French police, youths clash after veil incident

1 hour ago
NICOLAS GARRIGA and ANGELA CHARLTON
AP
Source:Yahoo News

TRAPPES, France (AP) — About 250 people hurling projectiles clashed with police firing tear gas west of Paris, in apparent protest over enforcement of France's ban on Islamic face veils. Five people were injured and six detained in the violence, authorities said Saturday.

The interior minister urged calm and dialogue, insisting on both the need for public order and respect for France's Muslims. The incident in the town of Trappes on Friday night reflected sporadic tensions between police upholding France's strict policies of secularism and those who accuse authorities of discriminating against France's No. 2 religion.

A few garbage dumpsters in the area were torched and a bus shelter shattered in the Trappes unrest. Spent tear gas capsules lay on the road Saturday near the police station at the center of the violence.

A 14-year-old boy suffered a serious eye injury in the violence, from a projectile of unknown provenance, Prosecutor Vincent Lesclous told reporters. Four police officers were injured and six people were detained in the violence, said an official with the regional police administration.

The violence came after a gathering of about 200-250 people to protest the arrest of a man whose wife was ticketed Thursday for wearing a face veil. The husband tried to strangle an officer who was doing the ticketing, the prosecutor said.

France has barred face veils since 2011. Proponents of the ban — which enjoyed wide public support across the political spectrum — argue the veil oppresses women and contradicts France's principles of secularism, which are enshrined in the constitution. In addition to small fines or citizenship classes for women wearing veils, the law includes a hefty 30,000 euro ($39,370) fine for anyone who forces a woman to wear one.

The law affects only a very small proportion of France's millions of Muslims who wear the niqab, with a slit for the eyes, or the burqa, with a mesh screen for the eyes. But some Muslim groups argue the law stigmatizes moderate Muslims, too. France also bans headscarves in schools and public buildings.

The Collective Against Islamophobia in France urged Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who recently joined Muslim leaders in a fast-breaking sundown feast for holy month of Ramadan, to crack down on insults and attacks against Muslims.

Valls urged calm after the Trappes violence, and pledged to stand against "all those who attack Muslim buildings or our compatriots of Muslim faith."

But he also came down firmly against those who attack police.

"There is no valid reason for the violence seen in Trappes," he told reporters in the southern city of Marseille, which has seen a wave of urban unrest. "The law should be applied, and applies to everyone."

The CCIF said in a statement that it was contacted by the veiled woman ticketed in Trappes on Thursday, and that she said the police officer yanked her by the veil and pushed her mother.

Police argue they are doing their jobs and that veiled women are breaking a well-known law.

Trappes is deploying extra riot police Saturday night to try to head off any new violence.

Trappes was among many towns around France that saw rioting in 2005 by disillusioned youth in neglected housing projects, many with origins in former French colonies in North and West Africa.

Valls acknowledged the "difficulty our fellow citizens have living in these working class neighborhoods, especially young people. What they need is jobs, hope, training."

"Only in dialogue can we find the solutions to the problems of our society, of joblessness, the sentiment of discrimination and exclusion," he urged.

"Violence leads to nothing."

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The Niqab: What is it... is it important,... and the controversy over it

By Sheila Quinn

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Definition: The Niqab is a face cover which sometimes covers the eyes and sometimes doesn't. It is part of The Islamic Faith, but... it is not obligatory! Some Muslims think that it is obligatory, some know that it isn't... while others think that it has nothing to do with The Islamic Faith.

I, myself, wear niqab. I do so not because I think that it is obligatory, but because I feel inside myself that I should wear it. It is from my conscience that I have decided to wear niqab.

I write this post as a response to what is happening in Egypt. I think that it is totally unacceptable for a Muslim country to make rules against Islamic behavior. Muslim women should be commended for wearing the niqab- not harassed for it.

A few weeks ago the Deen of Al-Azhar University (a prominent Islamic University in Egypt) made a point of harassing a teenage girl in high school (secondary school) for wearing niqab. He repeatedly ordered her to take it off. She refused... after repeatedly ordering her to take it off, she finally did. Than he made a insulting remark about how she wasn't beautiful enough to warrant covering her face.

Such behavior is totally unacceptable for any Muslim. A Muslim does not humiliate another Muslim. Yet, this "Islamic Scholar" humiliated a teenage girl in public. Afterward, he misused his position as a "Scholar" to make a fatwa (Islamic ruling). He decided to make an Islamic ruling that the niqab is not part of The Islamic Faith. It is obvious that he is a puppet of The Egyptian Government.

