You give people an inch and they take a yard...
Salam. This post was down for about an hour while Husband and I discussed its content. My clarifications are at the end of the original post. Thanks for linking to it, Levantine Historian!
I would like to take this moment to thank all the British managers, headmasters and other various people in charge for allowing women in headscarves to work as pharmacists, go to school, and have employment in keeping with their education. Compared to the rest of Europe, the UK is a a great place to be for a hijabi. The US is also a wonderful place to be for a hijabi compared to France or Germany. Britsh kafirs are just like any other kafirs anywhere else, so the fact that we Muslims have it pretty good there should arouse big Alhamdoulillahs from y'all. So stop complaining about a khilafah and how the UK sucks, and if you disagree with me, you are wrong. I will personally mail you a ticket to come to France to get treated like crap in the unemployment office (because if you're brown, you won't get a job) and have your sister's or your mom's headscarves ripped off when they seek medical care.
Evidently the big deal in England right now is this girl who, after causing a big brouhaha and stirring it up, won a lawsuit allowing her to wear a JILBAB at school. Two other blogs brought this to my attention, Levantine Historian and Indigo Jo, which might I add are two totally rockin blogs everyone should read macha Allah.
Now on the surface, I thought, "cool, this chick gets to wear her jilbab". But I was wrong. You see, the school already has regulations in place allowing for HIJAB and SHALWAR KAMEEZ. Try that in France. A jilbab isn't hijab- you can cover without one. Kameez are way more comfortable and the difference between covered and non-covered is what, three or four inches? Thus what bothers me is that for a non-mandatory part of the religion, she filed a lawsuit based essentially on her personal clothing preference and tried to call it Islam. Say alhamdoulillah, for crying out loud! Thank Allah swt that you can wear a hijab to school! Oh nooooo. Has to make the rest of us Muslims look bad by going after something that is a petty technicality. No, not even a technicality. A personal preference. I would be the first person to be all about a lawsuit against a school banning hijab. I come from America, I love lawsuits. But this school had already met the students halfway by allowing regulation hijab and kameez. Why a lawsuit against this school? Does a jilbab lawsuit help Muslims? NO. Because if I were an administrator at that school now, I would sit there and think, "You give people an inch, and they take a yard." I love you as my sister in Islam, but you live in England, your head and butt are covered. Shut up. There are so many other things you can spend your time and energy over helping the ummah rather than frivolous lawsuits. You talk about a jilbab and modesty? As a commentor on Levantine Historian pointed out (I'm taking his comment out of context, but his comment made me think what I am about to say), if the goal of a jilbab is increased modesty, what is up with all this publicity and pictures in the paper over this stupid lawsuit?
GRRRRR! I am so frosted right now. Keep in mind that I have people very close to me in France who didn't finish their education in France because they had to choose between schooling and hijab. Not schooling and jilbab, schooling and HIJAB. I would personally like to send this chick a ticket to France so she can visit a high school and look at her sisters in Islam who get flunked out by racist teachers because of their ethnicity and have to suffer the humiliation of showing their hair in the process. I will give you a personal interview with someone in my entourage who has a chronic medical condition who is forced to take off her headscarf every time she sees the doctor, which is weekly. I WISH my daughters, if I have any incha Allah, will have the freedom of education British Muslimahs have.
Seriously, I may be Muslim, but I think this jilbab case is one of the most petty things I have ever seen. As the BBC notes, 79% of the school's attendees are Muslim, and they already reached out by allowing kameez and hijab. Great way to foster relations in the community. Subhan Allah! If she had only spent half as much time giving dawah or doing something to further the ummah rather than this petty, nafs-serving, technicality. I'm not an old pious person or something, but a jilbab isn't mandatory according to a consensus of the scholars, so you can't call this a cause for Islam.
