Free Republic

Women with uncovered faces might give the little tykes all sorts of ideas. This isn’t happening in Afghanistan… but in Tunisia. The heartland of the Arab Spring. A group of Salafites has issued death threats against teachers at an elementary school in Djerba, Tunisia, if they will not start wearing the Islamic veil within a week. ... Some might complain that it’s unfair to call Salafis moderate. But I’m not being sarcastic. If the Muslim Brotherhood can be repeatedly referred to as a moderate group as well as many of the Salafist militias in Syria that aren’t Al Qaeda… that...

Four female members of Ankara’s Islamic-rooted government attended a parliament session on Thursday wearing headscarves, a first in 14 years in secular Turkey. The last time a headscarf was seen in Parliament was when Turkish-American MP Merve Kavakci turned up for her swearing-in ceremony in Islamic dress. She was booed out of the house and eventually had her Turkish citizen(ship) revoked. Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lifted a decades-old ban on headscarves in the civil service in early October as part of a package of reforms meant to improve democracy and freedoms. …

Burka bandit tries to hold up National City bank, CBS8 San Diego, August 2, 2013 A woman tried to rob a bank in National City, and officials sought the public's help locating her. The attempted robbery occurred at around 6 p.m. Thursday at a Wells Fargo Bank branch at 1199 Highland Ave., according to FBI Special Agent Darrell Foxworth. "At the time of the robbery, the woman entered the bank and stood in the teller line until summoned by a teller," Foxworth said. "Upon arriving at the teller counter, the woman presented a demand note." The teller read some of...

The Islamic Solidarity Games open in Indonesia this weekend following a chaotic run-up, with controversy over female athletes competing in sports bikinis adding to the turmoil. Some nations demanded that all women cover up for the beach volleyball, track and field, and swimming events, but organizers have refused to axe the two-piece sporting outfits. "If some countries do not want to use the bikini, that's fine, but if other countries want to, we will allow that," senior organizing committee member Djoko Pramono told AFP.

France witnessed another apparent incident of violent Islamophobia on Tuesday, after it was reported that a 16-year-old girl in the suburbs of Paris was attacked and had her Islamic veil torn off her face. The teen victim was leaving a friend’s house in Trappes, the same Paris suburb that saw violent clashes between youths and police last month, at around 5.45 pm on Monday, when two “European-looking” men confronted her near Square Berlioz, according to reports in French media. The victim reported her assailants shouted racist and anti-Muslim insults at her before brandishing a boxcutter. She said they then tore...

Authorities are seeking for the public's help Friday in locating a woman who tried to rob a bank in National City. The attempted robbery occurred at around 6 p.m. Thursday at a Wells Fargo Bank branch at 1199 Highland Ave., according to FBI Special Agent Darrell Foxworth. "At the time of the robbery, the woman entered the bank and stood in the teller line until summoned by a teller," Foxworth said. "Upon arriving at the teller counter, the woman presented a demand note." The teller read some of the demand note then alerted another bank employee, Foxworth said. The woman...

The town of Trappes in Yvelines department (county), just outside Paris, was again the scene of street disturbances Sunday night as protesters, thought to be mainly Muslims, faced off with local police and riot police. Trappes and surrounding towns had also witnessed violent protests Friday and Saturday evening after police had attempted to book a Muslim woman for wearing a full face niqab in contravention of France’s so-called burqa ban. ... The violence stemmed from an incident last Thursday when police tried to carry out an identity check and give a ticket to a woman wearing a niqab — a...

"The law should be applied, and applies to everyone." That principle, so hard-won in the West, is rapidly giving way. "5 injured in clashes at burka riot outside Paris ... About 250 people hurling projectiles clashed with police firing tear gas west of Paris, in apparent protest over enforcement of France’s ban on Islamic face veils. Five people were injured and six detained in the violence, authorities said Saturday.

So this happened in Sweden on Saturday: At 11 o’clock on Saturday, [they came] into the Stockholm mosque [in] Södermalm, threw [their] clothes [away, and,] with clenched fists in the air, they shouted in English:… “No to Sharia! No to oppression! Free women!” Skip the first twelve seconds of the following video unless you speak Swedish. The rest is in English. (Please do not click play if women’s breasts offend you.)

Iran swimmer’s time goes unrecorded: “Her bathing suit was too revealing” An Iranian woman has taken on a difficult challenge: to swim as long as possible in open waters, where she has to wear a diving suit, a full jacket, and a headscarf. However, this was still not enough for the sports authorities, who she claims told her they could not record her latest swim because her outfit was too revealing. In Iran, women swimmers usually compete in all-female pools, and only at the national level, not abroad, to avoid being seen by men. Professional swimmer Elham Sadat Asghari, however,...