Now,I have read in an article from a Non-Muslim source that the Egyptian Government is not allowing the niqab to be worn in public schools. The Egyptian Government is obviously attempting to corrupt the Islamic practice of Muslim women. Why are they doing this? Because they are not only corrupt themselves,... but also because they are tyrannical as well. They are obviously under the influence of Neo-Colonialists.

A veiled attack on freedom in France’s niqab debate

Trying to support Sarkozy’s decision by arguing that niqab is not a religious obligation is absurd, and beside the point. Women in France being allowed to wear niqab if they choose to has very little to do with France’s respect of Islamic law. It has much more to do with the French government’s respect of minority rights, and of the basic human rights of the few Muslim women choosing to wear niqab in the country.

Wednesday, July 8,2009 02:01

by Ibrahim El Houdaiby

French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s comments on the burka or niqab (face cover) have stirred a huge debate in France and in the Muslim world. Sarkozy argued while addressing the French Parliament that niqab is a “sign of [women] debasement” that should be outlawed in France. A parliament commission is reviewing the issue to make recommendations.

Trying to support Sarkozy’s decision by arguing that niqab is not a religious obligation is absurd, and beside the point
I do agree that niqab would be a sign of debasement if women were forced to wear it. Taliban’s government forced Afghani women to wear it, and the Saudi regime forces still beats men whose wives walk around the streets of Riyadh without a face veil. Both regimes have been constantly criticized by Muslims and Westerners alike for their human rights abuses and discriminatory positions. But these positions are not any better than that adopted by the French president, forcing women not to wear niqab. Both positions reflect a belief that the individual woman in unqualified and incapable of making decisions for herself.

Trying to support Sarkozy’s decision by arguing that niqab is not a religious obligation is absurd, and beside the point. Women in France being allowed to wear niqab if they choose to has very little to do with France’s respect of Islamic law. It has much more to do with the French government’s respect of minority rights, and of the basic human rights of the few Muslim women choosing to wear niqab in the country.

I do have respect for women’s individual choices, and I do believe that no law should define what they should or should not wear
Ironically, this argument comes from the very same people who have for long criticized Muslim scholars for “hijacking” religious text and dictating what interpretation are to be viewed as authentic. Their argument has always been that there are no priests in Islam, and that the holy text is open for interpretation. This rationale is being completely reversed now. My good friend Mona Eltahawy puts herself in that exact position by arguing in her New York Times piece that niqab has “nothing to do with Islam but everything to do with the hatred for women at the heart of the extremist ideology that preaches it.”

I am not a supporter of niqab, and I like the vast majority of Muslim scholars I do not view it as a religious obligation. But the fact is that there is a large school of Muslim scholars who believe that it is a religious obligation, and their views should be respected as long as they do not violate the individual woman’s freedom of choice. I do have respect for women’s individual choices, and I do believe that no law should define what they should or should not wear.

I wrote an OpEd some two years ago supporting Eltahawy when the Muslim Brotherhood’s Chief Akef called her naked for meeting him without hijab (headscarf). In that article I made it clear that I “support Akef’s stance on wearing the hijab, and like him view it as a religious obligation,” but not wearing it “makes a woman unveiled, not naked.” I asserted that while hijab in an obligation, I believe “it is an individual woman’s choice to uphold it — a choice that the state should not interfere in.”

In fact, the ban on niqab reflects a trend that has been growing in France over the past decades; political diversity with cultural intolerance
I adopt the same position vis-à-vis niqab. I do not believe it is a religious obligation, and I believe it detaches women who decide to wear it from the society; more specifically from men in the society. But no law should criminalize or restrict an individual’s decision to decrease her social integration, and niqab is not the only manifestation of detachment and should not be singled out and banned. People should be encouraged to engage in their societies through illustrating tolerance, appreciation of diversity and respect for individuals’ choices, not through fascistic measures that dictate what a woman should wear.

In fact, the ban on niqab reflects a trend that has been growing in France over the past decades; political diversity with cultural intolerance. The French government is adopting a version of secularism that is not separating state and religion, but is using the state to dictate specific religious, cultural and social values. Those who accept these values are integrated into the system, while those who rejected it are banned, and marginalized.

