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"I feel that if it was a male Asian councillor then he would be treated as a hero. Because I am a woman I get the opposite treatment. "
"Muslim councillor Hasina Khan: I will not let male bigots win," by Marcus Leroux for the Times Online, July 3:
A female Muslim councillor has been subjected to a hate campaign by Muslim men in her ward, leaving her unable to visit some of the streets that she represents.
Hasina Khan, 38, the only Muslim councillor in Chorley, Lancashire, said that she had suffered a barrage of threatening phone calls, verbal abuse and insulting graffiti because the men objected her public role.
Mrs Khan, a mother of three, said: “I've had to totally change the way I go about my job. I used to do ward walks all the time, but now there are some streets I can't even walk down.”
The hate campaign began when she put herself forward as a Labour candidate three years ago. “It is just a few members of the community who think I should be at home with a veil over my face, although if other people choose to do that, then I respect their choice,” she said.
However, I feel that if it was a male Asian councillor then he would be treated as a hero. Because I am a woman I get the opposite treatment. They can't understand my mainstream views and those of ‘live and let live' and how the British culture should be respected ... It has been extremely hard for me and my family and if it wasn't for my British constituents, I don't think I would have been able to get through it.”
Terry Brown, the Mayor of Chorley, who represents the same ward as Mrs Khan, said: “Because she's a female Asian woman their view is that she should be at home producing babies.
“It's a shame. She's a well-respected member of the community and ... an exceptionally talented woman.”
Despite the campaign, Mr Brown insisted that there were no ethnic tensions in the area.
Mrs Khan, who blames the smear campaign on a small minority of Muslim men, said that she would not give into the threats. “This has gone on for too long and I will not sit back and let it happen any more ... Nobody should have to go through this, especially an Asian Muslim woman, as Islam is very protective and fair with women. It isn't just about me any more - it is about thousands of other women who are being held down by people who refuse to wake up to the reality that it is the 21st century.”
The problem is, the men sending the hateful messages also believe in Islam's "protection" and "fairness" for women, and believe Khan is transgressing its limits.
Dukandar Idris, the imam of Chorley's Dawat ul Islam mosque, said that Mrs Khan should have taken her grievances to the mosque's elders, rather than speaking out. He also questioned some of her claims: “Which streets can't she walk down?”
He said that, as imam, he could not forbid Muslim women from standing for election, but he would be entitled to forbid his wife. “Because this is Britain, you cannot tell anyone what to do. I can tell my wife, but cannot tell other women, ‘You cannot do this and that',” he said.
There is little participation by Muslim women in local government. Of the 19,400 councillors in England in 2006, 75 were women of Asian origin and 20 were from Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds. There are nearly six male Asian councillors for every female Asian councillor.
Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, urged Mrs Khan to go to the police. “It is unacceptable for anyone to be treated in this way. We want more Muslim men and women playing an active role in ... politics."
Posted by Marisol at July 3, 2008 12:04 AM
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I feel that if it was a male Asian councillor ...Because she's a female Asian woman blockquote>Posted by: Concerned CitizenThis article is the Rosetta Stone. Usually they write "Asian" when they are trying to conceal they are Muslim.
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at July 3, 2008 12:13 AM
By taking a position of leadership she has become an apostate to the men harassing her. She claims to be a Muslim but will not properly "submit". Maybe it will be instructive to other Muslims - you are never Islamic enough to be truly safe.
Posted by: Saul Wall at July 3, 2008 12:20 AM
"They can't understand my mainstream views and those of ‘live and let live' and how the British culture should be respected..."
It is still quite on the cards that Islam's gambit for control of Britain/Europe will backfire; that individual Muslim's contact even with the weaker examples of the West will be the beginning of the end of Islam. If the Europeans react to the threat by taking a renewed interest in their own heritage then the destruction of Islam will proceed apace.
Posted by: Brett_McS at July 3, 2008 1:25 AM
"It is still quite on the cards that Islam's gambit for control of Britain/Europe will backfire; that individual Muslim's contact even with the weaker examples of the West will be the beginning of the end of Islam. If the Europeans react to the threat by taking a renewed interest in their own heritage then the destruction of Islam will proceed apace."
