Note how strongly CAIR positions this as a matter of religious rights and religious freedom. Very well. Expect them, therefore, forthwith to condemn in the strongest possible terms the idea that non-Muslim students in an Islamic school should be made to wear headscarves. Or perhaps Ibrahim Hooper would be kind enough to explain to me why that is not a matter of religious freedom.
"CAIR Condemns Tunisian Ban on Islamic Headscarves; U.S. Muslim Group Says Ban 'Violates International Human Rights Standards,'" a CAIR press release (thanks to LGF):
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on the government of Tunisia to respect the religious rights of women in that nation who choose to wear an Islamic headscarf, or "hijab."Media reports indicate that Tunisian police are stopping women on the streets and asking them to take off their headscarves and to sign a pledge that they will not wear a scarf again. A 1981 Tunisian law prohibits Islamic attire in schools or government offices.
-- Tunisia Moves Against Headscarves on BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6053380.stm
In a statement, the Washington-based Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR) said:
"Freedom of religion should be a valued aspect of any society. People of all faiths must be granted the right to freely practice their religion without government interference or intimidation.
"The Tunisian law banning Islamic attire in certain areas, and the apparent expanded interpretation of that law, violates international human rights standards set forth by the United Nations and ratified by virtually every nation on earth.
"We call on the government of Tunisia to respect the religious rights of its citizens by ending all measures that restrict the wearing of religiously-mandated headscarves. We also call on the U.S. Department of State to use whatever influence it has to convince Tunisian authorities to abide by international norms of religious freedom.
"Tunisia cannot claim to be a free and open society while carrying out such repressive and authoritarian actions."
CAIR's statement noted that Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a transnational treaty having the weight of international law states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion ... (and) to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."
In the past, CAIR has defended the right to wear Islamic attire in France and Turkey. The council has also defended hijab and other religious rights in American schools and workplaces.
tunisia is only NOMINALLY a moderate country.
Remmeber that they banned a french magazine because of an article which DARED to talk negatively about islam
Thing is that tunisia, as morocco don't have oil and rely solely on tourism.
That's why it's important to BOYCOTT turism there.
More 'Muslims are the new Jews'.
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=169022&D=2006-10-18&HC=4
and UK news update
Britain 'is main target for al Qaeda terrorists'
------------------------------------
Keystone Cops update.
Fugitive terror suspect to escape thanks to police blunders
and
If they're dangerous then name them now
I thought CAIR was about Islamic and American relations. What do they care are about Tunsia? Hmmmmmmm......
UK: Newspaper Forced To Withdraw Muslim Parody Page
Yesterday, the Media Guardian (subscription) wrote that the British newspaper the Daily Star was forced to withdraw a "fatwa page" after union members objected.
The politically correct members of the paper's branch or "chapel" of the National Union of Journalists held a meeting, threatening to stop work, and condemned the page, which was a send-up of Muslim law.
The page was part of a feature on "How your favourite paper would look under Muslim law." In reference to UK tabloids' habit of portraying bare-breasted beauties on Page 3, it also had a "Page 3 burka babes special" featuring a woman in a nikab.
It had a spoof editorial, which was a blank space carrying the words "Censored" and "Allah is Great".
READ IT ALL.
Many thanks to Western Resistance.
1)It's pretty funny how an Islamic country like Tunisia has a law banning headscarves while Eurabia can't have such a law. I know the Tunisians probably have such a law only as a facade but they do have it nonetheless.
2)Why is CAIR called an "Islamic civil rights group? The only civil rights recognized by Islam are those the Koran gives, which are few and far between. I guess it wants even more rights than even Allah bestowed upon them. Does that mean they're being blasphemous then?
3)An answer to Elric66's post is that Iblis Hooper has been finding business slow in the US lately so now he has to whine about some other oppression in the vast ummah.
Tunisia is a police-state, but a police-state largely dedicated to constraining Islam. It was Bourguiba and his Destour Party who ruled Tunisia at and since independence, and Bourguiba was, when it came to treatment of Infidels, far superior than were other Muslim leaders outside of Turkey. But it remains a state where Islam can only be constrained, and it cannot be constrained in all ways. Of course Tunisia's foreign policy reflects the general unappeasable hostility toward Israel (indeed, even Abdelwahhab Meddeb, the Tunisian-born student of Islam who has been so keenly critical of Islam, continues to hold violently anti-Israel views -- those views continue to linger among many who no longer remain loyal Muslims, those attitudes are among the last thing to do), and it was in Tunisia that the PLO found its refuge after Beirut.
But the Tunisian govenment knows, in a way that Western governments do not, that it has to use force -- hence that "Police-state" characterization -- if it wishes to keep the outward and visible signs of Islam on the March (as the Return of the Hijab, a statement that is clearly and aggressively political in nature) from scaring the secular, and demoralizaing them. The Tunisian police are doing what in Turkey is, or used to be done, by the army: preserving the regime of constraints on Islam. Call it Kemalism in one country, or Bourguibism in another, or call it merely common sense -- in any case, it requires the kinds of measures that soft-hearted and soft-minded Infidels no doubt deplore, not understanding how powerful and menacing and all-encompassing a belief-system Islam is, and how the West has much to learn from the willingness of those in the Islamic world who, in order to keep this Rasputin under the ice, have to keep knocking it down, tying it up, keeping it from emerging yet again.
