The furore created by the Kota Baru Municipal Council (MPKB) over the trivial matter of women's attire has brought up deep-seated suspicions about the Muslims in our midst and their religious practices.
As a resident of a European country, I am compelled to correct the misconceptions in IBK's letter, Decency: A fine line , regarding what he termed as the banning of the 'hijab' in relation to the many terror acts done by Muslims in Western Europe.
Firstly, let us acquaint ourselves with the terminology. A hijab is a garment that covers a Muslim woman's physique. This may be a headscarf and a 'salwar kemeez' (popular in Pakistan), a head scarf and an 'abaya' (popular in the Middle East), etc. The face and hands are exposed. When the face is concealed or only the eyes are exposed, this is termed as the 'niqab'. The women in Afghanistan wear the all enveloping 'burqa' , a form of the 'niqab' where a latticed fabric provides a window to the outside world.
I was rather surprised to read IBK's assertion that the London bombings were due to, in his words, 'terrorists from the immigrant community'. Actually, these bombers were British-born and bred, went to local comprehensives and spoke English with a northern British accent - to us in the UK they are British. Their parents and grandparents may be immigrants. They are British as much as Chinese and Indian Malaysians are Malaysians!
As they are young men with secondary male sexual characteristics, banning the hijab here achieves nothing at all. Muslim women, with the hijab or not, play important roles in UK society where head-scarfed Muslim pharmacists are as visible as a turbaned Sikh one.
As for France's banlieues riots, the perpetrators are not recent immigrants but rather Frenchmen and women of second and third generation Algerians, Cameroonians, Senegalese, and Vietnamese immigrants. And also Europeans who are not touched by France s Libert, Egalit and Fraternit. Past neglect and present hopelessness created powder kegs of resentment against the French establishment.
The death of two defenceless youths was the spark that ignited the riots. It is too easy to blame Muslims and their hijab here but religion had no part in that event. Oversimplification and misinformation ala Fox News and CNN do not solve the problem.
The all-enveloping headscarf is banned in French public schools because it does not comply with the country's secular stand. In the same vein, the Sikh turban, the Jewish yarmulke and Christian crucifix are also banned. In another fiercely secular country, Turkey, no 'hijab-ed' women are allowed in government buildings and long headscarves are banned from universities. It has been so for many years but there is no hue and cry over this as Turkey has a Muslim-majority population.
As for Mustaf Jama, one of the armed robbers who shot policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky - the news over here is that he may have escaped wearing the niqab - the veil that covers the face and not the hijab. It is more about the failings of the customs and immigration officers.
I am glad to inform your readers that in the UK at least, many have started to look beyond the wearing of the hijab - or any creed-identifying garments - as to the cause of restlessness amongst the Muslim community here. The illegal Iraq war, the Bush-Blair axis of hegemony, the positive nod to Israeli actions in Lebanon and occupied Palestine and the continuing silencing of moderate Muslim voices are much discussed over here.
That aside, the recent diktats by the Kota Baru Municipal Council only serve to stoke the fire of suspicion against my religion as one that is dogmatic and obsessed with female sexuality, which it is not.
The ripples created by these pronouncements have stirred up deep seated prejudices against Islam. This ill-considered act by MPKB has validated the suspicions of Malaysians such as IBK who equate the hijab with the oppression of women, and dogmatic Islam with terrorist tendencies. The MPKB has indeed scored 'an own goal' in the battle for the hearts and minds of the moderate Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
