principal of Gorey Community School, Co Wexford, called for official direction to bring an end to the practice of schools imposing divergent policies.

The Wexford controversy followed the Department of Education’s refusal to offer advice to the school when a Muslim couple asked last September that their daughter be allowed to wear the headscarf in class.

Mr Quinn said immigrants should live by Irish laws and conform to Irish norms.

“Nobody is formally asking them to come here. In the interests of integration and assimilation, they should embrace our culture,” he said.

He added: “Irish girls don’t wear headscarves. A manifestation of religious beliefs in such a way is unacceptable and draws attention to those involved. I believe in a public school situation they should not wear a headscarf.”

Mr Hayes said Ireland should not be going down the route of multiculturalism.

“It makes absolute sense that there would be one uniform for everyone. The wearing of the hijab is not about religiosity, it is more an example of modesty. It is not a fundamental requirement to be a Muslim,” he said.

But Fine Gael and Labour’s position on the controversy sparked an angry reaction.

Islamic Society of Ireland spokesperson Summayah Kenna branded the comments by Mr Hayes and Mr Quinn as “baffling”, adding the hijab was a religious obligation.

She said she was “shocked” by Mr Hayes’ assertion that it was otherwise, and urged him to check up on his information.

And director of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism Philip Watt said the “ill-thought” comments from both political figures were “disappointing”.

Last night, a spokesperson for Integration Minister Conor Lenihan said he had no problem with students wearing the hijab.

“For those that wear the hijab, it’s an issue of modesty. It’s not so long since Irish women wore headscarves to church, so we have to respect that,” the spokesperson said.

At present, individual school authorities are responsible for the drawing up of school rules, including school-uniform requirements.

But the Education Act requires school boards to have respect for the diversity of values, beliefs and traditions.

The Department of Education said last night it had asked Mr Lenihan to consider the matter in the context of the development of an Intercultural Education Strategy.

It said nothing would be ruled in or out until after talks take place.

- Patricia McDonagh

Independent