Defending Hijab?

Submitted by Guest Blogger Marya Bangee



Although this is a few days old, I still found it incredibly touching. As someone who has dealt with positive and negative reactions to the hijab (recently a store owner told my sister and I to "Watch it out there!" in a friendly way) it is simply beautful to see people stand up for your beliefs. To see the older man whose son had come back from Iraq, crying while standing up for the Muslim hijabi - that's something beyond words.

Thank ABC

CAIR today called on American Muslims and other people of conscience to thank ABC "Primetime" for a segment that highlighted both the Islamophobic attitudes present in our society and the support ordinary citizens of all faiths will offer to those targeted by bias.

To test Islamophobic attitudes, ABC outfitted a Texas bakery with hidden cameras and had actors play a female customer wearing an Islamic head scarf, or hijab, and a sales clerk who refused to serve her. The actor playing the clerk also used anti-Muslim slurs. [Primetime's "What Would You Do?" segments seek to find out how ordinary people react when faced with sticky situations.]

SEE A CLIP: Encountering Prejudice (ABC)

ACTION REQUESTED: CONTACT ABC "PRIMETIME" to thank the producers for highlighting both Islamophobia and the kindness of those who will not tolerate anti-Muslim hatred. Click here to post a message on the “Primetime” message board. Send a copy of your message to: CAIR

The Las Vegas of the Persian Gulf

Key to the World: Dubai

A few of my thoughts in no particular order:

• How do these folks sleep at night? How do you build a "booming oasis" while your neighbors starve?
• I strongly dislike the term "fundamentalists."
• "Shaykh" Mohammad? Yes, the two women on his arms looked exactly what I would expect the female relatives of a "shaykh" to look like. Yay for royal blood!
• There is something about the contrasting experiences of Europeans and South Asians that reminds me of the "house Negro" theory.
• Is the "party scene" really something ABC categorizes as Western values? The West has been demoted from "democracy" to women at water parks in thongs and bars galore.
  
• I hope there are no Muslims at the bars' 3am last calls. However, if they are I hope that when they leave they are walking to the mosque across the street to pray Tahajjud.