 Muslim women challenge Western stereotypes in Olympics
This year an unprecedented half a dozen Egyptian athletes, three Iranians, an Afghan and a Yemeni will compete with covered heads.
Tuesday, 12 August 2008 13:24
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=26610
This year an unprecedented half a dozen Egyptian athletes, three Iranians, an Afghan and a Yemeni will compete with covered heads.
The women in Roqaya Al Ghasara’s home town in Bahrain are so proud of their pioneering Olympic sprinter that some of them got together to design and sew a set of tailor-made aerodynamic veils for her to run in. Egyptian fencer Shaimaa El Gammal, a third-timer at the Olympics, will don Islamic headgear in Beijing for the first time. She says it is a sign she is come of age and she feels more empowered than ever. “The hijab has never been a problem for me. In Bahrain you grow up with it,” said Al Ghasara. Her baggy running gear exposes only her face and hands. “There are more women in sport all the time from countries like Qatar and Kuwait. You can choose to wear the hijab or not. For me it’s liberating,” added Al Ghasara, whose close-fitting running veils come in red or white, the Bahraini colors. “People see us wearing the scarf and think we ride camels. But Muslim women can do anything they want,” said El Gammal, a bubbly 28-year-old whose sister will compete in the same event, also wearing Islamic head cover. “When I fence I’m proud that I’m a Muslim. It’s very symbolic for women in my country,” El Gammal told Reuters. This year’s Games will see a sizable sprinklingof veiled athletes who are determined to avoid offending devout Muslims back home while showing skimpily dressed rivals there is nothing constricting about wearing a hijab.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=26610
=========================================================================================== Yusuf Islam Wins Libel Damages |
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CAIRO — Renown British Muslim singer Yusuf Islam has won libel damages and an apology over an article claiming that he was shunning women not wearing hijab, the Daily Record reported on Saturday, July 19.“Mr Islam has never had any difficulties working with women, whether for religious or any other reasons,” lawyer Adam Tudor told London’s High Court. The World Entertainment News Network (WENN) published an article in March claiming that Islam had refused to speak to or acknowledge any women who were not veiled during an award ceremony in Germany. It also alleged that the Muslim singer only speaks to women through an intermediary. The articles was distributed to the WENN subscribers, including Contactmusic.com, which has 2.2 million web hits per month. But the court ordered WENN to pay substantial damages and apologize for the Muslim singer. “We now accept that these allegations … are entirely without foundation,” WENN admitted in an apology. Following the ruling, the Muslim singer donated the damages to his Small Kindness charity. “All of the damages secured by Mr Islam will be paid to Small Kindness, a UN-linked charity which he chairs,” said lawyer Tudor. Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, reverted to Islam in 1977 and has since become a leading voice in Britain’s two million Muslims. His UN-registered charity, Small Kindness, provides humanitarian relief, through direct aid as well as social and educational programs, to orphans and families in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and other regions of the world. In 2003, Islam was awarded the “World Social Award” for his humanitarian relief work. In November 2004, he was honored with the “Man for Peace” award by a committee of Nobel peace laureates. Defamation Lawyer Tudor said women form the main balk of Islam’s working team. “Women feature among some of the most influential people in Mr Islam’s team,” he said, lamenting the harm caused to the Muslim singer by the article. “Unsurprisingly, the article caused Mr Islam considerable embarrassment and distress,” he said. “Particularly given that it had the effect not only of creating an utterly false impression of his attitude to women but also because it cast serious aspersions, quite wrongly, on his religious faith, which is a matter of the utmost importance to him.” This is not the first time Islam wins legal battles against British media outlets over defamation. In 2005, Islam won substantial libel damages from The Sun and Sunday Times after they falsely claimed he supported terrorism. The claims against the Muslim singer are part of the biased media coverage about Muslims and their faith. A recent British government-commissioned study found a torrent of negative and imbalance stories in the British media that demonizes the sizable Muslim minority and their faith by spreading prejudices and portraying them as the enemy within. Another British study accused the media and film industry of perpetuating Islamophobia and prejudice by demonizing Muslims and Arabs as violent, dangerous and threatening people. |
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Muslims welcome British Chief Justice’s comment on Shariah role
London – Rajab 02 1429/ July 05, 2008
Leading Muslim jurists yesterday welcomed comments by Britain’s chief justice supporting a role for Shariah in resolving disputes. Chief Justice Lord Nicholas Phillips, who is Britain’s most senior judge, has suggested that Islamic Shariah could play a role in the British legal system, echoing a similar stance by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. “There is no reason why principles of Shariah law, or any other religious code, should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution,” Lord Nicholas Phillips said in a speech to the London Islamic Council.
“It must be recognized however that any sanctions for a failure to comply with the agreed terms of the mediation would be drawn from the laws of England and Wales.” Phillips said parties to a dispute are free to agree to accept Shariah principles or other religious precepts if they decide to seek mediation,” the Guardian reported quoting him.
Sheikh Faiz Siddiqi, a barrister and chairman of the governing council of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, said yesterday that critics of any use of Islamic law failed to recognize that both parties had to agree to any form of dispute resolution in Britain.
Shamim Qureshi, the presiding judge of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, said the application of Shariah could be useful in settling disputes about forced marriages, according to a statement released by the tribunal. Qureshi, a judge in Wolverhampton Magistrates Court, is one of the few Muslims to serve as a judge in England. The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, established last year, offers alternative resolution of family disputes, forced marriages, and disputes over debts, commercial matters and inheritance.
