Condemning Islam is the wrong course

WASHINGTON – Days after the video appeared of a Jordanian pilot horribly burned to death by an Islamic State death squad, President Obama told the National Prayer Breakfast that all faiths can be “twisted and misused in the name of evil” and that terrorists who profess “to stand up for Islam” are, in fact, “betraying it.” Critics found Obama’s timing offensive and his message about Islam naïve: He should avoid moral equivalence, stop playing the theologian and recognize that Islam has a unique problem with violence and extremism.

Days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 – in which temperatures inside the collapsing World Trade Center reached 2,000 degrees and the bodies of many passengers on the airplanes were consumed by burning jet fuel – George W. Bush took off his shoes, entered a Muslim prayer room at the Islamic Center of Washington, spoke with Muslim leaders and made a short statement. “These acts of violence against innocents,” he said, “violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. ... The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.”

On Sept. 20, 2001, speaking to a joint session of Congress, Bush called the teachings of Islam “good and peaceful.” “The terrorists,” he said, “are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself.”

Later in his presidency, when the charge came that America was fighting a war against Islam, Bush answered that it was radicals who had “spread the word that this really isn’t peaceful people versus radical people or terrorists; that it is really about America not liking Islam.”

“I believe that Islam is a great religion that preaches peace,” Bush said. “And I believe people who murder the innocent to achieve political objectives aren’t religious people, whether they be a Christian who does that – we had a person blow up a federal building in Oklahoma who professed to be a Christian, but that’s not a Christian act to kill innocent people.”

Those who long for greater clarity in describing the peculiarly Islamic nature of terrorism (see Bobby Jindal: “Let’s be honest here: Islam has a problem”) should also be clear about something else: They are proposing a fundamental shift in the rhetorical strategy of the war against terrorism. In the Bush/Obama approach, terrorism is an aberration that must be isolated. Critics believe it emanates from Islam and must be expiated. And some urge the president to declare that one of the Abrahamic faiths belongs in a special category of menace.

This picture is not real. 

There are, of course, consequential historical differences among faiths. It is harder to separate divine law from positive law in a faith where the founder was also a political and military leader – though it was hard enough even in a faith where the founder was killed by political and military authorities.

But those who wish the president to publicly explore these matters are the ones urging him to act as a theologian. Presidential rhetoric on this issue should not be theological but phenomenological. The vast majority of the world’s Muslims – and an almost unanimous majority of American Muslims – believe their faith to be inalterably opposed to putting people in a cage and setting them on fire, or employing the mentally disabled as suicide bombers, or burying children alive. This is the actual division that matters most, and the rhetorical division that best serves American interests: peaceful people versus the terrorists.

Most of those urging Obama to assert that Islam is somehow especially flawed among the great faiths have never been closer to power than a fuse box. There is no possible circumstance in which a president could say such a thing. It would cause a global firestorm, immediately alienating Muslim allies and proxies whom we depend on to help fight the Islamic State and other enemies. How would the king of Jordan, for example – a 41st-generation descendant of the Prophet Muhammad – be forced to react? How would the terrorists use such a critique in their own propaganda? Some of the president’s critics are blithely recommending a massive, unforced geostrategic blunder.

Obama’s speech at the prayer breakfast was cliche-ridden and historically shallow. But its basic framework – pitting true faith against nihilistic violence – will be adopted by every future president. Some of the intense reaction against Obama’s formulation is rooted in a broader fear that he is not serious enough in prosecuting the war against the Islamic State – a concern I share. But the answer is to prosecute that war more vigorously – not complicate it with careless and counterproductive rhetoric.

Credit to Michael Gerson

India bans polygamy for Muslims as 'not fundamental right in Islam'

India's Supreme Court has ruled out the practice of having multiple wives for Muslims arguing that it is not a fundamental right for those who practice Islam.

Judges TS Thakur and AK Goel said that article 25 of the Indian constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and free profession and practice of religion, but does not also guarantee the practice of polygamy.