Hope springs eternal Brett_McS
But only as the theme in fairy-tales!
Alas, I fear the (Western/Christain) Sheep shall be lead to slaughter, simply because the Politically Correct Liberals amongst us believe that appeasement is the answer to converting the Islamic terrorists to icons of peace and serenity!
Posted by: Toejam at July 3, 2008 1:40 AM
Mrs Khan, who blames the smear campaign on a small minority of Muslim men, "... Nobody should have to go through this, especially an Asian Muslim woman, as Islam is very protective and fair with women. It isn't just about me any more - it is about thousands of other women who are being held down by people who refuse to wake up to the reality that it is the 21st century.”
It's always interesting to watch the contortions of Moslems trying to defend their religion while at the same time complaining about certain aspects of it. She says the smear campaign is the work of a "small minority", but yet it's large enough to hold down "thousands of other women". And "Islam is very protective and fair with women", so I guess these other thousands that are "held down" must be Presbyterians and Hindus, hm?
Then there is the use of the term "Asian", which only serves to obscure things. Just what does it include? I get the impression that it means "from the Indian sub-continent." But if so, what do they call the Chinese and Japanese, the Arabs and Iranians, the Turks and Thais? They're Asians, too; at least in my geography book.
at July 3, 2008 2:22 AM
Ms Hasina Khan. Open your eyes. Islam DOES NOT protect women - well, not unless one uses the Mafia definition of 'protection'.
Get yourself a copy of 'The Caged Virgin' and 'Infidel'; surreptitiously view 'Submission'; read Nonie Darwish's 'Now They Call Me Infidel', and Wafa Sultan's latest. Go online and visit the forums at Ali Sina's Faithfreedom website (hey, read *his* book).
Stop with the denials, and face up to the truth; Islam is as Islam does as Islam is doing to you.
Take my advice, my dear lady; cut and run. Join Wafa Sultan and Nonie Darwish, Taslima Nasreen and Ayaan Hirsi Ali; spread your wings and fly.
Magdi Cristiano Allam called himself a peaceful Muslim; but when the death threats kept on coming from his 'brother' Muslims, he put two and two together, in the end, and decided that the problem wasn't what people were making of Islam, the problem was Islam, period; and, therefore, that he didn't want to be a Muslim any longer.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at July 3, 2008 3:14 AM
I note that the Moslem BNP party wants to see more islmic mena and women in politics.
I assume that once they have enough influence and control politics they will discard the women and replace with men as they will have served their purpose by then....
Posted by: exposesithlords at July 3, 2008 3:36 AM
Toejam, it was the gleeful pronouncements of the Mosquito Imam that got me thinking along these lines. These people are never right.
I'm not hopeful; it's just my assessment. I actually feel in many ways that Europe deserves to go down the Islamic toilet.
But the contradictions between Islam and modernity are so great that most Muslims will eventually choose modernity. For example Iran will become a (predominantly) Christian country in the not too distant future.
To paraphrase a frequent JW commentator: "Your grandchildren will be Christian".
Posted by: Brett_McS at July 3, 2008 3:50 AM
Darn it, I totally dislike the over-usage of the word "asian" !
It's not "asian" but MUSLIM! The woman is not a chinese, nor a hindu nor a japanese, nor anything else. She is a MUSLIM.
Why can't eurabian news agencies just say it correctly?!!
at July 3, 2008 4:09 AM
"I can tell my wife, but cannot tell other women, ‘You cannot do this and that',” he said."
Translated: "I can Koranically beat my wife enough to shut her the hell up, but if I do that to other women, I will be arrested."
at July 3, 2008 4:15 AM
The hate campaign began when she put herself forward as a Labour candidate three years ago.
Anyone who puts themself forward as a Labour candidate deserves all they get.
Posted by: watling at July 3, 2008 6:39 AM
I don't understand how any woman can voluntarily be a muslim and then complain about poor treatment. Islam has always demeaned and oppressed women under the guise of "protection" and "respect."
