Condemnable

Progressive Canadian Muslim woman’s home vandalised
Daily Times, November 1, 2006

WASHINGTON: The veil controversy that recently surfaced in England has travelled across the Atlantic to Canada, where a Muslim leader representing a Saudi-aided organisation has said that “a woman should cover her face to avoid the unwanted attention of men for whom women are objects of desire”.

MD Khalid of the Canadian chapter of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) told Toronto Star this week, “I think if a woman is so pretty that she would attract attention to herself, she should cover her face.” He was commenting on an incident in which the home of Farzana Hassan, president of the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC), a progressive group opposed by most Islamic clerics and conservative elements in the community, was vandalised after she criticised the veil as “a tradition, a tool of oppression created by men”.

According to leading progressive Canadian Muslim activist Tarek Fatah, ISNA is a US-based Islamic group that supported the introduction of Shariah law in Canada and has been the recipient of funding from Saudi sources — $5 million according to the Globe and Mail. MD Khalid and ISNA are known for their endorsement of Stockwell Day, a Canadian politician who was described by one newspaper recently as “a right-wing Bible-thumper”. Criticising the MCC president’s position on the face veil, the ISNA director defended the niqab, especially for “pretty” women. When asked by the Toronto Star, “Only beautiful women?” he replied, “Very attractive women. It’s essentially trying to avoid any bad feelings from men.”

According to Fatah, the harassment of Muslims who are standing up to Islamic extremists continues. Verbal threats have now progressed to physical ones. After being labelled the “sister of Satan” and accused of being an apostate, Farzana Hassan has now had her home vandalised. The Globe and Mail’s disclosure about ISNA having received $5 million from Saudi sources also indicated that the group receives continued funding for its educational programmes from the same source.

Among other views it expresses is one claiming that Muslim women have a religious obligation under Islam to cover their faces. Fatah said, “This is a lie that has gone unchallenged, except by Farzana Hassan and the MCC. No wonder she is at the receiving end of the extremist wrath. What is sad is the silence of Canada’s feminist movement, which seems to be paralysed, unable to stand up against the face-mask being thrust on Muslim women by Islamist men and women.” khalid hasan