"What was protected under Article 25 was the religious faith and not a practice which may run counter to public order, health or morality. Polygamy was not integral part of religion and monogamy was a reform within the power of the State under Article 25," they said during the ruling.

The court also upheld the decision of the government of Uttar Pradesh to fire an employee after he tried to marry a second woman while the  previous marriage was still in place.

According to some interpretations of the Quran, Islam allows a man to marry up to four women, only if he is able to deal with them justly. However, it is preferable for him to have only one wife.

Common Ground News Service (CGNS) - which aims to provide constructive articles to promote dialogue on issues such as Muslims in the West and race related conflicts - explains that the Quran discusses polygamy in terms of the needs of women and children "at the time" and never in terms of men's rights.

The Quran refers to polygamy in its fourth chapter, which tells about the migration of Muslims from Mecca to Medina and marks the start of the Muslim calendar.

"[This chapter] builds on the preceding one regarding the Battle of Uhud between early Muslims and the inhabitants of Mecca in which many Muslim men were killed, leaving widows and orphans," CGNS said. "This is the context which is crucial to any discussion of polygamy in Islam; polygamy was allowed in verse 4:3 because of God's concern for the welfare of women and orphans who were left without husbands and fathers."

Credit to Ludovica Iaccino

Florida father furious at school lesson: ‘Muhammad is the messenger of God’

Ron Wagner, a Florida father, said his son’s world history book has gone too far with a lesson that teaches Muhammad is the messenger of God.

One part of the book, for instance, reads: “There is no god, but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God,” he said, quoting from his son’s Lyman High School history book, WFTV reported.

“Students were instructed to recite this prayer as the first Pillar of Islam, off of the board at the teacher’s instruction,” Mr. Wagner said. “For it to be mandatory and part of the curriculum and in the textbooks, didn’t seem right.”

The chapter in the history book is called the “Rise of Islam,” and includes text of the faith’s prayers and scriptures, right from the Koran, WFTV reported.

Mr. Wagner also complained that the first 100 pages of the of the religious-based chapters that deal with Judaism and Christianity are missing — and the school district explains that omission by saying the defect, which impacted 68 books, is due to a manufacturer mistake, WFTV reported.

Credit to Cheryl K. Chumley

Faith informs work of state's first Muslim judge in California

He's seen the Internet jibes. "The Sharia judge of Mexifornia." "Jihadist judge."
Not that he didn't see it coming. The governor's people called him one final time before announcing his appointment. "California's first Muslim judge," the news release would say. Was that OK?
Halim Dhanidina's first thought: "Of course." His second: "Maybe not." But by then he'd hung up the phone, and he couldn't take it back.
Some other ambitious young jurist might shrink from that "first Muslim" label, with its whiff of tokenism. Dhanidina, 42, has since opted to put it out front.
"I've stopped looking at it as a burden," he said.

L.A. County Superior Court Judge Halim Dhanidina, the state's first Muslim judge, presides over his courtroom in Long Beach in October. Though his decision to become a judge was influenced by his faith, he keeps his religion quiet. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

The L.A. County Superior Court judge has given interviews about being a Muslim, attended dinners and headlined conferences — including one at a conservative Christian college titled "American Jurisprudence and Sharia Law: Assimilation or Accommodation." (Friends had said not to do it. He did.)
The after-hours appearances are tacked on to packed workdays. In his Long Beach courtroom recently, he wished a defendant in jail fatigues, "Best of luck." He overruled a prosecutor who heaved frustrated sighs. He cut in swiftly when a defendant started bellowing. "That's not called for," he said.
"There's a lot of people who think Muslims shouldn't be judges," Dhanidina said later. "No one who has ever been in my courtroom."
To those who know him, this insistent openness about his faith is more striking than his appointment to the bench. Dhanidina quickly rose to top posts at the L.A. County district attorney's office, and few were surprised when he made judge in 2012, before his 40th birthday.
But the Islamic part — some longtime colleagues said they didn't even know. "I can't think of it once coming up," said Geoffrey Rendon, who was a deputy district attorney with Dhanidina.
But what his friends didn't grasp was that he was a judge not despite his religion, but because of it.
::
He was raised in Evanston, Ill., came west to go to Pomona College and later UCLA, and married a Californian. She is Roman Catholic, and his friends are Christian, Jewish, atheist — professionals like himself. In short, said Alan Jackson, a friend and his former boss in the district attorney's office, Dhanidina is "assimilated — as far as a Chicagoan can be assimilated here."
Unlike the Islamic background, the Midwestern one is conspicuous. Dhanidina is friendly in a clean-cut, corn-fed way, and still loyal to the Cubs. He's also every inch the Californian — a fan of beach volleyball, hip-hop and college football, and was a marathoner before a knee injury.

