Oh come on, gimme a break!!
I have already thought that when Jack Straw made a statement on the veil issue, it would definitely caused a public outcry, but I never thought it would persist for quite a long time, even until now. It seems like to have an ongoing effect, and I wonder when will it ever stop.
Mr. Straw should have not touched the Muslim sensitivity in the first place by making such recommendation to the Muslim women. To view it from the civil liberties point of view, there is nothing unconstitutional or unlawful for a Muslim woman to choose to wear a full hijab or niqab, as that is their full rights to do so. But as a country which put such huge values on freedom and civil liberties, do you not think that Mr. Straw also has his rights to say, to express his freedom of speech? And more importantly, if one bothers to read and understand of what he actually said, one should realize that he meant no harm at all. He was only asking, if that would be possible, for the Muslim women not to wear a full veil, as he believes that this would, to a certain extent, hinder the integration amongst the community. However, things got nasty when this reached to Muslim community, especially the more orthodox and radical one, and it became even worst when the mass media sensationalized the story, which sparked off the row amongst the Muslim worldwide.
Now, let us think objectively, on what have been said by Mr. Straw and whether this makes any sense at all. First, he alleged that when a Muslim woman wear full veil, this would harden community relations. But how far is this true? Frankly speaking, I do agree of what he said. The 9/11, Madrid bombing, London bombing, and the latest attempt to hijack a plane to the States, are some of the events which have inevitably caused the world to have the every reasons to be suspicious at the Muslim. Yeah, it is not fair for the world to generalize all Muslims as terrorist just because there are some ( or maybe way too many) bad eggs amongst us. But that is the fact that we need to face. I remember reading this one survey which suggested that most people in the UK would feel slightly uncomfortable when they are seating on the bus / in the tube with someone who look like Arabs or South Asian. So, this is the fact that we need to face, the British, maybe not all, do have even the slightest suspicion towards the Muslims. Thus, what Mr. Straw suggested does make sense after all. The Muslims should be more tolerant, and more adaptable to the British culture. If a non Muslim who visited a Muslim country such as Iran or Saudi Arabia, they do wear the veil as sign of respect to that country's customs and culture. So why can the Muslims in the UK not do the same when they are in the UK? To be more flexible and more adjustable? It is not like Mr. Straw urged the Muslim women to take off their veil, he only recommended that the Muslim women not to wear a veil which covers their face, which is believed to hinder the communication and public relations. After all, this clearly is not Unislamic, as it is not a pre-requisite for a Muslim woman to cover her whole face, but more of a cultural practice of a certain Muslim communities.Taking into account of the current situation, where the world is full with hostility and people are suspicious amongst each other, Mr. Straw's recommendation is indeed a wise thing to do.
From my perspective, the way the Muslim community reacted to that statement only exacerbated the situation. I still remember when people wanted to boycott the products from Denmark following the publication of cartoon satirizing the Prophet Muhammad. I chose to differ. The boycott certainly did not do any good, as first it only aggravated the east-west relationship. Furthermore, in Denmark itself, 4% of its population are Muslims. If the Muslims around the globe choose to boycott the goods made from Denmark, how would this affect the Muslim community in that country? Do you not think that they will also be affected economically by this? Do you not think that they will continue to be oppressed even more and will endure such immense pressure by that?
The same goes when it comes to any issue which relates to Islam, or even when it has no relations at all. Click at this link. This article concerns with the latest controversial on the Apple's Fifth Avenue NYC Cube, which alleged by some Muslims as resembling the Kaabah in Mekkah and this is believed to have insulted Islam and its practitioners. For goodness sake, what were they thinking? I do not at all see it as Kaabah and I also believe that, when creating the Cube, the designer had no deliberate intention to pose an insult to Islam, as he had better things to do, such as figuring out ways of how to earn more bucks, rather than contemplating very hardly to do something which would make the Muslims feel insulted. I totally disagreed with the idea of publishing a cartoon resembling prophet Muhammad as this is clearly prohibited by Islam and it is clear that the authors had the very intention to cause public uproar because of that. But now, a cube in NYC, as a resemblence to Kaabah?
Oh come on, give me a break!!!
