Sunday, October 08, 2006

veil attacks

First it was France a few years ago, now the UK is engaging in a debate about whether Muslim women should wear the veil.

British politician Jack Straw, a former foreign secretary, suggested that the wearing of the full veil hinders community relations. He prefers Muslim women meeting with him to uncover their faces.

Good for him, if the women comply.

However, he should not have made such a public issue out of it.

There is no legal dress code in the UK. Mr Straw does not ask Sikh men to remove their turbans.

Of course it is up to the individual to decide what they wear. If the general community is apprehensive when they see woman covered up, then they fear what they don't understand, and the unfamiliar.

Work needs to be done by the Muslim community in helping the wider community to understand, and to dispel myths.

What is totally unnecessary is for this to turn into a public debate. After all, it's not as if the UK is going to ban Muslim women from wearing the veil, so what was the point in bringing it up as an issue in the first place?

All Mr Straw has done is flame Islamaphobia and given the rednecks an opportunity to go and attack Muslim women.

All this does is further marginalise a minority, which is the exact opposite of the intention of raising the issue in the first place.

For those hate-mongers out there, if they keep calling someone of 'middle eastern appearance' a terrorist, that person may just one day turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy because they were driven to it by all the hateful attacks.

*For more kitty thoughts, check out Camilla and think well wishes for her.

.........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo..........

Today was another good day. My human had intended to do a lot of chores, but I stopped him. We had two wonderful early afternoon naps together, first on one couch, and then on another couch. Woohoo!

Then he decided he'd better clean the floor. In the middle of that chore, he gave me a big long brush of my fur. Then he used the vacuum cleaner on my fur to remove the loose fur. Ha! I am not scared of the vacuum cleaner. In fact, it was quite nice.

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