The VEIL slips over abusive pride marchers
A video circulating of a Muslim woman dressed in a niqāb shouting at a member of a “Gay Pride” rally in Walthamstow created a public furore, showing the real faces of some claiming to champion “diversity”
Battered Woman Syndrome and the Muslim Conscious
Battered Woman Syndrome describes particular behaviour which manifests after relentless abuse. The abused begin to believe that they deserve the beating due to not living up to expectations. There is an inability to place responsibility elsewhere. These symptoms seem to be prevalent in parts of the Muslim community. Muslim communities in the West have been the subject of what is now being referred to as structural “epistemic violence”—the slow and steady dehumanisation of Muslims through counter-extremism programmes like PREVENT which seek to coerce changes in Muslim beliefs and behaviour. After more than a decade of being subjected to this violent…
“Democratic Subversion” of the Henry Jackson Society
Who is the Real Threat to British Democracy? Part II Click here for part I The pro-Israel lobby and the actions of an employee of the Israeli embassy in London exposed in the Al-Jazeera documentary should be a cause for national concern. However, those sharing the toxic combination of money, undue influence and shady foreign advocacy include organisations infamously familiar to politically-savvy Muslims. The neoconservative Henry Jackson Society (HJS), which is accused of an anti-Muslim/anti-Islam agenda and known for “expressing views characteristic of the far right”, has been a proponent of the “Muslim Trojan Horse” conspiracy theory; that there is an “Islamist” agenda to…
Who is the Real Threat to British Democracy?
Part I Click here for part II Our government has been particularly vocal about preserving “British values” - to the point of coercion. It has made it an engrained part of public institutions effectively converting civil servants, educators and doctors into public spies. Moreover, the Casey Review, which seems to still be on the cards for implementation, has made belief in these values a condition for integration. If you do not believe in “British values” then you are simply not integrated and, apparently, automatically vulnerable to extremism and terrorism. It is a quintessentially colonialist and nauseatingly despotic proposition but one that has been communicated firmly to Muslims, implicitly characterising…
Exploiting Female Islamic Scholars
I have always found it fascinating to read the various pity pieces about Muslim women; how we need saving from hairy chest-and-women-beating Muslim men; how our hijabs should be ripped off by the illuminated hand of enlightenment rationalism; how we must be leveraged out of sadistic servitude-laden homes and thrust into the civilised world of (sexual-harassment-ridden) office spaces, servitude to capitalist men and expectations of success drawn mainly by men. Such pieces are also usually supplemented by the usual coterie of “Muslim feminists” suffering from severe cognitive dissonance between their strange brew of feminism and their own exploitation as mouthpieces for Orientalised perspectives…
War on Terror 2.0 to be “Global War on Islam”
Reality shows are supposed to convey a sense of reality using “real-life” people. The “reality” is, however, that the shows are as real as the statements coming forth from the mouths of politicians. This is the case in a post-modern age when lying has become an unquestioned furniture of an increasingly dire political landscape. As the flurry of well-orchestrated distraction events unfold in the US, it is difficult to accept that what we are witnessing is no longer Donald Trump’s political version of the Apprentice but something far more tangibly sinister. A Prevent Strategy for Trump A number of issues crop up from Trump’s ascendance to power. For instance, how does Britain, which…
The Stupidity of Comparing Hijab to Pole Dancing
The Politics of Hijāb The hijāb is a concept which goes beyond the sublunary. It connects to the spiritual by obliterating worldly expectations in favour of conformity to that which is most pleasing to Allāh, Most High. It is, for many Muslim women, attuned to their faith, a source of comfort and a means, like other religious dictates, to become closer to Allāh. Naturally, the bond that forms between mother and daughter is unlike other relationships. It does not require studies to prove that children imitate their parents. Fathers will often speak of their sons asking when their beards will sprout. Similarly, little Amīna,…
“Real Housewives of ISIS” – Demonisation Dressed as Satire
We are a popular bunch, aren’t we? Every so often a “documentary”, poll, media debate or op-ed crops up which thrusts some 5% of Britain’s population back in the scrutinising docks where everything, from our revelatory texts and views, to the place where we live and even our emotions are callously treated, tightly monitored and, if possible, controlled through psychological bullying. It is routine. “Counter-Extremist” Conundrums Last week saw the hype-train once again as the BBC chose to air a “satirical” clip. The clip – called “Real Housewives of ISIS” – according to its scriptwriters, went “after ISIS”. Whilst the…