There's a lot of people who think Muslims shouldn't be judges. No one who has ever been in my courtroom. - Halim Dhanidina

His parents left Tanzania for Illinois before he was born. The family is Ismaili, a Shiite tradition that represents a progressive strand within Islam.
Ismailis value education, gender equality, community service, international cooperation and civil institutions. A word Ismailis use a lot is "pluralism," and value the constitutional protections that preserve it. For centuries, they have lived under rule by foreign dynasties, hostile majorities, secular and colonial powers. Thousands were uprooted from ancestral homes. When Ismailis speak of legal safeguards for minorities, they are not speaking in the abstract.
Their tradition bears little resemblance to the media images of Muslims that bombarded Dhanidina through childhood. The Muslims he knew were "not here to change American society," he said. "They are here to be part of it. They buy in."
But Dhanidina, who is of Gujarati Indian heritage, learned early to keep quiet when people talked of Islam. "It was always in a context that would make me defensive," he said.
Even though he kept his faith in the background, now and then came a jarring moment: a colleague who talked of "towelheads"; a judge right after Sept. 11, 2001, who told jurors to be fair even if the appearance of someone in court called to mind the attackers. Dhanidina, feeling as raw as anyone that day, was slow to realize the judge was referring to him.
Another time, Dhanidina was a guest at a dinner party that Jackson had invited him to. A fellow diner denounced Muslims. Jackson said he wanted to crawl under the table. But Dhanidina had heard such comments all his life. He was surprised later when Jackson begged his forgiveness.
Dhanidina also knows how it feels to be accused of bigotry.
::
He describes it as one of the most upsetting moments of his career.
It came in 2008, during a Watts double-murder case. All involved in the death-penalty trial, including the defendant and the victims, were black.
Three black jurors had been chosen when Dhanidina sought to dismiss a fourth. At that point, he had already exercised a dozen of his permitted exemptions — dismissing three whites, four Latinos and five blacks. Defense attorneys James Brewer and John Daley argued that Dhanidina wanted fewer blacks on the jury. They won.
Such a ruling against a prosecutor in Los Angeles is very rare — and potentially damning because it suggests Dhanidina acted from racial prejudice. For years after, he felt himself under a cloud. He braced himself to answer questions. He worried it would derail his judicial nomination.
To this day, Dhanidina insists that his objection to the juror was not racial. It was because the juror was a devotee of KPFK-FM.
The left-leaning radio station is part of the Berkeley-based Pacifica network, which was founded by a World War II conscientious objector. Dhanidina considered it a sure sign of anti-death-penalty bias. "I know because I listen to it," he said.
Neither Daley nor the judge accuse Dhanidina of genuine bias. It was just the heat of battle, Daley said. What's striking about the whole spat is how little it seems to have had to do with actual bigotry. Rather, it speaks of something more nuanced — the way racial controversy and court procedure have merged to produce a kind of theater of civil-rights conflict.
As for the KPFK juror, he proved everyone wrong: He voted for death.
::
Gov. Jerry Brown has not had to publicly defend his state's first Islamic judge. But his office received hate mail, staff members say.
Dhanidina saw a no-win irony: U.S. Muslims were once called insular. Now, participating in public life, he was sometimes viewed as an infiltrator.
Being the face of Islam in California jurisprudence still felt strange. He drinks alcohol, doesn't pray by any formal plan and has tried to observe the monthlong fast at Ramadan — but usually doesn't. He wasn't sure he knew enough about his own religion to speak for it in public.
But it struck him that if strident voices dominate, moderates must speak out. "If I don't, who will?" he said.
So he told audiences of his faith in God and secular government, and how these complement each other. He said he has been surprised by the response, not just from Muslims, but from people of other faiths.