Now Nice Husband pointed some stuff out as did Levantine Historian. I removed this post while Nice Husband and I discussed the content. We both wanted to make sure I was clear in what I said. His main concern was that I didn’t have the proof that the kameez were appropriate or not, which is entirely a fair point. I don’t have the right to judge her if I haven’t seen the school’s kameez. And I haven’t seen the school’s regulation kameez. Some sisters who are uncomfortable with thigh-length or tunic-length kameez. She doesn’t look like a big girl in the picture in jilbab I saw of her, but if she were in a situation where the kameez were overly short, tight or transparent, I would change my mind. The bottom line is that my argument is kicked down a notch by the fact that I really don’t know what the kameez look like. I will do some internet searching incha Allah. I started from the premise that the school’s kameez were between knee and calf-length. I’m not here to issue fatwas on clothing and I’m not pretending I know the sister’s intention. I just think as a human being, and as a Muslim, that I would be pretty darn happy wearing some shalwar kameez, if in fact the shalwar kameez at the school are what I think normal kameez are (calf length with baggy pants). So I have no daleel and I am not considering myself a judge and issuing a fatwa without knowledge. I want to make that clear. I am simply expressing my potentially flawed opinion as a female Muslim and a hijabi based on what I know from what I have.
Second point is that I don’t want people to think that I think the UK is Muslim Disney World or something. I’m not saying we should be all thrilled that the school did allow hijab and kameez when in reality, with a 2/3 Muslim population, they were just doing their job. It’s like the Chris Rock skit where the girl is talking about a guy and says, “Well he didn’t go to jail” like it’s a good thing, and Chris Rock says, “You’re not supposed to go to jail in the first place.” I also think that with a significant Muslim minority, the UK government and schools have a lot of concessions left to make, but granted, they have less work to do than France or Germany. So no, I’m not saying that you should always be happy as a Muslim with the bones thrown to you by those in charge. I think the school did the strict minimum. They don’t deserve a cookie for just doing their job. My point is, however, that so many places DON’T do the strict minimum, so why call out those actually trying to compromise? Does that help or hurt our cause as Muslims? I see this as a deeper issue of speaking truth to power, and the nuance of a jilbab case is different from that of a hijab case vis-à-vis the mandatory nature of hijab and the not-mandatory nature of floor length jilbabs. Muslims have it bad enough as it is.
Finally, I don’t appreciate people speaking FOR me as a hijabi and making it sound like jilbabs are the only things self-respecting hijabis will wear or passing jilbabs off as mandatory. That's my personal bone to pick and I assume responsibility for it.
I would like to take this moment to thank all the British managers, headmasters and other various people in charge for allowing women in headscarves to work as pharmacists, go to school, and have employment in keeping with their education. Compared to the rest of Europe, the UK is a a great place to be for a hijabi. The US is also a wonderful place to be for a hijabi compared to France or Germany. Britsh kafirs are just like any other kafirs anywhere else, so the fact that we Muslims have it pretty good there should arouse big Alhamdoulillahs from y'all. So stop complaining about a khilafah and how the UK sucks, and if you disagree with me, you are wrong. I will personally mail you a ticket to come to France to get treated like crap in the unemployment office (because if you're brown, you won't get a job) and have your sister's or your mom's headscarves ripped off when they seek medical care.
Evidently the big deal in England right now is this girl who, after causing a big brouhaha and stirring it up, won a lawsuit allowing her to wear a JILBAB at school. Two other blogs brought this to my attention, Levantine Historian and Indigo Jo, which might I add are two totally rockin blogs everyone should read macha Allah.
Now on the surface, I thought, "cool, this chick gets to wear her jilbab". But I was wrong. You see, the school already has regulations in place allowing for HIJAB and SHALWAR KAMEEZ. Try that in France. A jilbab isn't hijab- you can cover without one. Kameez are way more comfortable and the difference between covered and non-covered is what, three or four inches? Thus what bothers me is that for a non-mandatory part of the religion, she filed a lawsuit based essentially on her personal clothing preference and tried to call it Islam. Say alhamdoulillah, for crying out loud! Thank Allah swt that you can wear a hijab to school! Oh nooooo. Has to make the rest of us Muslims look bad by going after something that is a petty technicality. No, not even a technicality. A personal preference. I would be the first person to be all about a lawsuit against a school banning hijab. I come from America, I love lawsuits. But this school had already met the students halfway by allowing regulation hijab and kameez. Why a lawsuit against this school? Does a jilbab lawsuit help Muslims? NO. Because if I were an administrator at that school now, I would sit there and think, "You give people an inch, and they take a yard." I love you as my sister in Islam, but you live in England, your head and butt are covered. Shut up. There are so many other things you can spend your time and energy over helping the ummah rather than frivolous lawsuits. You talk about a jilbab and modesty? As a commentor on Levantine Historian pointed out (I'm taking his comment out of context, but his comment made me think what I am about to say), if the goal of a jilbab is increased modesty, what is up with all this publicity and pictures in the paper over this stupid lawsuit?
