Free Republic

A ruling by the European Union's top court on Tuesday, which allows companies to bar staff from wearing Islamic headscarves and other visible religious symbols, has set off a storm of complaint from rights groups and religious leaders. With its first ruling on a hot political issue across Europe, the Court of Justice (ECJ) has found that a Belgian firm which had a rule barring employees who dealt with customers from wearing visible religious and political symbols "may not have discriminated" against a receptionist dismissed for wearing a headscarf. The judgment came on the eve of a Dutch election...

In 2011, I was hired, straight out of college, to work at the White House and eventually the National Security Council. My job there was to promote and protect the best of what my country stands for. I am a hijab-wearing Muslim woman––I was the only hijabi in the West Wing––and the Obama administration always made me feel welcome and included. Like most of my fellow American Muslims, I spent much of 2016 watching with consternation as Donald Trump vilified our community. Despite this––or because of it––I thought I should try to stay on the NSC staff during the Trump...

One American champion is voicing her opposition to “women’s oppression” by boycotting the women’s world chess championship in Iran rather than bow to Iranian demands that she wear a hijab, or headscarf. “By participating, I would be forced to submit to forms of oppression designed specifically for women,” Nazí Paikidze insisted. “It sets the wrong example, particularly for young girls interested in chess.” Paikidze, the current U.S. chess champion, could be competing for up to $100,000 in prize money. However, she has refused to attend the event. “I will NOT wear a hijab and support women’s oppression,” she said. “Even...

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen canceled a meeting with a key Arab leader Tuesday after he insisted she wear a headscarf. The National Front leader who is a frontrunner for president was scheduled to meet with Lebanon’s grand mufti, an important cleric for Sunni Muslims, but backed out after it was made clear she was expected to cover her head, Reuters reports. “You can pass my respects to the grand mufti, but I will not cover myself up,” Le Pen told the press.

According to the New York Times, the Church World Service wants Muslim immigrants from the Middle East to feel welcome.  And they seem to think: what better way to make them feel welcome than to put on a hijab and head over to the local mosque for feminist fun and adventure! These ladies, who likely hate Donald Trump for being "sexist," think nothing of wrapping themselves up in an outfit closely associated with some of the worst sharia law has to offer women – the subservience, the second class citizenship, the beatings, the clitorectomies, the sex slavery, and so...

WASHINGTON – They gathered by the thousands to watch history on television. They cheered wildly when President Trump said in his inaugural address that the U.S. will eradicate radical Islamic terrorism from the face of the earth. The next day, they looked on in shock and horror at the violent protests in the streets. They were even more horrified when they saw American women wearing hijabs, Muslim headscarves worn as a sign of piety. But this wasn’t Kansas. It wasn’t even the Midwest. It was the Middle East. Cairo, Egypt. Home to tens of millions of devout Muslims. Cheri Berens...

A Massachusetts man was charged with hate crimes after he threatened an airline worker at Kennedy International Airport who was wearing a head scarf, kicked her and told her “Trump is here now” and “he will get rid of all of you,” officials said on Thursday. The man, Robin A. Rhodes, 57, of Worcester, Mass., arrived from Aruba on Wednesday night and was awaiting a connecting flight to Massachusetts when he approached the worker, Rabeeya Khan, in the Delta Air Lines Sky Club lounge at Terminal 2 between 7:10 p.m. and 9:45 p.m., the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown,...

THE GREAT HIJAB COVER-UPJanuary 4, 2017 Forget fake news; the real issue is fake "hate.” Has there been one (1) documented hate crime committed by white people against any hue in the Rainbow Coalition since Nov. 8? That's out of the 9,456,723 hate crimes alleged by America's leading hate group, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC is to "hate" what Rolling Stone is to rape. It is the biggest peddler of fantasies since Walt Disney. I've read through dozens of SPLC "hate crimes" and they are all lies. The Muslim girls in particular seem to be very spirited...

These BYU students have ably signaled their virtue, and can now sit back and enjoy the rounds of applause they will receive from the enlightened and intelligent, but where is their concern of for Aqsa Parvez, whose Muslim father choked her to death with her hijab after she refused to wear it? Or Aqsa and Amina Muse Ali, a Christian woman in Somalia whom Muslims murdered because she wasn’t wearing a hijab? Or the 40 women who were murdered in Iraq in 2007 for not wearing the hijab; or Alya Al-Safar, whose Muslim cousin threatened to kill her and harm...