They said, it's so nice that someone can feel comfortable just talking about religion. - Judge Halim Dhanidina

"They said, it's so nice that someone can feel comfortable just talking about religion," Dhanidina said. "So often it is used as a way of dividing people. Or as a bludgeon. It can feel like a topic it is better to avoid."
His courtroom offers further lessons in pluralism.
Defendants cross class lines. In his court recently were a young woman with green hair, a filthy man who might have been asleep and a literal untouchable — a well-dressed man with hand-foot-and-mouth disease who sat apart.
The bellowing defendant was acting as his own lawyer. He wore an untucked shirt, muttered and flipped pages, wasting hours in legal minutiae. Dhanidina was patient. When the man grew belligerent, he tried flattery: "We have procedures we have to follow, and you seem like you" — microscopic pause — "care about procedures," he said. The defendant nodded vigorously.
Dhanidina hears up to 50 cases daily, mostly misdemeanors, and sometimes seems to hardly breathe. But don't call his work mundane: Defendants may seem "indistinguishable from dozens of others," Dhanidina said. "But to them, I may be the only judge they ever see."
His crisp style in court wins praise from defenders, prosecutors and judges, even his old antagonist Daley.
"I didn't realize he was the first Muslim judge," the defense attorney said. "That's a hard thing to undertake. I wish him well with it."

Credit to Jill Leovy

Dearborn, MI: Where Muslims Are…Americans

To the right, it’s the home base of sharia law in America. In reality, Dearborn is where Arab-American assimilation has taken firm hold.

