“The Swedish town of Gävle’s decision to place a hijab-clad Muslim woman on its welcome sign in order to ‘celebrate diversity’ has triggered strong reactions…..The “Welcome to Gävle” digital sign featuring local Muslim woman Suzan Hindi wearing a hijab has been vandalised… many interpreted it as political correctness gone too far and as a dangerous sign of Sweden caving in to Islam and pandering to extremists. Others saw the hijab as a symbol of oppression that has no place in a democratic society.”
Vandalizing the sign is wrong. Those who seek to label truth-tellers as purveyors of “Islamophobia” will also claim in this case that “Islamophobia” was the cause of the vandalizing of the sign. They will try to obscure the fact that the hijab is a symbol of oppression that should not be celebrated in any society where men and women are equal under the law; it is a visible sign of a theological and legal system in which women are inferiors. Other problems with the sign were reported in Jihad Watch‘s earlier coverage:
“A Swedish municipality is facing backlash after selecting a local Muslim woman wearing a headscarf to be the ‘poster girl’ for its roadside ‘welcome’ sign. Her past ties to a controversial local imam were also discovered.”
The intent of featuring the hijabi “poster girl” is to flaunt diversity, no matter what that diversity represents. In this case, “diversity” is represented by Suzan Hindi — who once went by the name Nizam Hindi — wearing a hijab. She has ties to a jihad-preaching mosque. Hindi once “explained how having their own prayer house was good for the Swedish municipality’s Muslim community, how aid from Saudi Arabia and Qatar helped to buy and furnish the building, and how listening to the imam is important during the prayer.”
“Swedish Town’s Hijabi Welcome Sign Vandalised Amid Threats,” Sputnik News, February 28, 2019:
The Swedish town of Gävle’s decision to place a hijab-clad Muslim woman on its welcome sign in order to ‘celebrate diversity’ has triggered strong reactions.
The “Welcome to Gävle” digital sign featuring local Muslim woman Suzan Hindi wearing a hijab has been vandalised, the newspaper Aftonbladet reported.
The sign is located on the E4 motorway on the outskirts of Gävle, which is located north of Stockholm, and shows different people living in the municipality to welcome incoming motorists. Hindi’s hijabbed appearance, however, caused a stir, as many interpreted it as political correctness gone too far and as a dangerous sign of Sweden caving in to Islam and pandering to extremists. Others saw the hijab as a symbol of oppression that has no place in a democratic society.
Gävle MP Roger Hedlund, a member of the right-wing Sweden Democrats, was among those who opposed the sign, saying that headscarves “reduce women to a simple sex object who must cover up in order not to arouse male desire”.
Vandals vented their frustration with the sign for the first time last week. The damage continued over the weekend, and then the sign stopped working altogether, Aftonbladet reported.
Others who took offence contacted the administration of the municipality. In a single day, the Gävle municipality received about 20 telephone calls and some 40 e-mails. Swedes have also been eagerly commenting on Gävle municipality’s accounts in social media.
“It is partly the classic Islamophobic attitude that everything that has to do with Islam is a danger and evil. Then, there have been those who pointed out that the hijab is a symbol of women’s oppression and is problematic,” Gävle municipality communications manager Johan Adolfsson explained.
Adolfsson also described Gävle as a multicultural place where 120 different languages are spoken and called Hindi an “ambassador of diversity”.
“The woman in the picture is one of Gävle’s many Muslim women and she herself has chosen to wear the headdress hijab because she wants to and because she feels like herself in it,” he explained, opining that the accusers were bolstering oppression.
The local newspaper Gefle Dagblad described 32-year-old Suzan Hindi as a brave teacher who didn’t quit her job despite battling cancer. By contrast, the news outlet Samhällsnytt reported that Gävle’s “new poster girl” had connections with the Gävle mosque (also known as al-Rashideen mosque) that was previously reported to be a hotbed of radical Islam. According to Samhällsnytt, Suzan’s spiritual leader imam Abu Raad reportedly praised Daesh* and even tried to raise money for the terrorists….
Despite the widespread negative reaction, Adolfsson pledged to continue to include Muslim women, “both with and without the veil”…..