<p>Yasmin Seweid told police three men tried to remove her hijab while shouting “Donald Trump!” She was arrested Wednesday for allegedly filing a false report.</p> <p>A woman who told police she was attacked by drunk Donald Trump supporters while riding the New York City subway was arrested Wednesday for allegedly fabricating the entire incident, authorities said.</p>

We’ve had our fair share of hijab news in the United States this year. You may recall that back during the Olympics, one Muslim athlete said that she didn’t feel safe in our country while wearing her traditional Muslim garb. In the heat of the election and the weeks which followed, we heard continual stories of “hate crimes” against women wearing such apparel, even though at least some of them turned out to be hoaxes. So I suppose wearing a hijab can be considered controversial. But not wearing one can cause even more issues depending where you live. If’ you’re...

A Saudi Arabian woman faced calls for her beheading after she was pictured in public without a hijab. The young woman, Malak Al Shehri, received a fury of posts on social media demanding her execution after she was seen in public in the Saudi capital Riyadh without an abaya (a full body cloak or a veil). Some said that she should be “thrown to the dogs” or “beheaded” for violating the country’s rules for women. But others, numbering in the hundreds, came to her defense and even praised her “bravery” for going out in public uncovered and for sharing the...

A 14-year-old from Syria has reported a Berlin tram driver to police, claiming he told her to get off the vehicle because she was wearing a headscarf. The incident took place in the southeastern neighborhood of Friedrichshagen on Tuesday, according to the police report. The teen got onto the tram shortly after 2 pm, intending to ride to the nearest S-Bahn stop. But the driver announced over the loudspeaker that she should get out of the vehicle, saying he would not drive anyone who wears a headscarf, the girl told police. According to her account, she did not receive support...

A Muslim woman has become the first to compete in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant while fully clothed. Halima Aden made the semifinals of the competition over the weekend while wearing a hijab. She also wore a full-body outfit called a burkini during the swimsuit competition. …

A Toronto television journalist is believed to be Canada's first anchor to don a Muslim head scarf at one of the city's major news broadcasters. Ginella Massa was asked to fill in on the anchor desk for CityNews' 11 p.m. broadcast last week and created a buzz after the broadcast ended and she Tweeted, "That's a wrap! Tonight wasn't just important for me. I don't think a woman in hijab has ever anchored a newscast in Canada." Massa, 29, said Friday that she became Canada's first hijab-wearing television news reporter in 2015 while reporting for CTV News in Kitchener, Ontario,...

A Toronto television journalist is believed to be Canada’s first anchor to don a Muslim head scarf at one of the city’s major news broadcasters. Ginella Massa was asked to fill in on the anchor desk for CityNews’ 11 p.m. broadcast last week and created a buzz after the broadcast ended and she Tweeted, “That’s a wrap! Tonight wasn’t just important for me. I don’t think a woman in hijab has ever anchored a newscast in Canada.” Massa, 29, said Friday that she became Canada’s first hijab-wearing television news reporter in 2015 while reporting for CTV News in Kitchener, Ontario,...

A Somali-American woman will be the first to compete in the Miss Minnesota USA contest while wearing a hijab and other modest Muslim clothing that keeps her fully covered. Nineteen-year-old Halima Aden of St. Cloud will be part of the competition Saturday and Sunday in Burnsville. In addition to her hijab, she'll wear a full-body outfit called a burkini during the swimsuit competition, and she'll modify evening gowns to be more modest.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is speaking out after an Oakdale (MN) boxer was denied fighting in a match in Florida Sunday because she was wearing a hijab. CAIR says 16-year-old Amaiya Zafar was about to enter the ring at the Sugar Bert Boxing National Championships in Kissimmee when an official disqualified her for wearing the traditional Muslim head covering. Zafar’s opponent was named the winner, but shared her belt with Zafar in a sign of solidarity, according to CAIR.

Advocates accused a Georgia lawmaker of targeting Muslim women with proposed changes to a 1951 state law passed to unmask the Ku Klux Klan, creating a backlash that prompted the Republican legislator to quickly discard the idea. State Rep. Jason Spencer came under fire from the American Civil Liberties Union and Muslim advocacy groups who called his proposal a veiled attempt to ban Muslim women from wearing scarves and other religious headgear that covers their faces in public — just as the law has prohibited Klan members from wearing masks during rallies and marches on public property. …

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette student who said she was robbed of her hijab head covering and wallet and beaten by two white men near campus fabricated the entire story, according to Lafayette Police. The 18-year-old Middle Eastern student reported to police Wednesday that she was walking to class about 11 a.m. when two white men, one wearing a Donald Trump hat, jumped out of an SUV, struck her and hit her repeatedly. She also said the men yelled racial slurs at her, ripped her hijab off her head and stole her wallet. …