In his speech at the East London Muslim Center, Phillips said there is a widespread misunderstanding of Shariah in Britain. “Part of the misconception about Shariah law is the belief that Shariah is only about mandating sanctions such as flogging, stoning, the cutting off of hand or death for those who fail to comply with the law. And the view of many of Shariah law is colored by violent extremists who invoke it, perversely, to justify terrorist atrocities such as suicide bombing, which I understand to be in conflict with Islamic principles,” Phillips said. He said British media in particular had misunderstood a speech in February by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who also supported a role for Shariah, specifically suggesting a role in resolving disputes.
The Lord Chief Justice said that the Islamic Shariah has been widely misunderstood. “Part of the misconception about Shari`ah law is the belief that Shariah is only about mandating sanctions such as flogging, stoning, the cutting off of hands or death for those fail to comply with the law. “In some countries the courts interpret Shari`ah law as calling for severe physical punishment. There can be no question of such courts sitting in this country, or such sanctions being applied here.” Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams recently recommended that British law should recognize some aspects of Shariah to resolve Muslim civil matters. His remarks ignited an extraordinary political and religious storm that still rages on, with politicians united in denouncing the proposal. Leading newspapers and tabloids launched vitriolic campaigns against the spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans, some even calling for his resignation.
The Lord Chief Justice defended Williams’ Shari`ah law comments. “It was not very radical to advocate embracing Shari`ah law in the context of family disputes, for example, and our system already goes a long way towards accommodating the archbishop’s suggestion. “It is possible in this country for those who are entering into a contractual agreement to agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.” “So a Muslim woman who divorced according to Shari`ah principles would be free to marry again, but not if she only went to a civil court. “But as far as aspects of matrimonial law are concerned, there is a limited precedent for English law to recognize aspects of religious laws, although when it comes to divorce this can only be effected in accordance with the civil law of this country.”
Yesterday, the country’s first Muslim government minister said Muslims in Britain felt like aliens in their own society and that they were targeted like “the Jews of Europe.” International Development Minister Shahid Malik painted a bleak picture of the integration of Britain’s 1.8 million Muslims, three years after British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people on London’s transport system. The attacks triggered a debate on whether Britain’s policy of avoiding imposing a single British identity, and instead promoting a multicultural society, had led to segregation of ethnic minorities. Malik, who has been the target of race attacks including a firebombing of his family car, said some media coverage “makes Muslims feel like aliens in their own country.” “If you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe,” he told a documentary to be shown on Channel 4 television next week.
HA/IINA
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Muslims Top World Intellectuals
IslamOnline.net & Newspapers
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Prominent scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi was voted the third top intellectual in the world. |
CAIRO — Muslim scholars, politicians, economists, scientists and scholars from around the world are topping the list of the world’s Top 20 Public Intellectuals unveiled on Monday, June 23.”The top 10 public intellectuals in this year’s reader poll are all Muslim,” the American magazine Foreign policy said announcing the list.
Foreign policy, the award-winning magazine of global politics, and Britain’s Prospect magazine have conducted a global public poll to pick the world’s top intellectuals and thinkers who are shaping the tenor of our time with their ideas.
Over the past four weeks, more than 50,000 people voted for their top choices from the original long list of 100 figures.
Turkey’s influential Fethullah Gülen topped the list, the magazines’ second in three years.
“An Islamic scholar with a global network of millions of followers, Gülen is both revered and reviled in his native Turkey,” Foreign Policy said introducing Gülen.
“To members of the Gülen movement, he is an inspirational leader who encourages a life guided by moderate Islamic principles. To his detractors, he represents a threat to Turkey’s secular order.”
Prominent scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi was voted the third top intellectual in the world.
“The host of the popular Shari`ah and Life TV program on Al Jazeera, Qaradawi issues weekly fatwas on everything from whether Islam forbids all consumption of alcohol…to whether fighting US troops in Iraq is a legitimate form of resistance,” said Foreign Policy.
Egypt’s young televangelist Amr Khaled came sixth.
“With a charismatic oratory and casual style, Khaled blends messages of cultural integration and hard work with lessons on how to live a purpose-driven Islamic life,” the magazine said.
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Noble laureate Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist who pioneered the microfinance industry, was voted the second top intellectual in the world. |
The top ten Muslims were not all scholars.
Noble laureate Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist who pioneered the microfinance industry, was voted the second top intellectual in the world.
“More than 30 years ago, Yunus loaned several dozen poor entrepreneurs in his native Bangladesh a total of $27. It was the beginning of a lifetime devoted to fighting poverty through microfinance,” said the Foreign Policy.
From economy to literature, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who is also a Noble laureate, took the fourth spot on the list.
“His skillfully crafted works lay bare his native country’s thorny relationship with religion, democracy, and modernity, earning him a Nobel Prize in literature in 2006.”
Notable Pakistani politician and rights activist Aitzaz Ahsan was ranked fifth among the world’s top intellectuals.
“President of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association, Ahsan has been a vocal opponent of President Pervez Musharraf’s rule,” said the American magazine.
“When Musharraf dismissed the head of the Supreme Court in March 2007, it was Ahsan who led the legal challenge to reinstate the chief justice and rallied thousands of lawyers who took to the streets in protest.”
Iranian philosopher Abdolkarim Soroush and renowned Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan came seven and eight respectively.
Ugandan anthropologist Mahmood Mamdani came ninth.
“His work explores the role of citizenship, identity, and the creation of historical narratives in postcolonial Africa.”
Another Muslim human rights activist who made it to the world’s Top 20 Public Intellectuals is Shirin Ebadi, Iran’s first female judge who came in the tenth spot.
“A fierce nationalist who sees no incompatibility between Islam and democracy, Ebadi became the first Iranian to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.”