At the border between Detroit and Dearborn, you’d never know that in the space of one step, you’d leave a land governed by the U.S. Constitution and enter a city where sharia law holds sway.
Because, of course, you’re not.
Dearborn is a sedate Detroit suburb, more prosaic than revolutionary. It’s the kind of place where folks really care about school districts, property values, and code enforcement; for generations, bored teenagers have called it “Deadborn.”
But for the last half-decade, Dearborn has been the unwilling darling of the extreme right, a bogeyman invoked to perpetuate the ersatz notion that sharia law, a system of justice derived from the Koran, has gained a foothold on American soil.
More than 30 percent of Dearborn’s roughly 95,000 residents are Arab-American or of Arab descent (PDF). In reality, that means the city has some pretty great restaurants, a handful of mosques, and a more genuinely multicultural feel than most Midwestern towns—McDonald’s serves halal meat, business signs are bilingual, and every diner serves hummus.
For some, it’s enough to assign Dearborn a central role in a larger conspiracy theory, the claim that worldwide there are hundreds of so-called “no-go zones,” breeding grounds for jihad where sharia governs and non-Muslims aren’t welcome.
With five minutes and a search engine, it’s easy to disprove the radical right’s pet theory about Dearborn—or any of the cities and neighborhoods featured on the no-go list. Yet the creeping-sharia myth is so pervasive that it’s been repeated by folks like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, considered a 2016 presidential hopeful, and by failed 2010 Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle, a Tea Party adherent, among numerous other Republicans. Fox News was forced to apologize after a commentator labeled parts of Europe no-go zones.
In 2011, Koran-burning Florida preacher Terry Jones hopped on the Dearborn bandwagon, planning to to demonstrate against—yep—the nonexistent spread of sharia law. Stopped by a court, Jones returned in 2012, and again in 2014. He’s been to the city—and been tried in its U.S. and state-law governed court for breach of the peace in 2011, when he and a companion were released after being ordered by the judge to cough up $2. And still, Jones seems to believe sharia law is happening.
It’s a phenomenon that baffles Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly.
Debunking Dearborn myths takes a lot of the mayor’s time: When Jones first came to town, O’Reilly says, he received 6,000 emails. He responded to each; several hundred wrote back thanking him. After Angle’s faux pas, O’Reilly sent a letter inviting her to visit.
“The people who perpetuate it use it for their own gain,” O’Reilly said. “There are certain sites and individuals who like to perpetuate fear of Muslims—the people who like to suggest Muslims shouldn’t remain in the U.S.”
Racial discord figures large in Dearborn’s history, but not because of the Arab-American community: From 1942 to 1978, notorious segregationist Orville Hubbard served as Dearborn’s mayor. But Hubbard’s animosity was largely reserved for African-Americans.
Dearborn’s Arab community has been growing for roughly a century, said Ronald Stockton, a University of Michigan-Dearborn political science professor, accelerating with the growth of the auto industry.
There’ve been bumps along the way—in 1985, a former Dearborn mayor, now deceased, distributed campaign pamphlets referencing the city’s “Arab problem.” Decades ago, the introduction of bilingual education in Dearborn’s public schools caused controversy, Stockton said, but is unremarkable now—ditto halal options in school cafeterias, the regular sight of women in head scarves, or the city’s four Arab-American council members and even its police chief.
To outsiders, the most remarkable thing about Dearborn may be its unremarkability. The city’s median annual income is about $45,000, slightly less than the state median of $48,000. In 2013, there were 347 violent crimes in Dearborn, according to FBI statistics, along 3,104 property crimes, 126 robberies, and two homicides—numbers not out of whack with the Michigan’s other mid-sized cities. The same year, Lansing—the state capital—home to roughly 20,000 more residents, had 1,204 violent crimes, 3,960 property crimes, 256 robberies and eight murders.
That same is true of Dearborn’s Arab-American community. In the days after 9/11, predicted violence never materialized. Jones’ cancelled 2011 protest launched an interfaith rally, held in front of a mosque, with religious leaders from across the ideological spectrum.
Folks invested in harmful myths about Dearborn, Stockton says, have “a social and ideological location within the population. They’re almost all on the right, they’re almost all Republicans, and they’re almost all over a certain age.”
It’s part of a broader cultural battle, said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.“These people feel like they are losing their America, because the true America is reflecting and embracing more diversity,” he said. “… Many are using the politics of fear to galvanize their bases.”
A willingness to believe provably untrue statements has an element of cognitive dissonance, says Rana Elmir, a Dearborn native who is deputy director of the Michigan American Civil Liberties Union.
“When presented with proof, hard evidence, that Dearborn is a thriving and diverse city, that doesn’t comport with the information they’ve already invested a lot of brain power and emotion into believing,” Elmir says. “They can’t imagine journalists and politicians are telling them a lie. They rely on the fear and xenophobia they’ve been fed. At our base, we’re all emotional creatures.”
But there’s something else, Elmir said: “A real lack of intellectual curiosity, empathy and the ‘othering’ of an entire community”—connected, she said, to consistent depictions of Arabs and Muslims in popular media as brutal and foreign.
Which makes this next part particularly ironic: After a district court barred Jones’ 2011 protest, the ACLU branch Elmir oversees defended his rights to free speech and free assembly in court. In 2012, a group called the Bible Believers attended Dearborn’s Arab International Festival with a pig’s head on a stick (strict Muslims believe pigs are unclean), shouting slurs at members of the crowd, some of whom responded by throwing rocks and bottles. County sheriff’s deputies removed the crew; the ACLU defended them. In 2014, the bikers Jones rallied to protest backed out, and few others joined the march.

