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Posted on 03/03/2002 12:13:39 PM PST by BrooklynGOP
CORDOBA, Spain - A conference of Muslim women ended Sunday with a call to end to what it called negative stereotypes in the West. Security guards scuffled with some participants who tried to pray in a nearby church that was once an ancient mosque.
But a key focus of the meeting of Muslim scholars, activists and professionals from Spain, Morocco, Sudan and Iran, among other countries, was how Muslim women who wear veils or are covered from head to toe by a gown are perceived in the West.
"We have to stop thinking of Muslim women in a superficial way, as women who wear a veil, are subjugated to their husbands and have no opinion, and focus on other aspects such as how we live together peacefully no matter what our origin is," said Azra Sljivo, a Muslim from Bosnia who now lives in Spain.
Organizers said the conference was intended to begin a debate on the many obstacles Muslim women face and see if participants can learn from each other on ways to overcome such challenges.
The communique agreed that the hijab "is a voluntary expression and a fundamental right of a woman's image." Participants had called for the right of women to wear it with a religious meaning, and for acceptance of Muslim women who choose not to cover their heads.
Meanwhile, a group of Muslims attending the Congress insisted on praying in the Mosque of Cordoba, famed as the third largest in area in the world and converted into a Roman Catholic cathedral in the 13th century. Muslims are now forbidden from praying there.
When about 20 men and women kneeled to pray, a scuffle broke out with security guards who tried to prevent them.
The guards also tried to stop photographers and reporters, ordering them to switch off their microphones.
Fatima Nasri of Morocco said praying at the former mezquita, the Spanish word for mosque, was not a provocation but "a long-awaited act."
"It has been very emotional for us to pray where our ancestors did, Nasri said. "Behind the ban there is a deep-seated fear that people will return to Islam," she said. Cordoba was part of an Islamic caliphate from the 8th to the 11th centuries.
The gathering in Cordoba was organized by a Madrid-based Muslim women's human right group, An-Nisa. Last year's gathering was canceled because of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Since then, there has been renewed interest in Islam the wide attention given to the war in Afghanistan has brought many facets of Islamic society into focus in Western countries.
The next Muslim Women's Congress was scheduled for next year in the Spanish island of Mallorca.
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Get it right next time. Islam is LOVE and peace.
HEBRON, WEST BANK—In an emotionally charged press conference Monday, crazed Palestinian gunman Faisal al Hamad expressed frustration over the stereotyping of his people.
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| Above: Faisal al Hamad, seen here shrieking anti-U.S. slogans, says that "not every crazed Palestinian gunman is exactly alike." |
"As a crazed Palestinian gunman, I feel hurt by the negative portrayal of my people in the media," said al Hamad, 31, a Hebron-area terrorist maniac. "None of us should have to live with stereotyping and ignorance."
He then began screaming and firing into a busload of Israeli schoolchildren.
"It hurts that in this supposedly enlightened day and age, people still make assumptions about other people," al Hamad said. "We should not rely on simple generalizations. Each crazed Palestinian gunman is an individual."
Al Hamad said that he himself has often been unfairly stereotyped. "Any time I enter a crowded temple with fully loaded AK-47s in both hands, people just assume I'm going to open fire," he said. "That really hurts."
"Yes, I sometimes do gun people down in the name of the One True God," he noted. "But there is so much more to me."
Several weeks ago, al Hamad was again the victim of stereotyping during a vacation he took with his family to Washington, D.C.
"When we arrived at the airport in Washington, security guards detained us for more than 12 hours, just because I had 140 pounds of plastic explosives strapped to my chest," al Hamad said. "Do you think they would have called the FBI if I weren't a crazed Palestinian who's on their Ten Most Wanted List? I don't think so."
Al Hamad said his vacation was ruined when federal agents seized a crate of chemical weapons he had brought into the U.S. as a gift for a friend in New York.
"I explained to them that the weapons were a birthday present for the blind cleric Sayid al Farouq, a good friend of mine from high school," he said. "But they did not believe me and took me into federal custody for nine weeks. Again, it's a case of people jumping to conclusions on the basis of skin color. And that can be very frustrating."
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| Above: When this truck blew up in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur last year, Israeli officials suspected PLO involvement. "That really hurt that they would just think that right off the bat," al Hamad said. |
According to al Hamad, stereotypes against crazed Palestinian gunmen don't work because they don't take into account the vast variety of proud histories and diverse cultures among them.
"There are so many different kinds of crazed Palestinian gunmen. Each of us has our own unique reasons and motivations for our bus bombings and suicide missions," he said. "No two fundamentalist agendas are alike."
Al Hamad also stressed the importance of understanding and celebrating the cultural differences between crazed Palestinian gunmen and non-crazed, non-Palestinian non-gunmen.
"All the different peoples of the world have something special to offer each other," he said. "Our diversity is our greatest strength. Let's not make a weakness out of that strength."
To emphasize his point, al Hamad fired into a crowd, killing nine.
"I'm proud to be a crazed Palestinian gunman, obviously," he said in between shouts of anti-imperialist slogans. "But I'm an individual first. I'm me. Die, Yankee infidel pig swine!"
Yea like trying to board a plane or cash a check or have a picture on their drivers license with a veil covering their face..
And then there is always the problem of where to have their girls circumcised
Gee...and Muslim societies are so tolerant of those from the West.
Maybe they should just stay in their own society then....
And if a few of them just HAVE TO behave like this then the REST OF THEM should come out and denounce it and make some noise.
Otherwise, they should shut up, because if the stereotype fits..
Muslim women have "a fundamental right" to wear the Hijab... but no fundamental right NOT to wear it. In other words, Muslim women have the RIGHT to do what Muslim fundamentalists say... and that's it.
Why is that even an issue? If they don't like western/non muslim countries, why move there in the first place?
The Muslim women then called for a jihad agaist all Westerners and Christians, adding that the world would not be safe until the Jews and Americans were exterminated.
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