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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates-- The West believes that Islam oppresses women. But as a Muslim, descended from generations of Muslims, I have a different story to tell. It starts like this: You say, "The sea is salty." I say, "But it is blue and full of fish." I am not objective about Islam, and although I am considerably Westernized, I can never truly see it through Western eyes. I am in this religion. It is in me. And articulating the intimacy of faith and the experience of worship to a Western audience is a challenge and a discovery... Recently,...

LONDON, June 16 — Increasingly, Muslim women in Britain take their children to school and run errands covered head to toe in flowing black gowns that allow only a slit for their eyes. On a Sunday afternoon in Hyde Park, groups of black-clad Muslim women relaxed on the green baize lawn among the in-line skaters and badminton players. Their appearance, like little else, has unnerved other Britons, testing the limits of tolerance here and fueling the debate over the role of Muslims in British life. Many veiled women say they are targets of abuse. Meanwhile, there are growing efforts to...

LONDON: Increasingly, Muslim women in Britain take their children to school and run errands covered head to toe in flowing black gowns that allow only a slit for their eyes. Like little else, their appearance has unnerved Britons, testing the limits of tolerance in this stridently secular nation. Many veiled women say they are targets of abuse. At the same time, efforts are growing to place legal curbs on the full Muslim veil, known as the niqab. The past year has seen numerous examples: A lawyer dressed in a niqab was told by an immigration judge that she could not...

A Malmö bus driver has been fired from his job following revelations that he stopped a woman from boarding his bus because she was wearing a niqab, a form of Islamic headdress that covers the face. The bus company, Arriva, has elected not to extend the driver's contract, suggesting that this was not an isolated incident. "What happened last week was the straw that broke the camel's back," spokesman Daniel Stjernfeldt told newspaper Punkt SE. The incident occurred last Tuesday morning when 'Leonora' boarded the number 35 bus on her usual route between the Rosengård housing estate and the city's...

An American Muslim woman whose court case was dismissed after she refused to take off her full-face veil has sued the judge on the grounds that her religious and civil rights has been violated. Ginnnah Muhammad, 42, of Detroit, says in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit that Judge Paul Paruk's decision to dismiss her small-claims court case when she didn't agree to remove her veil was unconstitutional based on her First Amendment right to practice her religion. The lawsuit also cites a federal civil rights law in stating that Ginnah was denied access to the court...

Muslims to pay school's legal fight to uphold niqab ban By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor Last Updated: 1:19am GMT 05/02/2007 A Muslim group has offered to help fund a school's legal battle over its refusal to let a pupil wear the niqab in class. Veiled woman: The niqab, which covers the whole face apart from the eyes In an unprecedented move, the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (Meco) has written to the head teacher to say it is prepared to contribute to a fighting fund. Taj Hargey, Meco's chairman, said he was also willing to organise a campaign among...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2 Police killer suspect fled Britain in a veil ANDREW NORFOLK • Most wanted man posed as sister to escape • Inquiry demanded into Heathrow security Comment Central: real freedom means Muslim women should be able to wear a veil A man who was being hunted for the murder of a policewoman is understood to have escaped from Britain by disguising himself as a veiled Muslim woman. Mustaf Jama, a prime suspect in the fatal shooting of PC Sharon Beshenivsky, assumed his sister’s identity — wearing the niqab and using her passport — to evade supposedly stringent checks at Heathrow,...

A man who was being hunted for the murder of a policewoman is understood to have escaped from Britain by disguising himself as a veiled Muslim woman. Mustaf Jama, a prime suspect in the fatal shooting of PC Sharon Beshenivsky, assumed his sister’s identity — wearing the niqab and using her passport — to evade supposedly stringent checks at Heathrow, according to police sources. The use of the niqab, which leaves only a narrow slit for the eyes, highlights flaws in British airport security. At the time, Jama was Britain’s most wanted man, while Heathrow was on a heightened state...

A veiled Muslim woman will deliver this year's alternative Christmas speech on Channel 4, the broadcaster has said. Khadija, a Zimbabwean-born British citizen who has been wearing the full veil - or niqab - for 10 years, has been given the slot. The message will reflect a year in which the wearing of religious clothing and symbols have "dominated the news agenda", said a Channel 4 spokesman. A counterpoint to the Queen's Christmas speech first appeared on C4 in 1993. The spokesman added that the specific contents of the message would be released closer to Christmas Day.

Ramadan 2006 may well be remembered as the Ramadan of the veil. In remarks widely reported in the Arab press, former U.K. foreign secretary Jack Straw described the veil as "a visible statement of separation and difference"; in the ensuing controversy, British Prime Minister Tony Blair lent his support to Straw and made similar comments. In a related development, a teaching assistant in the U.K., Aisha Azmi, was suspended for refusing to remove her veil when teaching. However, the most divisive controversy erupted not in Europe, but in Tunisia, where the government launched a campaign to implement "Decree 108," first...

Not long ago in the hospital in which I once worked, a young male nurse was asked by the administration to remove the ironmongery with which he had recently adorned his face and ears. He was outraged by this assault on his inalienable right to mutilate himself in any way that he chose, which he believed to be narrow-minded. He was, after all, the owner of his face and ears in fee simple; they were his to dispose of as he saw fit. As it happens, he was a decent and dedicated young man, albeit one with the bad taste...

Ginnah Muhammad, 42, is a devout Muslim, so as such, she feels she was forced to choose between her small claims court case and her religion, Friday. Judge Paul Paruk, in Hamtramck District Court, told Muhammad she had to take off her niqab; a scarf and veil, which covers her face and head except for her eyes, or he would dismiss her case. The judge said he needed to see her face so he could judge her truthfulness when she testified. Paruk told the Detroit Free press he offered to let Muhammad, who was born in the United States and...

Britain is embroiled in a fierce debate over British Muslim women who wear a niqab--an opaque veil that covers a woman's entire face. Many British Muslims have expressed outrage that a public schoolteacher was ordered to remove her veil--while many other Britons have defended the school, criticized the wearing of niqabs, and called for the greater assimilation of Muslims into British society. "Britons are absolutely right to criticize the niqab," said Alex Epstein, junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. "It is a demeaning, barbaric article of clothing that inculcates shame in women, depriving them of individuality and femininity." "But...

misinformed tolerance finally hits its limits in Britain HOW tolerant must a free society be of those who are intolerant of the values it holds dear? This question is at the heart of a controversy that has flared up in Britain over the past fortnight concerning Muslim women who wear nikabs, burkas and other face coverings that allow little more than the eyes to be seen. Two weeks ago, former British foreign minister Jack Straw, writing in his local newspaper, criticised Muslim women who covered their faces, saying the practice maked "better, positive relations" between communities "more difficult". He added...

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Defying the Islamic clamor in some European countries, Tunisia has served notice that it will continue to oppose any "sectarian dress" incompatible with its tradition. This includes head scarves for women, who have been reminded that, according to a 25-year-old government directive, they are not to wear the "Islamic scarf" in schools and public buildings. In contrast to neighboring Algeria, the veil has rarely been worn in Tunisia. Such a form of dress, a senior Tunisian official said, "reminds us of the time when extremists threw acid in the faces of unveiled women. Fundamentalists have totally failed...