I write in response to Ida Bakar's letter KB municipal council scores an own goal as I believe that she has misinterpreted the gist of my earlier letter . To begin with, I thank her for clarifying the meanings of 'hijab' and 'niqab'. The word hijab is derived from the Arabic word 'to veil' or 'to cover' and primarily refers to the head, face or physique. As Ida Bakar mentioned, the niqab is more specific to covering the face. I shall use her more accurate terms in this letter.
The use of the term 'immigrant community' was taken from Abu Mubarak's letter Decent dressing: What are the parameters? who used it in reference to Muslims in Europe. Three of the London Tube bombers were British-born sons of immigrant parents and one was a Jamaica- born British resident.
Most of them had perfectly normal lives except that they had spent some time with radical Muslim clerics in their hometowns and two of them spent time in training camps in Pakistan where they may have received instructions to carry out the bombings. But this is irrelevant.
The point here was that due to these destructive acts being committed by Muslims, a fear and general concern arose amongst Britons and Europeans towards radical Muslims and their lack of integration into society.
The bombers were not perceived as being British - they were perceived as being Muslim and due to their acts, for a few weeks after the bombings, many Muslims (or persons resembling Pakistanis) all over London suffered the humiliation of having security personnel check their possessions before entering the Tube. Mosques were monitored more closely. A radical Muslim cleric was arrested.
Yes, the headscarf and other overt religious symbols were banned in French schools to comply with France's secular policy. However, as mentioned in Abu Mubarak's letter, this was also due to a misguided attempt by some French MPs at liberating oppressed Muslim women and helping them to integrate into French society.
Germany's proposed ban a couple of years ago was to prevent pupils from being influenced by Muslim fundamentalists. Also, please refer to BBC or The Times reports which state that the perpetrators of the French riots were of Muslim descent or of immigrant communities.
Again, the point here was that Europeans were/are acting out of fear or concern towards Muslims and other minority or immigrant groups. (The use of the niqab by Mustafa Jama in evading security and the statement by a British MP that he always asks Muslim women to remove the niqab at his general practice is only adding fuel to this concern about security and social integration)
To conclude, my letter was not about equating the hijab with the oppression of women but was merely addressing Abu Mubarak's letter that implied Europeans were acting out of some absurd whim in discussing the banning of the hijab and that the reaction by Malaysians to the Kota Baru municipal council's ruling was unjustified. I have the utmost respect for Islam. I just hold a deep -seated prejudice against any authority that treats women as second-class citizens supposedly in the name of Islam.
