IT was reported in Dawn (Dec 20) that a Lahore-born American working as a taxicab driver in St Louis has sued the local government for not allowing him to wear shalwar-kameez and a kufi cap while driving a taxi on the grounds that it was Islamic dress and the ban violates his religious freedom.
Obscurantist-minded people of the like of this type of taxi driver bring a bad name to Islam. Islam is a universal religion and is found in regions with a variety of climates and seasons. The type of dress one wears is dictated by local weather condition. The dress one wears in the Tundra region cannot be worn in tropical regions, for example.
Second, nowhere in the Quran or Sunnah is it specified that a Muslim must wear only shalwar-kameez and kufa cap as his dress.
G.B. SHAH BOKHARI Peshawar