*The moment I finished writing this, my hands are all numb due to the cold weather outside. Geez.. this is the time of the year when I do miss Malaysia the most!!*
Mr. Straw should have not touched the Muslim sensitivity in the first place by making such recommendation to the Muslim women. To view it from the civil liberties point of view, there is nothing unconstitutional or unlawful for a Muslim woman to choose to wear a full hijab or niqab, as that is their full rights to do so. But as a country which put such huge values on freedom and civil liberties, do you not think that Mr. Straw also has his rights to say, to express his freedom of speech? And more importantly, if one bothers to read and understand of what he actually said, one should realize that he meant no harm at all. He was only asking, if that would be possible, for the Muslim women not to wear a full veil, as he believes that this would, to a certain extent, hinder the integration amongst the community. However, things got nasty when this reached to Muslim community, especially the more orthodox and radical one, and it became even worst when the mass media sensationalized the story, which sparked off the row amongst the Muslim worldwide.
Now, let us think objectively, on what have been said by Mr. Straw and whether this makes any sense at all. First, he alleged that when a Muslim woman wear full veil, this would harden community relations. But how far is this true? Frankly speaking, I do agree of what he said. The 9/11, Madrid bombing, London bombing, and the latest attempt to hijack a plane to the States, are some of the events which have inevitably caused the world to have the every reasons to be suspicious at the Muslim. Yeah, it is not fair for the world to generalize all Muslims as terrorist just because there are some ( or maybe way too many) bad eggs amongst us. But that is the fact that we need to face. I remember reading this one survey which suggested that most people in the UK would feel slightly uncomfortable when they are seating on the bus / in the tube with someone who look like Arabs or South Asian. So, this is the fact that we need to face, the British, maybe not all, do have even the slightest suspicion towards the Muslims. Thus, what Mr. Straw suggested does make sense after all. The Muslims should be more tolerant, and more adaptable to the British culture. If a non Muslim who visited a Muslim country such as Iran or Saudi Arabia, they do wear the veil as sign of respect to that country's customs and culture. So why can the Muslims in the UK not do the same when they are in the UK? To be more flexible and more adjustable? It is not like Mr. Straw urged the Muslim women to take off their veil, he only recommended that the Muslim women not to wear a veil which covers their face, which is believed to hinder the communication and public relations. After all, this clearly is not Unislamic, as it is not a pre-requisite for a Muslim woman to cover her whole face, but more of a cultural practice of a certain Muslim communities.Taking into account of the current situation, where the world is full with hostility and people are suspicious amongst each other, Mr. Straw's recommendation is indeed a wise thing to do.
From my perspective, the way the Muslim community reacted to that statement only exacerbated the situation. I still remember when people wanted to boycott the products from Denmark following the publication of cartoon satirizing the Prophet Muhammad. I chose to differ. The boycott certainly did not do any good, as first it only aggravated the east-west relationship. Furthermore, in Denmark itself, 4% of its population are Muslims. If the Muslims around the globe choose to boycott the goods made from Denmark, how would this affect the Muslim community in that country? Do you not think that they will also be affected economically by this? Do you not think that they will continue to be oppressed even more and will endure such immense pressure by that?
The same goes when it comes to any issue which relates to Islam, or even when it has no relations at all. Click at this link. This article concerns with the latest controversial on the Apple's Fifth Avenue NYC Cube, which alleged by some Muslims as resembling the Kaabah in Mekkah and this is believed to have insulted Islam and its practitioners. For goodness sake, what were they thinking? I do not at all see it as Kaabah and I also believe that, when creating the Cube, the designer had no deliberate intention to pose an insult to Islam, as he had better things to do, such as figuring out ways of how to earn more bucks, rather than contemplating very hardly to do something which would make the Muslims feel insulted. I totally disagreed with the idea of publishing a cartoon resembling prophet Muhammad as this is clearly prohibited by Islam and it is clear that the authors had the very intention to cause public uproar because of that. But now, a cube in NYC, as a resemblence to Kaabah?
Oh come on, give me a break!!!
*The moment I finished writing this, my hands are all numb due to the cold weather outside. Geez.. this is the time of the year when I do miss Malaysia the most!!*
posted by faisal at 11:44 AM
12 Comments:
Three posts in one day? WOW. Considering the fact that you are a law student, I am amazed.
Anyway, Mr. Straw only asked the women to take off their veil (not hijab) when they come to see them in his office. As an MP, I don't think that is too much to ask. And just like you said, wearing a veil is only a culture in some Arab countries.
