by Katherine Bullock

The furor over the expulsion in 1995 of Quebec high school students who refused to remove their head scarves, with some people declaring the Hijab might not be considered proper “Canadian” dress, demonstrates that the West has not yet transcended the negative stereotype of the oppressed, veiled Muslim woman which has generated during the period of Western colonization of the Middle East. Indeed Muslim women in the West are still discriminated against based upon these myths. The aim of this paper is to bring the perspective of some Muslim women who cover willingly into the debate over Hijab.

The issue of the hijab , the Muslim head scarf/dress code, has hit the media as never before. France and Germany are in the process of banning the headscarf in schools and educational institutions.

Read below the news reports and also a list of articles on Hijab and women in Islam provided by The Revival. Dont forget to have your say on this issue on The Revival Forums

By four Danish women

That the veiled Muslim woman by all means should be regarded as oppressed is a myth that ought to be killed. Many people are scandalized by the veil, but only few seek an explanation from the Muslim woman herself; her voice is often overheard in this matter. If she is asked, on the other hand, the veil represents freedom and dignity.

"O Prophet! say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers that they let down upon them their over-garments; this will be more proper, that they may be known, and thus they will not be given trouble; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." (Sura 33, 59)

"Verily the disbelievers are to you an open enemy" [TMQ 4:101]

The courts of two so-called modern western tolerant liberal democratic countries, Germany and France, issue rulings blatantly discriminatory and hateful to Islam by refusing Muslims the right to wear the head scarf.

If they wore mini-skirts or skin tight pants or see-through blouses etc it would have been OK in a secular system but a head scarf as obliged by Islam is not acceptable! If they promoted homosexuality or promiscuity etc it would have been OK in a secular system but Islamic values are unacceptable! In short, if they were kuffar or submitted to kufr it would have been OK but being a Muslim or trying to follow Islam is not!

By Sultana Yusufali, 17, a Toronto high school student, Toronto Star Young People's Press

I probably do not fit into the preconceived notion of a "rebel.'' I have no visible tattoos and minimal piercings. I do not possess a leather jacket. In fact, when most people look at me, their first thought usually is something along the lines of "oppressed female.''

The brave individuals who have mustered the courage to ask me about the way I dress usually have questions like: "Do your parents make you wear that?'' or "Don't you find that really unfair?''

This is a compilation of all the verses in Quran that refer to "women".

From 002. Al-Baqarah (TheCow)

49. And when We delivered you from Firon's people, who subjected you to severe torment, killing your sons and sparing your women, and in this there was a great trial from your Lord.

Hamza Yusuf Hanson is an American convert to Islam. He is an outspoken advocate of better understanding between the Muslim world and the West.

Writing in the third century, the Arab poet Mutanabbi describes how a recipient of another's largesse will usually respond with either indebtedness or resentment :

' A generous soul is bought when it receives, a vile one returns good done with disease.'

Your response to another's good toward you determines your nature.

If good in nature, you will respond with indebtedness and respect; if vile, with resentment and envy.

Many of us in the West feel anger and resentment toward Islam and Muslims.

US Imam Hamza Yusuf answered your questions on Islam since the events of September 11, 2001.

Has the tradition of liberal, or classical Islam, been hijacked by a discourse of terror since the events of September 11, 2001?

Over the last two years Islamic militants have been blamed for attacks in Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and India. More than 350 people were killed in those attacks.

How have moderate Muslim leaders responded to such attacks? What message are they giving out to both Muslims and the wider communities in the West?

Meacher sparks fury over claims on September 11 and Iraq war

Fury over Meacher claims

Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor, Saturday 6 September 2003, The Guardian

Michael Meacher, who served as a minister for six years until three months ago, today goes further than any other mainstream British politician in blaming the Iraq war on a US desire for domination of the Gulf and the world.

Mr Meacher, a leftwinger who is close to the green lobby, also claims in an article in today's Guardian that the war on terrorism is a smokescreen and that the US knew in advance about the September 11 attack on New York but, for strategic reasons, chose not to act on the warnings.

Robert Fisk, The Independent

So now Syria is in America’s gunsights.

First it’s Iraq, Israel’s most powerful enemy, possessor of weapons of mass destruction — none of which have been found. Now it’s Syria, Israel’s second most powerful enemy, possessor of weapons of mass destruction, or so President George Bush Junior tells us.

No word of that possessor of real weapons of mass destruction, Israel — the number of its nuclear warheads in the Negev are now accurately listed — whose Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has long been complaining that Damascus is the “center of world terror.”

But Syria is a target all right.