And those who mention tourism are also not wrong. The Tunisians are not fools. They do not possess oil and gas. They have all sorts and condititions of tourists. Some can safely be escorted to resorts, where gentils-organisateurs will keep them occupied. But should other Western tourists wander around outside those gated-and-guarded resorts, and see those herds of hijabs, and the unsmiling faces under them, then Tunisia becomes less attractive to tourists. And of course the sunbathing hedonistic Infidels are likely targets if Islam has its way, and without the strongest of measures, as is understood in Tunisia as in Turkey, but not yet in London or Paris, unless the strongest of measures, of all kinds, are relentlessly undertaken, then Islam usually has its way.
It's funny how they condemn the ban of the headscarf in the name of "religious freedom," but when every woman is forced to wear the headscarf in other islamic countries, they don't complain at all.
"Freedom of religion should be a valued aspect of any society. People of all faiths must be granted the right to freely practice their religion without government interference or intimidation.
Maybe he should pass the word to Saudi Arabia...they dont seem to know about this...
Elric66,
They could go change their initials to CTIR (Council for Tunisian-Islamic Relations), but I think CAIR is actually truthful, standing, as one commenter (not me) said on an LGF thread a few months ago, for "Crafty Apologists for Islamic Radicalism".
The truth is that Tunisia is scared bigtime about the march of radical Islam and so is acting in this way. This does not suprise me in any way. I would hold suspect anything CAIR does.
Ask CAIR to join with Christian missionaries to fight for their freedom to open a church in Saudi Arabia which has none, not a single one! Better yet why not a synagogue in Mecca or Medinah?
"The bigger the lie, the easier it is to fool people." Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Information of the Nazi party.
Allah Akba? Allah N'Akba! (Allah is great? Allah is the source of our misfortune!)
I guess this means that Hooper will be coming to the aid of the Christian woman who is fighting British Airways to be able to wear a cross as a sign of her Christians beliefs.
I for one just got a warm fuzzy at the thought of Iby Hooper protecting my religious freedom.
This is like the Nazi Youth in Germany complaining about the Boy Scouts in America.
CAIR must have strong confidence in believing that everytime the speak they get in the media, everytime they complaim they are listened to, and everytime CAIR points out a violator of islam the violator is wrong and it is CAIR's business. And this has been CAIR success.
"...violates international human rights standards set forth by the United Nations and ratified by virtually every nation on earth..."
Ratified and observed in virtually every nation on earth...except Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria, Sudan, Ghana, Kuwait, Oman, Libya, Jordan and Palestine. And a couple of others.
Geoff
Yes, "our" Islamic schools will force non-Muslim girls to wear headscarves. But - read this http://mychristianblood.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/10/18/school-bans-christian-chastity-ring-but-allows-muslim-and-si.html
Secular schools will allow Muslim girls to wear headscarves and Sikh boys to wear their iron bangles but Christian kids who have signed up to The Silver Ring thing cannot wear their rings.
Surprise... surprise... not.
"Freedom of religion should be a valued aspect of any society. People of all faiths must be granted the right to freely practice their religion without government interference or intimidation."
*GAG*. These people can sure lie with a straight face. OK, so CAIR needs to start implenting this with these countries.
-Egypt (govt permission required to repair churches)
-Jordan (govt permission required to repair churches)
-Saudi Arabia (any religion other than Islam will get you arrested as will converting from Islam)
-Iraq (Christians being killed by jihadist groups which are probably sponsered by Iran. Remaining 50 or so Jews in the country live in fear)
-Iran (Jews living in fear of the govt and not being allowed to move to Israel or have contact with Israel. Druze also targeted.)
- Pakistan (Christians accused of insulting the Koran or Mohammed are beaten and arrested)
Apparantly, CAIR is trying to be more Islamic than Tunisia. Looks like they have succeeded.
By CAIR's arguement, Given Qur’an:9:5 “Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.” , killing infidels falls under "religious freedom".
Let's hope that CAIR keeps making these moronic and hypocritical claims and demands. Americans are getting wise to them. Hopefully some day the American press and the general public will see them as they really are: "...a silly little people..."
Or perhaps Ibrahim Hooper would be kind enough to explain to me why that is not a matter of religious freedom.
That's easy. "There is only one religion: Islam."
That's how Whitey Hooper would explain it, I'm sure.
Death threats may be sent to
fanorollins@yahoo.com
funny thing about cair they scream about muslims being di scriminated against yet the saudi goverment is one of biggest suporters and one of the harshest opprestors of crhistanyity in the middle eastone that jails rapes and kills any christians that oppenly practice there faith man are they hypocrites