An Oxford-based Muslim cleric has called for Britain to ban the burqa, arguing that the wearing of a face veil is not Islamic but the product of a misogynistic culture.
He further argues:
Since the burqa and niqab are ancient habits and not mentioned in the Koran, it is, therefore, pre-Islamic, not Koranic and ipso facto un-Muslim.”
“The niqab is a tradition and has nothing to do with Islam.”
Taj Hargey is being less than honest. Here is what the Quran really says about the burqa and niqab:
(Quran 24:31) And tell the believing women to reduce of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons, their sisters’ sons, their women, that which their right hands possess, or those male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed.
We all know that if a woman stamps her feet, adornments on the ears and neck can make a jingling sound. How, pray tell, do women “reduce of their vision”, pull head-covers over their chests and also cover their ears with the same garment, if not through the burqa or niqab? Furthermore, the Quran states that if women do not cover according to specification, they can be and open themselves to being abused…..
(Quran 33:59) O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused.
The problem with Islam today is the enforced immutability of the interpretation of the text by Islamic supremacist leaders and scholars, so if one enters into the debate of what is and what is not in the Quran, as Hargey does, then one trips up, as there are plenty of verses in the Quran that are clearly problematic.
The approach of Hargey should instead be to tell the truth about what is written in black and white in the Quran, and facilitate modernization and the full abandonment of antiquated practices and the barbarism called for in the Quran and Sunnah. These practices are still quite common in many Islamic states, and worse, are being exported now to the West through dawah and Hijra.
(Pictured: women in niqabs, which are often dubbed “burqas” in the UK press.)
“British Muslim Cleric Calls for Burqa Ban”, by Donna Rachel Edmunds, Breitbart, October 19, 2016:
An Oxford-based Muslim cleric has called for Britain to ban the burqa, arguing that the wearing of a face veil is not Islamic but the product of a misogynistic culture.
In a statement made to a conference on Islam held over the weekend, Dr. Taj Hargey of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford called on the British government to follow other European countries such as France and Belgium in outlawing face veils, arguing that not only are they hostile to Western ideals of gender equality, but they are also not Islamic.
“Since the burqa and niqab are ancient habits and not mentioned in the Koran, it is, therefore, pre-Islamic, not Koranic and ipso facto un-Muslim.”
He points to similar bans made within the Islamic world itself, including in Mecca, one of the holiest sites within the Islamic religion, where some scholars say women should be unveiled.
“If Muslim women are banned from covering their faces in Mecca, and cannot perform their daily prayers by hiding their identity, then why is it a requirement to do so on the streets of Britain?” he asked.“The UK must join other leading European Union nations like France, Belgium, and now Bulgaria in outlawing all forms of facial masking in public. By doing so, it will set a firm marker in what are civilised standards for men and women in the 21stcentury.”
Dr. Hargey, who advocates for a purely Koran-based form of Islam stripped of the Hadiths, which he calls “man-made traditions that uphold patriarchy, intolerance, and belligerence”, is often referred to as a proponent of radical liberal Islam. But, in fact, his suggestion has strong support within Islamic countries.
In 2009 Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar University in Cairo, regarded by many as Egypt’s imam and Sunni Islam’s foremost spiritual authority, promised to institute a ban on the face veil in Sunni schools after visiting a local school and ordering a teenage girl to remove her niqab.
According to local reports, he told the girl: “The niqab is a tradition and has nothing to do with Islam.” When she began to argue he added: “I tell you again that the niqab has nothing to do with Islam and it is only a mere custom. I understand the religion better than you and your parents.”
Dr. Hargey has called upon the British people to lobby parliament for the change, saying: “There is no conceivable religious, cultural, or ideological reason that can justify concealment of female identity in public. So it is important that all right thinking people lobby parliament to ban this outrageous tradition which only reinforces female servility, and [promotes] sexist patriarchy.”….