I am afraid the notion of liberalism is being twisted to undermine women rights. In fact I would quote President Obama from his speech in Cairo last month saying: “It is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit – for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism.”


* Written for AL ARABIYA. Ibrahim El Houdaiby is a freelance columnist and researcher. A graduate of the American University in Cairo, he holds a B.A. in political science and is working towards a M.A. in Islamic Studies at the High Institute of Islamic Studies.

It’s not about Niqab, it’s about credibility

Hoda Ramzy, another student, was expelled from Al-Azhar Institute in Shoubra, today, for merely wearing a niqab.

Monday, October 12,2009 19:31

by Dalia Ziada

Hoda Ramzy, another student, was expelled from Al-Azhar Institute in Shoubra, today, for merely wearing a niqab. She and her colleagues who face the same problems with the administration decided to file a complaint to President Mubarak in protest. On Facebook, a new group was launched to defend women’s right to wear the niqab at school. Their argument revolves around the fact that if you gave the right to “motabarijat” [i.e. the uncovered women] to go around freely, then you should give equal rights to covered women.

On local state-owned media and independent media channels, the controversy over niqab is endless. There is a huge verbal battle between Salafi sheikhs and Al-Azhar scholars. The latter is viewing the niqab as harmful to society, while the former believes this is the ideal dress of the Muslim woman. Both have very persuasive arguments.

I visited Alexandria couple of weeks ago. One of the most shocking scenes I saw there was the huge number of women in niqab. Some of my relatives wore it too. They are very convinced that this is how Muslim woman should look. Some of them told me that to “show more gratitude to Allah, the creator of our precious bodies, we should be covered from head to toe with three layers.” When I asked her who told her this, she said a Sheikh on Al-Nas TV (one of the most popular Salafi TV channels in Egypt).

On my latest shopping tour, about one month ago, a newly married friend of mine joined me. We had not seen each other for more than a year. She is an ordinary young woman who has always been open-minded and loving life. When she got engaged to her current husband, she wore the hijab (scarf) which most Egyptian women wear. I was surprised when I saw her shopping for Abbayas (long baggy dress). She then told me that upon the command of her husband, she will change her dress to wear the niqab. She is not convinced that the niqab is a divine order; but she “loves her husband and wants to obey him.”

It is true the number of women wearing niqab in Egypt is increasing daily. Every woman has her own reasoning for wearing it. This is not a matter of question now. We are not arguing whether it is a basic right for women to dress the way they want. This is absolute and no one can deny it. We are not even searching for the reasons or key players behind this unexpected change of Al-Azhar policy from the extreme right to the extreme left. Everybody knows that Al-Azhar played a great role in fueling religious “piety” in Egypt over the past five years. They were pushed by the state to do so as an attempt to re-attract the already religious Egyptian public who were highly influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood group.

The Muslim Brotherhood represented itself as an independent voice defending moderate Islam versus the state owned voice promoting another version of Islam tailored according to the wishes of the regime. The political Islamist group succeeded in attracting a large number of supporters by emphasizing Islamic principles as the solution for Egypt’s economic and political problems.

The question, which we all should consider now is why Al-Azhar scholars are not obeyed by the public any more? The simple and direct answer to this very complicated question is because Al-Azhar lost its credibility in the eyes of Egyptians. Al-Azhar has been used as a tool in the hands of the regime to satisfy personal and elite interests at the expense of Egyptian’s religious sympathies. Under the claim of defending Islam, Al-Azhar committed some unforgivable violations against open-minded intellectuals and fighters for freedom of expression and freedom of belief. They cracked down on Bahai’s for merely calling for the right to have a national ID card and other official papers that prove them being ordinary Egyptian citizens. They also cracked down on Shiites and Sufis and distorted their image in an unacceptable way.

Yet, the most unfair and shocking violation was committed against 22-year-old blogger and student, Kareem Amer. Kareem is now serving four years in jail for allegedly insulting Islam and President Mubarak. He wrote an article criticizing Al-Azhar scholars’ pledge to Mubarak to be the “prince of believers” and how this will make us – the people/ believers – deprived from our right to hold him accountable for corruption, wrong decisions, etc. Kareem simply wrote this on his own personal blog. As a result, he was expelled from university, interrogated and sentenced to four years.

Al-Azhar now is looked upon as a state owned tool. It is no longer the independent religious institution respected worldwide. That is why the Salafis have the upper hand in the niqab battle. And that is why our society will grow more and more extreme.