GRRRRR! I am so frosted right now. Keep in mind that I have people very close to me in France who didn't finish their education in France because they had to choose between schooling and hijab. Not schooling and jilbab, schooling and HIJAB. I would personally like to send this chick a ticket to France so she can visit a high school and look at her sisters in Islam who get flunked out by racist teachers because of their ethnicity and have to suffer the humiliation of showing their hair in the process. I will give you a personal interview with someone in my entourage who has a chronic medical condition who is forced to take off her headscarf every time she sees the doctor, which is weekly. I WISH my daughters, if I have any incha Allah, will have the freedom of education British Muslimahs have.
Seriously, I may be Muslim, but I think this jilbab case is one of the most petty things I have ever seen. As the BBC notes, 79% of the school's attendees are Muslim, and they already reached out by allowing kameez and hijab. Great way to foster relations in the community. Subhan Allah! If she had only spent half as much time giving dawah or doing something to further the ummah rather than this petty, nafs-serving, technicality. I'm not an old pious person or something, but a jilbab isn't mandatory according to a consensus of the scholars, so you can't call this a cause for Islam.
Now Nice Husband pointed some stuff out as did Levantine Historian. I removed this post while Nice Husband and I discussed the content. We both wanted to make sure I was clear in what I said. His main concern was that I didn’t have the proof that the kameez were appropriate or not, which is entirely a fair point. I don’t have the right to judge her if I haven’t seen the school’s kameez. And I haven’t seen the school’s regulation kameez. Some sisters who are uncomfortable with thigh-length or tunic-length kameez. She doesn’t look like a big girl in the picture in jilbab I saw of her, but if she were in a situation where the kameez were overly short, tight or transparent, I would change my mind. The bottom line is that my argument is kicked down a notch by the fact that I really don’t know what the kameez look like. I will do some internet searching incha Allah. I started from the premise that the school’s kameez were between knee and calf-length. I’m not here to issue fatwas on clothing and I’m not pretending I know the sister’s intention. I just think as a human being, and as a Muslim, that I would be pretty darn happy wearing some shalwar kameez, if in fact the shalwar kameez at the school are what I think normal kameez are (calf length with baggy pants). So I have no daleel and I am not considering myself a judge and issuing a fatwa without knowledge. I want to make that clear. I am simply expressing my potentially flawed opinion as a female Muslim and a hijabi based on what I know from what I have.
Second point is that I don’t want people to think that I think the UK is Muslim Disney World or something. I’m not saying we should be all thrilled that the school did allow hijab and kameez when in reality, with a 2/3 Muslim population, they were just doing their job. It’s like the Chris Rock skit where the girl is talking about a guy and says, “Well he didn’t go to jail” like it’s a good thing, and Chris Rock says, “You’re not supposed to go to jail in the first place.” I also think that with a significant Muslim minority, the UK government and schools have a lot of concessions left to make, but granted, they have less work to do than France or Germany. So no, I’m not saying that you should always be happy as a Muslim with the bones thrown to you by those in charge. I think the school did the strict minimum. They don’t deserve a cookie for just doing their job. My point is, however, that so many places DON’T do the strict minimum, so why call out those actually trying to compromise? Does that help or hurt our cause as Muslims? I see this as a deeper issue of speaking truth to power, and the nuance of a jilbab case is different from that of a hijab case vis-à-vis the mandatory nature of hijab and the not-mandatory nature of floor length jilbabs. Muslims have it bad enough as it is.
Finally, I don’t appreciate people speaking FOR me as a hijabi and making it sound like jilbabs are the only things self-respecting hijabis will wear or passing jilbabs off as mandatory. That's my personal bone to pick and I assume responsibility for it.
posted by The DP at
7:26 PM