That’s how American Dearborn is, how mainstream its Arab-American residents are. That’s what Jones and those like him refuse to understand.Credit to Nancy Kaffer

Mosques around Britain open their doors to non-Muslims to ease tensions

Twenty-one mosques around the United Kingdom welcomed visitors from other faiths on Sunday as part of a nationwide initiative organized to ease tensions following recent terror attacks in Paris and rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.
The event, dubbed ‘Visit My Mosque Day,’ was organized by the Muslim Council of Britain, the most prominent Muslim umbrella organization in the UK.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, a representative from the organization’s press office said the recent period had been “a tense time for faith communities” in the UK, especially for Muslims.
“We felt it would be good to invite people of all faiths and none to come together and share cultural and religious understanding. As Islam and Muslims are often portrayed [negatively] in the media, we felt this would be a great way to dispel any myths people have about Islam,” the spokesman said.
Tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in Britain have heightened in recent years, with the latest attacks in Paris inflaming them further amid a marked rise anti-Muslim sentiment and Islamophobic attacks and support for far-right nationalist groups.
In the wake of the Paris attacks, British Prime Minister David Cameron sent a letter to Muslim leaders in the country saying they had a responsibility in “explaining and demonstrating how faith in Islam can be part of British identity.”
Mokdad Versi, the Council’s assistant secretary general, told Asharq Al-Awsat the organization wanted “to reach out and ease the tensions that have happened after Paris, to show the wider public who we [as Muslims] really are.”
The Council had been critical of some parts of Cameron’s letter which it said implied widespread radicalization was occurring in mosques across Britain. Versi told Asharq Al-Awsat that Sunday’s event aimed to help dispel such myths and give non-Muslim Britons a sense of “what mosques are all about.”
Visitors to mosques participating in the event were served tea and cake before taking part in a range of events designed to show everyday life at mosques around the country, including question and answer sessions about Islam and Muslims.
Louise Jones, one of the visitors to a mosque on the day of the event, told Asharq Al-Awsat it was “a shame that the sad events in Paris have created the need for an open dialogue; it should always happen.”
Another visitor, Michael Cogarty, called Visit My Mosque a “great event, which will definitely have a positive outcome.”
“The mosque is a peaceful place where good things can come out it. This needs to be understood in our society,” he said.
One of the mosques participating in the event was Finsbury Park Mosque in London, where radical preacher Abu Hamza Al-Masry, now jailed for life in the US after being convicted on terror-related charges, preached during the 2000s. Since the Paris attacks in early January it has received a number of threats, Sky News reported earlier this week.
In response, Versi said the Council had provided extra security at mosques for the event and informed the police it was taking place.
According to 2011 national survey figures, Islam is Britain’ second-largest religion, with 5 percent, or 2 million, of the country’s inhabitants counted as members of the faith. Those identifying as Christian make up 59 percent of the population, while those with no religious affiliations account for 25 percent.

Nigeria: Election - Folarin Renovates Hausa Muslim Community Mosque

Ibadan — The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State, Senator Teslim Folarin has commenced the renovation of the Hausa Muslim Community Central mosque.
The governorship hopeful told newsmen in Ibadan on Saturday that the mosque being the hose of God need proper maintenance.
Folarin who did not disclose the cost of the renovation, said it was an efforts aimed at giving them sense of belonging.
"They are part of us and we do not need to alienate them. They deserve our support," he said.
While noting that it was not because of the incoming elections, he said as "Muslim, I have the obligation to contribute to the growth and development of Islam and Muslims mot only in Ibadan or Oyo State but the world over."
He disclosed that his administration would be fair to all religious groups in the state, warning that discrimination against any religion would not bring about the needed peace and security.
According to him, the administration of PDP will ensure peace reign in the state to allow for genuine development and growth.
"With genuine peace and security, there will even development in all spheres of the economy," he added.
Meanwhile, the governorship candidate PDP, , Senator Teslim Folarin has identified education and massive youth empowerment as the focus of his administration, if elected.
He lamented the high rate of unemployed youth in the state saying it was due to the archaic policies of the present administration in the state.
He decried over reliance on limited white collar jobs in the country,said his government would focus more on youth empowerment through skill acquisition and vocational training programmes for the teeming youths in the state
Credit to By Adebayo Waheed

FEMALE MUSLIMS SHUTDOWN LAGOS FOR WORLD HIJAB DAY

Happenstances from the 3-hour peaceful walk+ "We'll never rest until we get justice on hijab" - MSSN, FOMWAN, Al-Mu'minaat
By Zaynab Abdurrazaq, Aisha Sarumi, Hajarat Alli, and Miftaudeen Raji

NIGERIAN Muslims, on Sunday, February 1, 2015, joined over 116 countries across the world to mark the third edition of the most anticipated global event tagged; World Hijab Day amidst high expectations.

