Burqa - another Trojan Horse into secularising Islam

Issues Explained
Monday, 29 June 2009
President Sarkosy’s call for a ban on the burqa shows secular extremists have run out of patience with civic society advocates in their battle to secularise Islam. The Trojan Horse is the so-called ‘burqa’ - the way into secularlising Islam, its guidance, laws and edicts. Secular extremists like Sarkozy argue that the burqa or, ‘the cage’ as described by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, is a stark symbol of subjugation and its growth in society is unstoppable unless it is banished. The many new civic society advocates cropping up across Muslim communities also abhor the burqa and what it apparently symbolises. However, they assert that the way to rid society of the burqa is to ‘empower’ Muslim women through so-called debate and discussion. Patronisingly implying the Muslim women will eventually see the ‘light’. Despite the blatant contradiction, secular extremists have no qualms in advocating proscription to enforce individual freedom – much like spreading democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan by deploying tanks, missiles and helicopter gunships. While appearing more conciliatory towards Muslim attitudes and Islamic values, using the tactic of winning hearts and minds, the new civic society advocates suggest Muslim women will willing abandon the burqa in their journey to integration and then full assimilation due to the so-called superiority of secular liberal values. The politics of the Trojan Horse tactics is that faced with the inflammatory voices from extremist ‘wolves’, Muslims will sheepishly fall into the laps of the apparently more agreeable civic society advocates. In reality both are deferent means to the same ends. The reality is Muslim women are confidently adopting Islamic values whether through the hijab, jilbab or niqab in spite of door-to-door coverage of secular liberal values in western societies. Many young Muslim women are wearing the Islamic dress even though their own beloved mothers did not always fully adorn it. Muslim women wearing the Islamic dress fully participate in society as doctors; teachers; scientists; care workers; students etc despite being falsely portrayed as uneducated and indoctrinated child rearing machines. Freeing Muslim women from subjection is the new mantra in western discourse against Islam. Muslim women do not need condescending lectures about how they are oppressed and they don’t know it. Muslim women are fully capable of deciding whether it is Islam or western values that cause women to be seen and exploited as mere sexual commodities for the pleasure of men. Islam, its laws and guidance came to liberate ‘man’ from the oppression of ‘man’. Secular liberal values ensure man’s oppression on man whether the rich over the poor; the white over the black; or men over women. Islam liberates man (and woman) from the oppression of man to submission to the Creator – Who is neither man or women, or black or white. Add this Article to your Bookmark site Set as favorite Bookmark Email this Trackback(0) TrackBack URI for this entry Comments (3) Subscribe to this comment's feed H Khan: ... During the Roman civilisation, a woman was regarded as a slave. The Greeks considered her a commodity to be bought and sold. Early Christianity regarded women as temptresses, responsible for the fall of Adam (AS) from Heaven [1]. In India, the Hindus until recently considered their women worse than death, pests, serpents or even Hell. A wife’s life ended with the death of her husband. In the past, a widow had to jump into the flames of her husband’s funeral pyre [2]. In pre-Islamic Arabia, a woman was treated as a cause for grief and unhappiness and baby girls were sometimes buried alive after birth. This is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an when Allah says: “And when the female (infant) buried alive (as the Pagan Arabs used to do) is questioned. For what sin was she killed?” TMQ: 81:8-9. In France, in 587 CE a conference was held to study the status of women and to determine whether a woman could truly be considered a human being or not. Henry the VIII in England forbade the reading of the Bible by women and throughout the middle-ages the Catholic Church treated women as second-class citizens. In the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, male and female students were not given the same rights until 1964. Before 1850, women were not counted as citizens in England and English women had no personal rights until 1882 [3]. If we keep this status in mind and look into the position of the women in Islam, we must conclude that Islam liberated women from the dark age of obscurity, insecurity and being non-entities fourteen hundred years ago! Throughout history men and women have never been treated the same. Islam has given women the right position and has not attempted to violate divine laws. Other religions and man-made systems have failed to define the exact and appropriate role of women. In the West, women have been reduced almost to a plaything of enjoyment and fancy. Women have tended to degrade themselves probably unwittingly in modern times for the sake of real or imaginary equality. They have become objects of exploitation by men and the slogans of liberty and equality have virtually reduced them to playful commodities. Even a cursory look at advertisements in the media shows how women continue to be exploited for commercial purposes. The display of scantly-clothed and even naked women to exploit male desires has become the hallmark of Western materialism. They have neither gained liberty nor achieved full equality; rather they have lost their natural place in the home. Excerpts from page 160 & 162 of the book, ‘ISLAM: Beliefs and Teachings’, by Ghulam Sarwar, 8th Ed. Muslim Educational Trust. ISBN 0 907261 45 0. Notes: [1] – Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 19, p. 909 (1977 edition) [2] – Islam: beliefs, legislation and morals, Dr Ahmad Shalaby, p. 308, (1970 Cairo) [3] – Ibid – pp. 312, 314 1 report abuse vote down vote up July 03, 2009 - 03:26:22 Votes: +0 Abu Yasir: ... keep fighting to enlighten the truth of Islam. Allahu Akbar 2 report abuse vote down vote up July 02, 2009 - 15:54:49 Votes: +0 A sister: ... Mashallah good article it’s to the point instead of just going around this issue. The West has lost the intellectual battle of winning over the Muslims and presenting the Western way of life as an example that is why they are resorting to forcing their corrupt views of life on this Ummah. The Western women is in fact oppressed by the way she is treated in society as a sex object and in her competition to be equal to men in everything. Inshallah the only way forward for the Ummah is by working towards the complete implementation of Islam as a way of life in all aspects including political, economical and social. Muslim women feel liberated by wearing the burka as it does not oppress but liberates them knowing that they are doing this to gain the pleasure of Allah (swt). 3 report abuse vote down vote up June 30, 2009 - 11:00:34 Votes: +1 Write comment Show/hide comment form Name Email Comment smaller \| bigger I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

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