Should Muslim Women Wear Veils?
To see or not to see: the threat within our society?
The wearing of veils by Muslim women is a controversial issue and also raises questions about tolerating often misunderstood religious symbols.
Leader of the House of Commons and former British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, sparked controversy in Britain recently by appearing to criticise Muslim women for wearing veils over their faces. Believing that this is a barrier to community cohesion, he suggested the women should remove their veils to allow face-to-face communityrelations. But whether this amounts to religious intolerance is controversial, even among Muslims.
While the Islamic Human Rights Commission said the comment amounted to discrimination, the Muslim Council of Britain said it understood Mr Straw's point of view. A protest was held by Muslims during the MP’s surgery in his home constituency of Blackburn, England, but other Muslims, including a Muslim MP in Birmingham, supported Straw.
But before condemning or condoning, we need to be very careful about what was actually said. Jack Straw wasn’t demanding that Muslim women remove their veils, but that “wearing the full veil was bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult” and he asked them to remove their veils so that they could engage in “face-to-face” conversations and he could “see what the other person means, and not just hear what they say.” Is this really asking more than requesting teenagers to remove their hoodies or motorcyclists to take off their crash helmets?
Following Muslims’ involvement in terrorist attacks, too many people associate Islam with extremism and don’t understand the true meaning of the religion. Islam is based on peace, submission and devotion, but Islamaphobia has now become synonymous with being forthright, just as Adolf Hitler represents all Germans and all disaffected high school pupils commit college murders.
Wearing a veil, or niqab, is not taught in the Qur’an but is rather a hadith (example) set by Muslims after the death of Muhammad (peace be upon him). It isn’t taught explicitly in the Holy Book but is a tradition among some Muslims. It represents a sign of respect before Allah and is a protection against lustful males, who can get to know the woman for who she is and not what she looks like.
As one verse states: “O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters and the believing women to draw their outer garments around them when they go out or are among men.”
But, in our fragile world, under what circumstances should we accept people whose faces we can’t see? Religious intolerance is the current focus of society mainly because of what we don’t understand about religions. Islam teaches as much about terrorism as Catholicism does about priests committing abuse.
The choice here isn’t about whether Jack Straw was right or wrong in his comments. It isn’t even about whether veils should be worn or not. Rather it's about equality in and threats to our society and whether we view people who are different as people who are also dangerous.
Beliefs and opinions are one thing but whether we view them as a personal attack or treat people differently because of our ignorance of them is another.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Ben Hughes's Religious Intolerance topic, please visit the Discussions page.