By the way, you dyed your hair?? What colour? Do you have a picture? Would really love to see it :D
P.S. I am in the middle of my contract law. Will be looking at Pickford v. Celestica this Tuesday.
ha ha
have fun with ur contract law lecture k adam
btw, my brain doesn't work well when it's cold, so there's no point of me doing any reading when i can hardly absorb any of it. hehe..
my hair?what colour? it's copper gold + black.. but it's getting longer now.. i cant wait to cut off those hair.. haha
I totally agree with you. Muslims tend to overreact and are too sensitive even on such trivial issues. Have u read the news on a muslim teacher in london ( Ms. aishah azmi) who refused to take off her veil when teaching the children at school geez.. what was she thinking? there's no harm at all for her to take off her veil (which covered her face) in order for the children to communicate better with her.. these are the stuff which will make the non Muslims to have the perception that muslims are asking too much and now demanding a "double standard"
u r right. muslims tend to overreact. some said we can't use alphabet "t", "+" as they resemble the cross. what the heck r they thinking. things were going smoothly before. huhu. we no longer can eat Walls ice cream because their logo resembles the cross too. Sensitive btol. fyi, that case happens in Malaysia.
what?
that happens in Malaysia as well?
urmm.. it's getting worst nowadays, isnt' it?
anyway, there was a recent case in the uk where a muslim worker somehow suggested to one of her female colleague to remove the cross that she was wearing as the Muslim woman found it offensive to her. And this happened in the UK. what the heck? Where is the freedom of religion? freedom of thoughts and etc.
I never realize that Walls logo actually resembles a cross?? is it true? and even if it does, what effects will it have on us? I mean, be realistic man, xkan la just sbb ternampak that cross, you would want to convert into christianity.. geez..
anonymous, don;t you have a name? :P
It's not the Walls logo. It's one of the prints on Walls Ice Cream Biscuit. I look at it and after 100 glances, I realized it really look like a cross. But then, it's not like by eating the ice cream, we'll automatically become christian.
It's like touching a dog. Islam did not forbid us to touch dogs at all. Dog is a 'najis berat', yes. But we can still touch them, if we want to. In fact, we can touch a pig if that's what we want to. The thing that we can't do is eat them. Is that so difficult to understand??
Lucky you, at least you realized it after having 100 glances on it. I never see it as a resemblence of a cross whatsoever.
Adam, I don't quite understand your analogy actually, but just for the sake of being a supportive friend, I would say it was a nice try indeed. Ha Ha.
Hey, I am totally lost with your analogy. Please Adam, enlighten me!!
whatever. i understand adam's analogy. u can touch dog n u dont have to clean yourself dgn air tanah if it is dry. touch the dogs n pigs, samak je. it's better than touching non-mahram :p. am i right, adam? hehe.
OH MY GOD.
No one actually understand what I wrote.
I'm just saying that the Muslims today have lost their understanding about the religion itself because they have lost touch with Islam. So, whatever issues that is somehow related to Islam cropped out, they will make a big deal out of it.
e.g.
Eating a biscuit ice cream that has some shape of cross (it is actually a "+") will not make you a 'Murtad'.
Touching dog and pig will also not make you 'Murtad'.
An Apple store with a shape like a cube DOES NOT in whatever ways resemblance the Kaabah. (Except for the shape, if no one actually pointed that out, no one would realize it).
Again, Muslims all over the world were so pissed when the pope made a statement about the Prophet. And yet, they don't even know what they are mad about. I read an article about it written by a Jew who condemned the pope but his reasons for that are very very concrete and I couldn't agree more with him. He made it a point that although the Prophet did go out in war, his actions were purely political and not a religion ones. He also made it a point that after conquering a land or a territory, the Prophet did not force anyone in the conquered areas to embrace Islam. He compared this situation to the Rome emperor who forced the non-christians to embrace christianity by saying, "You are either a christian or you are dead." All these facts are in history and yet how many of us actually tried to find out? All we care is to hold demonstrations without even know what are we really angry about.
I've wrote too much. Pardon me for making my own 'blog entry' here :P
geez.. adam, you should make ur own entry on this in your blog ok. Ha Ha
"All we care is to hold demonstrations without even know what are we really angry about."
I couldn't agree more on this. A lot of people join the demonstration and stuff without knowing much about it in the 1st place.People were protesting against the publication of cartoon satirising prophet Muhammad, but this only created more damage in the east-west relations. Instead, the actions taken by the Danish government to hold a conference with a prominent Muslim leader was indeed the most feasible way in bridging the gap and to end the hostilities.
Hostilities and fierce protests are not the answers, but it would only provoke the West to deliberately do more to hurt the Muslims and will only make them more suspicious towards the Muslims.
haha. thanks for kindly explaining it. merci beaucoup. hope people like both of you can change other's opinion for better. i really wish pakcik makcik di kampung can read your comment :)
=)
how i wish i can do that. ha ha.
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