It was an honest mistake- she didn't have to get all mad like that

“It’s a textile prison for the women who have to live under it,” he said. Last week, protesters hurled bins and metal barriers at a police station after Stéphanie Djato, 24, was arrested for refusing to remove her face veil. “They tried to enter by force, but they were not able to,” a spokesman for Brussels police told broadcaster RTL.... Ms. Djato, who was waiting at a streetcar stop, scuffled with officers after she refused to show them any ID. During the mêlée, a policewoman was injured. “Finally, the woman’s veil was removed and she was taken to hospital with...

SNIPPET - quote: Mohammed Abu Hasnath, 19,  of Blair Street E14, has been jailed at the Old Bailey for 14 months after he admitted being in possession of Al Qaeda’s on-line terrorist magazine “Inspire.” The young perfume salesman was arrested by detectives from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command on October 13 last year as he was cycling along the East India Dock Road. Hasnath pleaded guilty to four charges of having copies of the magazine on his computer memory USB stick. The Central Criminal Court heard that he had also painted burqas on scantily clad women featured on advertising posters in the local area. As...

Comments and questions have poured forth after a woman was removed, said to be in a burqa, from President Obama campaign rally on Saturday. Isti Arief , a PhD student at Virginia Commonwealth University, told CBS 6 she was elated to see another Muslim woman sitting a few rows in front of her at President Obama’s re-election rally on Saturday. However, Arief says when she looked much closer , she knew something was wrong, starting with the woman’s burqa. “It looked like more of a makeshift one. It wasn’t even an official one” said Arief. Arief goes on to say...

A strange happening at the Obama campaign event at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond today. The media pool reports mentioned a woman wearing a black burka who was removed from the event. To make things more interesting, the pool reporter says the person was wearing U.S. military insignia.From the AP:VCU police reported that a heckler was removed from the arena, taken outside and released. A police dispatcher didn't know what the woman had yelled. According to a White House pool report, photographers observed a woman wearing a black burka being escorted out of the gym by Richmond police and other...

Maria Sharapova and Sasha Vujacic Will Wed In Turkey, Despite Being ‘Saddened’ By All The Stray Dogs Rick Chandler Mar 23, 2012 Scientists can confirm that we are now closer than ever to a Maria Sharapova-Sasha Vujacic Super Baby, after the couple on Thursday officially set a wedding date. Following a whirlwind 18-month engagement, the tennis diva and former NBA (and current Anadolu Efes Basketball Club) star have set Nov. 10 in Istanbul, Turkey, for the nuptials. That’s where Vujacic is currently employed. But I have a feeling that, given a choice, Sharapova would have picked a different wedding locale....

Face must be visible on ID pic... Common sense dictates there's no better form of positive identification as actually showing your face. Signing official documents, obtaining a driver's license, or for those who require a Military ID Card... The reason for the photograph on the identification card need not be explained, per basic common sense. As reported by Australia's The Daily Telegraph, the Aussie state of New South Wales has been forced to legalize common sense. The Burqa Conundrum... The Carnita Matthews Case in Australia hit the headlines last year when the 50-ish Australian convert-to-Islam was stopped by a policeman...

Belgian politician risks Muslim backlash after using teenage daughter dressed in burka and bikini for campaign against Islam Cover up: Politician's daughter An-Sofie Dewinter poses in a burka and bikini in a campaign against Islamic extremists A Belgian politician has risked causing uproar among Muslims after starting a 'Women Against Islamization' campaign featuring his 19-year-old daughter wearing a burka and a bikini. Filip Dewinter, leader of the far-right Vlaams Belang party, uses a shot of his daughter An-Sofie Dewinter in the dark blue bikini for the political campaign. The glamorous teenager dons a burka that covers her head and face,...

I keep pinching myself, but it’s no mere nightmare. I am living with the traumatizing truth that, for the moment, I am on the same side as ultra-Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney and the rightest of right-wing columnists. Following Immigration Minister Kenney’s announcement that veiled faces will be banned at citizenship ceremonies, pundits have been weighing in all over the place. And, with a few sporadic exceptions, the response has been neatly divided: the ban is an outrage (the left), and the ban is good (the right). Personally, I’m all for it. There is not a single positive thing to...

Nassim Mimoune, 24, had already been expelled from the delivery room for branding the midwife a 'rapist' as she carried out an intimate examination of his wife. Then through a window he spotted the nurse taking off his wife's burqa as she prepared to give birth. He smashed open the locked door and hit the woman in the face, demanding she replace the full Islamic face veil. As his wife delivered a baby boy, Mimoune was ejected from the building by security men from the hospital in Marseille and arrested for assault. A judge in the southern French port jailed...