who are the muhajababes?

A muhajababe is basically a woman in a headscarf (usually Muslim) who is also very stylish, almost skimpy, to the extent that one wonders why she chooses to cover her head which is nowhere near as attractive as her skinny-jean clad legs. It is an amalgamation of the word Muhajaba, which in Arabic means veiled woman, and babe, which in American English means attractive woman.

Muhajababes are often the subject of derision from all sides. Pious Muslim women don't like their abuse of the chastity covering as a fashion item, and non-pious women don't like the fact that they're using religion to steal the light from ordinary babes. The poor muhajababe takes alot of flack, when her life is already somewhat contradictory.

You see, muhajababes are either clueless about the religious concept they're meant to be upholding, or they're not only not clueless but are actively trying to subvert the hijab. Some may simply be following a fashion, but the pioneering one set out to simply wear as little hijab as she could get away with, while still nominally covering. In actuality, she doesn't really want to wear it, she doesn't really care for wearing it, she's wearing it because she has no choice.

People forget that hijab is not just something you can opt in to, but something that, if you're already in it, you can't easily opt out of. Tehran is a good example of a muhajababe capital because it is one of those few places in the world where hijab is actually the law. Opting out would be a criminal offence. So you might ask why muhajababes exist in the 'free West'. The answer is easy: family loyalty, herd instinct and even the threat of ostracisation.

Between Islam and Islamophobia

It is official, Muslim bashing is racist. Islam bashing is not.

The former is racist because it assumes things about people where we wouldn't ordinarily make assumptions; it bunches over one billion human beings into one monolith, when everyone knows each human being is individually unique; it interprets what is in someone's heart based on what they're wearing on their body; it insists that people choose their religion, culture and way of life, when in fact no one really does: everyone adopts the norms of the society that surrounds them (if the islamophobes were born into Muslim families, for instance, they would probably be extremists: same narrow mindedness, different cultural context).

But a lot of people paint Islam bashing as Muslim bashing and thus stamp out room for important debate by exploiting the sensitive issue racism. It is very important to draw the line here, to protect both free speech and, when things move to the other extreme, to ensure innocent people's safety.

Sacred law

In a historic move some two months ago, the old UK Blasphemy laws were repealed. Even though the laws were wasting space on the shelf and hadn't been put into action since the 1920s, for the first time in history, God was no longer protected by litigation. But then again, God being God, I suppose He doesn't need a human entourage to make him untouchable, or a massive PR campaign to keep His reputation afloat. As one House of Lords peer put it, when defending the case for repealing the laws, if the good Lord could could find it in His mercy to sacrifice Himself for humankind, I'm sure He can stand a bit of left wing obscurantism (or something along those lines).

I wish Muslims were able to show such firmness in the face of insult. At no time has it been more important than now for them to prove the strength of their convictions.

Loving the BNP

I spoke to a BNP spokesman yesterday regarding an incendiary BNP- related facebook group that users have been calling for the closing of as it contravenes facebook terms of agreement. Some of their spokesmen are quite diplomatic, but not this one it turned out, but what to expect from an essentially irrational party? The spokesman said that the BNP were campaigning against an application to build a mosque in Solihull because they wanted to halt the 'Islamification of Britain'. When I pointed out that within a liberal democracy (I didn't actually say 'liberal democracy'), everyone had the right to worship how they liked, he said that he was sick of the indigenous population having their guilt complex exploited. Hmmmm.

Whether or not the BNP are no longer racist is irrelevant to the fact that they are attracting support from ordinary people who genuinely feel their culture and life is going to be eroded by an ever expanding Muslim population, which has a high birth rate and whose members often and tactlessly talk about Islam taking over the world. The spokesman yesterday seemed to genuinely believe this was a possibility. And there are other non-BNP people who seem to fear Islam in the same way, like the Bishop of Rochester for instance.

In an odd way I can understand this fear, and I think we should attempt to allay people's fears of Islamic totalitarianism and show them that it is not a religion that is spread by reproduction (no religion should be), nor one that seeks to conquer (if truth is truth, it will prevail without human agency).

So it's high time we showed the BNP some love (and you can draw the line with the downright racist if you can't stomach them), especially those who are seeking to convince the world of their conviction in an all loving Creator.

Occupation at 60

While the world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel, it has forgotten the 60th anniversary of the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes. While we naively celebrate the creation of a a new state, we conveniently forget that one nation is created on the back of another. And while America and Britain take to their moral high horse to rush in aid for the oppressed people of Burma, they continue to rush in aid for the oppressors of the people of Palestine.

Here are some pictures from the demonstration last Saturday (May 10), jointly organised by the British Palestine Solidarity Campaign, to commemorate the 60th anniversay of the nakba (the mass expulsion of Palestinians). There was an estimated turnout of 15,000 people. This is evidence that Palestine has not been forgotton by the British people.

on having nothing to blog about

My fear of failure in the blogosphere always impeded me when starting new blogs. My fear used to be about not having a readership. Now I have learnt how to get a readership (i.e by writing something that is worth reading), my fear now concerns content. For fear of producing fatuous content, I don't regularly update blogs, and only write when I feel I have something worth saying. So to all my readers (that's all three of you, family members included), bear with the irregularity of my posting until I become a seasoned enough blogger to not cringe when producing worthless content on a regular basis.