Canadian Muslims want government to ban burqa

[Grumpy Cat]

Muslim group urges gov't to ban burkas, niqabs in public

A prominent Canadian Muslim lobby group is calling on the federal government to ban women from wearing the burka in public.

The Muslim Canadian Congress describes the burka, a head-to-toe gown that covers the wearer's face, as a symbol of Islamic extremism as well as a security risk.

The congress, which is also calling for a ban on the traditional headscarf known as the niqab, says there's nothing in the Qur'an that requires women to cover their faces.

In fact, the congress says, women are actually forbidden to wear burkas at one of Islam's holiest sites, the grand mosque in Mecca.

The group calls covering female faces a "medieval, misogynist practice" that can lead to heightened security risks, citing bank robberies in Canada and overseas.

It also cites the recent decision by Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar university and Egypt's highest Muslim authority, to issue a fatwa, or religious edict, against the niqab and burka.

[nisse]

I don't know how much actual support there is for this sort of ban among Muslims (women, specifically).

The ones that don't want to wear one can forgo it already, and there is a number of women who do want to wear it...I've spoken to a few classmates who wear them and they seem to do so of their own free will, in fact, many of them have female siblings who don't wear it...Personally, after seeing a few of these girls with their scarf off, I'm sure they would be against a ban :cool:

EDIT: I got confused, and was actualyl talking about the hijab...I don't know anyone who wears anything more extreme :|

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niq%C4%81b) has a pretty good article on religious politics bahind the niqab.

[Brynhild]

Good gods, I nearly fell off my chair! :eek: That idea is actually the reverse of what Moslem women have always been taught. I'm not sure if banning it outright would be such a good idea - due mainly to civil liberties - but certainly these Moslem women have a great opportunity to be made more aware and enlightened in regards to why it was never part of the actual religion in the first place - more to do with patriarchal control.

[Osweo]

it was never part of the actual religion in the first place - more to do with patriarchal control.
lol
The religion was thought up by A PATRIARCH!!!

[Majar]

http://i49.tinypic.com/15eeljr.jpg

Women hiding their faces has a negative cultural connotation in the Western mind. Western women used to veil their faces in two instances: when they were in mourning, and when they were on their way to do something covertly (e.g., going to see a lover). Hiding the feminine charms is an ancient practice found throughout the world in various degrees, and existed long before Islam did. The Arabians adopted the practice of veiling the face from the Persians. They probably wore masks or cloths over their faces for practical reasons in the desert and just ascribed a religious meaning to it later.

The Western world is moving quickly to a frame of mind where private space and public space are completely shared and people are not sovereign in their persons. A sad development.