In Lagos, Southwest, Nigeria, thousands of female muslims, especially from higher institutions, gathered at Maryland, in their numbers for the peaceful walk. Also in attendance were secondary school students, from Walkway College, Al-Alim College, Wesley Girls, Eletu Odibo High School, among others, beautiful in their school uniform and hijab.

Their mothers were not left out of this historic moment, after all, they are also clamoring for the use of hijab in Lagos public schools. The presence of Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN), the women wing of Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, and Al-Mu'minaat (the Believing Women Association) members boasted the morale of the participants.

Before the great procession finally kicked off by 8:42 am, the amir (president) of the Muslim Students' Society of Nigeria (MSSN), Lagos State Area Unit, who is also the convener, Engr. Kaamil Kalejaiye addressed the crowd of over two thousand as observed by ENCOMIUM Weekly, to declare the walk open.

The World Hijab Day (WHD) was a well organized procession manned by Maryland Youth and Protocol officers, the security wing of the society. Police details were also presence to ensure that the procession was peaceful. During the trek from the complex at Maryland to the popular Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos, the participants were seen chanting adhkar (supplications).

Their big and bold banners had inspiring messages about Hijab words that attracted passersby and commuters. Some of them read, We are covered by choice not by force, Join the movement. Better Awareness. Greater understanding. Peaceful world, Hijab is my choice not compulsion. Hijab is my Choice. Hijab is my constitutional right. Hijab is my life. Hijab is my culture, among others.

They became the cynosure of all eyes on the busy Lagos-Ikorodu express road. That gave them the opportunity to share handbills around, as they continued chanting motivational choruses that gingered them, until they got to the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park. The walk lasted more than an hour.

WE'LL NEVER REST UNTIL WE GET JUSTICE ON HIJAB - MSSN


Addressing the mamooth crowd, Amira (Female President) of MSSN, Lagos Area Unit, Hajia Hafsah Badru, who described hijab as a walking billboard of Islam, noted that the theme, Covered by Choice was carefully chosen to make the world know that it was the will and choice of Muslim women to wear hijab."

She said: "We are gathered here today in commemoration of a day globally set aside to mark what we regard as our pride, the hijab. As I speak right now, the World Hijab Day is being celebrated in more than 116 countries of the world and over 1,000,000 places across the globe.
World Hijab Day was suggested by Nazma Khan, a Bangladesh lady in New York in 2013. The day came into being recognized by millions of Muslim women who chose to wear the hijab and live a life of modesty. The day is also to foster religious tolerance and understanding by inviting women (muslims/non-muslims) to experience the hijab for one day.

?"For many who think the hijab is a symbol of oppression and segregation, it is not. You will only subject us to oppression by denying us the usage. We chose to wear it, we love it. This event hopes to neutralise some of the controversies on why Muslim women choose to wear the hijab and opening up pathways to understanding the concept of hijab.

A righteous and modest woman is the pillar, cornerstone and foundation of any society because of her role in the family. But how can a woman get the best comfort in this world? How can she be successful, impactful, true to her femininity, honoured and loved when her right to dignity is threatened? What Islam has established is not a restriction of the freedom of women but a firm protection for her from falling to the lowest level of humility.

"It pains that women who have dedicated themselves to ensuring morality and modesty are the ones being punished, those who have chosen the part of immorality go scot-free. I won't stop being worried, sometimes weep when I remember how some female muslims were flogged and molested for using hijab.


I am sorry to say without regret that, our government, certain individuals, corporate organisations are unfair, partial and unnecessarily aggressive when it comes to us practising that part of our religion (wearing hijab). They should please live and let us live. You don't necessarily (but preferably) need to be a muslim to respect muslims.

