“Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one’s religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state in our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That’s why the United States government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab and to punish those who would deny it.” — Barack Obama, Cairo, June 4, 2009
But what about the rights of women like this one — the right not to wear the hijab? Who is standing up for them?
“BREAKING NEWS: Somalia Militants Kill Christian Woman For Refusing To Wear Veil,” by BosNewsLife, October 28 (thanks to Nissan Ratzlav-Katz):
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (BosNewsLife)– Islamic militants have shot and killed a Somali Christian woman because she declined to wear a veil as prescribed by Muslim custom, Christians said in comments monitored by BosNewsLife Wednesday, October 28.
Members of the Suna Waljameca group killed Amina Muse Ali, 45, on October 19 in her home in Galkayo, in Somalia’s autonomous Puntland region, said Compass Direct News, a well-informed Christian news agency.
Ali had told Christian leaders that she had received several threats from members of Suna Waljameca for not wearing a veil, symbolic of adherence to Islam, Christians said. She had said members of the group had long monitored her movements because they suspected she was a Christian.
Ali, an orphan and unmarried, in 1997 joined the Somali Christian Brothers’ Organization, a movement also known as the Somali Community-Based Organization. She had been an active member of the underground church in the Lower Juba region, Compass Direct News reported.
She earlier worked with the Belgian contingent of United Nations Operations in Somalia as a translator and played a key role as a translator during a peace conference aimed at bringing together warring clans in the lower Juba region.
OCTOBER WARNINGS
Christians said Ali had warned in early October that her life was in danger. “My life is in danger. I am warned of dire consequences if I continue to live without putting on the veil. I need prayers from the fellowship,” she reportedly said….