Recently, a muslim cleric said this:
"Women without the veil are a danger that the authorities underestimate,"
"This situation is very serious in that if men see these bad women, they will turn into beasts, and then the whole of society will have to pay the consequences."
"Women who do not respect conservative Islamic dress rules are sources of all that is bad in society."
Does this sound like "protection" and "fairness"?
at July 3, 2008 7:15 AM
The problem is, the men sending the hateful messages also believe in Islam's "protection" and "fairness" for women, and believe Khan is transgressing its limits.
One of Robert's many jewels.
Posted by: Briars at July 3, 2008 7:16 AM
watling:'Anyone who puts themself forward as a Labour candidate deserves all they get.'
'Many a true word spoken in jest' LMAO!
Posted by: Joshua at July 3, 2008 7:20 AM
She understands some things, and does not understand, or does not want to admit even to herself that she possibly understands, others.
Here is what she understands:
"They [male Muslims threatening her] can't understand my mainstream views and those of ‘live and let live' and how the British culture should be respected ..."
In other words, though part of the story, and the quote from Terry Brown, the Englishman who is the mayor of Chorley, indicates that she is opposed only because she is a Muslim woman, unveiled and unafraid, she has a better understanding. She knows that it is also her views, her "mainstream views" and her apparent belief in "live and let live" (what a view for Muslims to have to accept) and, worst of all, "how the British culture should be respected." My, my. What an idea, that in the village of Chorley, in England, people should be allowed to think that "British culture should be respected." No wonder Muslims hate her, and seek to intimidate her right out of her public office.
But this lady also reveals her own limits when she says:
"Nobody should have to go through this, especially an Asian Muslim woman, as Islam is very protective and fair with women. It isn't just about me any more - it is about thousands of other women who are being held down by people who refuse to wake up to the reality that it is the 21st century.”
"Islam is very protective and fair with women." No, Islam is not. And those who, like this Ms. Khan, or like the Egyptian girl sponsored by the American Islamic Congress who, the other day gave a speech -- with some title such as "I Can Remain Silent No Longer" at the Harvard Faculty Club, about her own experience with female genital mutilation at the age of nine, but in denouncing the practice, still fell into the Leila-Ahmed-Fatima-Mernissi-Shirin-Ebadi mode of protecting Islam, of going beyond describing this as a practice explicable purely as a "cultural" phenomenon and not one closely tied, with textual authority in the Qur'an and Sunnah, to Islam.
As always in so many of the stories, in order to make sense of it, you have to study closely the quotes, and see what they mean, and also what they tell us -- for they are often so telling in non-obvious ways -- about the speaker, and that speaker's own understanding of, or stance towards, Islam.
Posted by: Hugh at July 3, 2008 7:43 AM
Why can't eurabian news agencies just say it correctly?!!
Posted by: Crusader at July 3, 2008 4:09 AM
It's called "Political Correctness."
Posted by: darcy at July 3, 2008 8:16 AM
"... I will not let male bigots win." - Khan
Honey, the fact that the door was opened wide in Britain allowing millions of Muslim invaders to stream in means that the Mislim bigots have already won.
Complete victory is not yet won, but the most important strategic battle has been an astounding win for the Muslim armies.
Britain didn't fire a shot, nor does she now take heed that the rape plunder and mayhem has begun.
Posted by: jsla at July 3, 2008 10:41 AM
Like Benazir Bhutto and Nouriya Al Subeeh, Kahn represents a potential for Islam to reform. For women to be considered equals at work and at home, joining the rest of world with the modern idea of human rights.
Her detractors represent Islam's current state, unchanged for 1400 years, and calling for death to anyone that dare questions it.
Modern communications have brought these ideas to previously isolated regions offering freedom of choice to long oppressed people under the thumb of sharia. Islamists will continue to lose arguments over basic human decency and will respond violently, thus proving the point that open debate and reason are superior forms of public discourse than stoning, terrorism, assassination and jihad.
Posted by: kevin at July 3, 2008 1:12 PM
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