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March 17, 2005
The misfits
An applicant for a teacher’s post in a private Muslim school in Toronto was asked whether she was prepared to adhere to the ‘Muslim code of dress.’ She replied that she always dressed modestly which was the ‘Muslim code of dress.’ But what she was actually supposed to agree to when signing her contract was that she would wear the head scarf while at work.
When the French Parliament approved the legislation to ban the ‘head scarf’ in schools and other public institutions, the Islamic code of dress not only became one of the most hotly disputed items of clothing, extremism of a unique kind was also unleashed. Extremism that is harmful and detrimental to progress and emancipation of any kind.
If secularism believes that individuals should neither be commanded to surrender their beliefs nor dictated regarding their religious observance, then why this undue focus on the head scarf by the French, if it was not meant as a biased, targeted attack on a religious belief?
Interestingly, a Muslim girl in Britain has just won a lengthy legal battle against her school in Luton, which had banned her from wearing the traditional hijab. Presiding over the critical case, judge, Lord Justice Henry Brooke reversed an earlier ruling in which Shabina Begum, 15, had been unfairly excluded from the school for wearing the garment. The present judgement on March 2nd called for the Department of Education to advise schools on how to comply with their obligations under the Human Rights Act. The judgement is being hailed as a moral victory of tolerance over France.
The veil has become a judgement benchmark for contradictory reasons. Some believe that a Muslim woman cannot be a true, believing and modest woman if she does not subscribe to the headscarf or the hijab.
Threatened by Western influences, which for some spell decay and disaster for the young, Muslim communities in the West are now aggressively defining the ‘code’ of ‘a good Muslim’ and the hijab has become a symbol of ‘good’ Muslim women. Even in matters of dress, charity or eating habits, he/she is ‘a bad Muslim’ if certain rigid rules are not adhered to (be careful when buying bread and biscuits it might contain ‘traces’ of ‘elements’ which ‘might have been’ taken from non-halal extracts!)
On the other side, if a woman does opt for the headscarf as part of her dress code, she is stigmatised as being a fanatic Muslim, bent upon upsetting the secular scheme of things — France being a case in point. Tolerance and the right to free choice, traits which the ‘modern and emancipated’ western societies prided on, have been axed to death in the wake of ‘war on terror’. Now, free speech, free thoughts, and free choices have all become one person’s opinion as opposed to another’s.
Over 25 years ago, General Zia-ul-Haq promulgated the Hudood Ordinance which at the time was termed as the most abused law in the legal history of the country. Equating rape with adultery, it gave licence to the mighty to become mightier.
The chauvinists in Pakistan who head our patriarchal society, playedhavoc with this precious tool. What was inexcusable was that the Ordinance came in the name of religion.
Ironically, though, the premise which laid down this law for all women to be publicly seen with their head covered, was the same that urged the French government to ban the covering of the head. Fanaticism has many faces, it just depends on how you look at it. It is the same as ambition. That ambition which has labelled Muslims as ‘Islamic terrorists’, igniting the ‘war against terror.’
Extremism simply has no place in Islam. Whether it is extreme self-indulgence and excess of pleasure, money and power or if it’s religious fanaticism. And for those who seek to make a place in Western society, it is becoming a dilemma as to which end of the pole to belong to since the ‘moderate, enlightened Muslims’ end up being neither here nor there.
Bridging that gap requires acceptance and respect of everybody’s belief. No intolerance and no extremism. And when that crucial gap is bridged, perhaps Muslims all over the world might truly unite as an Ummah. But till that happens, half of us will always be seen as ‘Islamic terrorists’ and the rest — simply as misfits.
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