President Sarkozy’s proposal to ban the ‘Burka’ may certainly be a populist measure playing to the latent racism and Islamophobia of the French public. However, the real origins of this policy, as with the previous headscarf ban, is not secular fundamentalism but a flawed philosophical conception of liberty.
No matter how much we protest against the apparent flaws of secularism, or the ignorance and intolerance of Sarkozy – without understanding their philosophical background, the reality is we are talking to people who speak a totally different language. Read more…
Last week I was called by a CNN journalist in London requesting me to help them in a programme they were making on the moderation programme supposedly introduced in Mosques, prisons and schools by the former [UK] Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. I suggested they call two large mosques in London and ask them if they have any classes or programmes taking place in the Mosques.
Yesterday, they called again informing me that they were not able to get in touch with anyone who would comment or knew the government’s proposal and requested me to do a short interview to be broadcast in the evening news.
Knowing that the media is not always Muslim friendly, and the reputation of CNN on covering these topical subjects, plus the previous programmes and interviews I had done for CNN and others (which did not always go as planned) Read more…
Categories: Abdullah Hasan Tags: extremism, IFE, Imams, jacque smith, MAB, MCB, Mosques, pakistan, prisons, radicalism, schools
So, we are witnessing some ill-aimed swings at the veil. Again. There seems to be a shortage of imagination.
At any rate, we can congratulate Nicolas Sarkozy in managing to simultaneously display ignorance and a shortage of logic. The French President, as we know, has lashed out at the veil claiming it undermines a woman’s dignity. So shall we assume the auctioning of his wife’s nude pictures at Christies, New York, (which he had no problem with) is hardly undermining of a woman’s dignity? Read more…
President Sarkozy’s remarks about the Burka or the face veil reminds us about the intellectual foundation of France and most of the western nations, including our own country Britain. Since the 1789 French revolution, secularism continues to dominate the political and social intellectual milieu of the country promoting liberalist and capitalist agendas in all spheres of life. “laicite”, a concept that is cemented in the constitution of France believes in, among other things, the separation of church from the state, and the division of the private and public spheres. It is from this paradigm that Mr Sarkozy seeks to alienate a Muslim community reaching a staggering number of five million.
He said, “We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity,” and “That is not the idea that the French republic has of women’s dignity.” He also said, “The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic.”
Read more…
Honesty is one of the universal principles which all civilised communities and peoples agree with. Without it individuals and the society at large will be in complete turmoil and live in suspicion of each other. When friends, family, work colleagues and couples are not honest with each other, to create and develop a society that is conducive to the equilibrium that God desires for us, then the life of those and others in the wider society will be in jeopardy. Read more…
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