we've been debating the issue relating to aisha azmi, the woman who got suspended from her job as a teacher in england for refusing to take her niqab off in the classroom. a lot of you may have heard by now that she has finally been sacked, the court having decided that wearing a niqab in class made her unsuitable for teaching. i'm worryingly waiting to see what reactions this is going to provoke among the muslim community in the uk. what do you think of the decision to sack her? fair? unfair? somewhere in the middle? i'm interested to get your views about that, so please debate away!
In my view, the decision to sack her was fair and warranted in this case. She's a teacher, from the articles I've read, her audience are children up to 11 years old, I don't see the harm in showing her face to innocent kids. As a parent, I would have pulled my kids out of that class, this is not the role model I'd want for them, this behaviour cannot be perceived as the norm by children.
But the malaise is deeper than that, it's the secular model that is shaken by this sort of incident. The british model is based on an integration not assimilation, but how far can the UK go into integration, how much of foreign customs or beliefs can british society absorb before that model collapses ? The idiotic behavior of that teacher is just the tip of the iceberg, there is a whole wave across Europe voluntarily set on a collision course with european values. Same circus with the veil in school in France. They seem to be determined to test the limits of freedoms, freedom of expression, freedom to worship...etc
At every test, paradoxically those freedoms fade away because of fear and suspicion of communities, muslim in this case.
Like I said earlier on this forum, there's a well-thought strategy at work designed to isolate muslims within their environment, this strategy is operated by a small lunatic fringe of muslims. The sad truth is that it works. How many think that Islam is under attack ? How many think that this teacher was unfairly treated ? How many think this is a campaign against them ?
Just by looking at this forum, I'd say a growing minority, the operative word being "growing".
It's getting out of control, but the criticism has to come from within, everytime a European depicts the situation, muslims stiffen at his words, because in their view, he must be one of "them". European muslims need some role models, muslims born here, fully in sync with their european culture. Right now, medieval morons spew their hatred on satellite channels to young muslims born and raised in Europe, scrambling their brains and conditioning them to be out of phase with their environment. That's the situation, it's a fact, it's undisputable.
A few weeks ago, I was watching Hardtalk on the BBC, there was a young american muslim, he was on the board of some arab-american association (don't remember which one), the way he laid out his case in front of Stephen Sackur was articulated, in a perfect english, his knowledge and balance in commenting world events was remarkable.
Where's his european counterpart ? Where's the young muslim debating on a european TV channel with a view that doesn't start with "whoever disagrees with me is a zionist" or "Europe is dar al 7arb" ? Where's the young muslim who's ready to take on his own and say out loud that we're heading into the abyss if we keep lamenting instead of looking inwards and start reforming ?
That teacher is a symptom, this whole case is a symptom of something very wrong, they were right to sack her, I just wish more muslims would stand up and say so. Her brand of Islam belongs in the past, way back in the past, faith isn't about garments or facial hair, it's deeper than that.
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