Speaking on the legal tussle between the society and Lagos State government over ban of hijab in public schools, Hajia Hafsoh said: "We will never rest till we get justice. The Ikeja High Court that we approached for judgement in favour of hijab ruled against it claiming the secular nature of Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole would not permit that. We have appealed the case and no matter what they do, they cannot frustrate us, we will continue to be law abiding and ensure that we see the case to a successful end, Insha Allah."

"ALLOW OUR CHILDREN USE HIJAB IN SCHOOLS",
FOMWAN APPEALS TO FASHOLA


Highlighting the significance of hijab, Alhaja Rahmatallahi Olaniyan, The Naibatul Amirah, Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN) emphasized that hijab is a regalia of dignity and a commandment of Allah as stated in his glorious book, Quran.

In an interview with AL-FAHM, Hajia Rahmatallahi stressed the need for parents to teach their children the significance of hijab at home. She said Muslim parents should continue to sensitize their children on the use of hijab, adding with the turn out (at the procession), "I'm rest assured that when we are no more, our children will carry on the legacy of Islam."

Alhaja Fatimah therefore appealed to governor of Lagos state, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola to allow the use of hijab by muslim pupils in secondary schools in the state.

She said, "We mothers are on our knees, allow hijab for our children. It's an injunction from Allah our Creator. The battle we are facing, Insha Allah, we are going to win. To you our children, when you are allowed to use hijab don't use it to abuse Islam. Use it to propagate Islam."

"WE WANT AN END TO HARASSMENT AND VICTIMIZATION OF MUSLIM WOMEN ON HIJAB" - Al-Mu'minaat

Amirah, Al-Mu'munaat Organization, Hajia Aisha Ilyas expressed satisfaction over the conduct of female muslims during the procession, calling on the Federal Government and Governor Babatunde Fashola to expedite actions in putting an end to victimisation and daily harassment of female Muslims in hijab.

She said, "The harassments at places of data capturing and biometrics, at commercial banks,when we go for verification number, drivers licence at Federal Road Safety Commission, international passport and Nigeria Immigration Service and passport for national identity card at the NIMC have become a daily affair for Muslim women. We want a stop to all these."

CHRISTIANS ALSO SHOW SUPPORT FOR WORLD HIJAB DAY

Other distinguished personalities spoke on the importance of World Hijab Day, and everyone was impressed when a Christian and reporter from Radio Nigeria, Mrs. Ruth Akinwunmi-King mounted the podium in a hijab and shouted takbir, Allah is Great. She said she just wanted to show her solidarity for Muslim ladies.

Ruth Akinwunmi-King was one of the non-muslims, who wore hijab on that day. "The hijab is not a sin,it is just for women to look modest", Ruth reiterated in her speech.

Another christian, Gbadamosi Ayomide from Osun State University also spoke on the World Hijab Day. According to her, "I look beautifully good in it. It is cool. It gives you a distinct look. I respect those that use it because it takes a lot of courage to identify with your religion as part of your person."

Omotosho Temilade is a 500L Law student. She aired her feelings about hijab: "I look different. I look nice and people appreciate me. It's not bad to use it and it adds to my beauty. I don't feel hot at all.

HOW THE EVENT ENDED

Everybody wanted to talk. The expression showed they had a nice time. Students from various institutions also aired their views on the rejection of the hijab and pleaded with government to allow their younger ones use hijab in secondary schools. By 11:30am, the procession ended.

THE ORIGIN OF WORLD HIJAB DAY


World Hijab Day is an annual event that takes place on February 1. The very first World Hijab Day was celebrated in 2013. Founded by Nazma Khan, a Bangladesh lady in New York, it?s a worldwide event that encourages Muslim and non-Muslim women to wear hijab and experience life of a hijabi woman.
This event showcases freedom and traditional aspect of hijab to women of the 116 participating countries worldwide. World Hijab Day is a way for the non-hijabi woman to experience hijab from the other side.
Credit to MSSNLagos