Gaza is not the only part of the Islamic world where Christians are under siege: Coalition forces in Iraq have been unable to protect the country’s Christian minority from violent oppression. The latest example of the plight facing Iraq’s Christians comes from the Times Online:
On her first day at Basra University this year a man came up to Zeena, a 21-year-old Christian woman, and three other Christian girls and ordered them to cover their heads with a hijab, or Islamic headscarf.
“We didn’t listen to him, and thought he might just be some extremist student representing only himself,” she said. The next day Zeena and two of her friends returned to class with uncovered heads.
This time a man in the black clothes of the Shia militia stopped them at the entrance and took them aside. “He said, ‘We asked you yesterday to wear a hijab, so why are you and your friends not covering your hair?’. He was talking very aggressively and I was scared,” Zeena recalled.
The girls explained that they were Christians and that their faith did not call for headscarves. “He said: ‘Outside this university you are Christian and can do what you want; inside you are not. Next time I want to see you wearing a hijab or I swear to God the three of you will be killed immediately’,” Zeena recalled. Terrified, the girls ran home. They now wear the headscarf all the time.
In the past five months more than 40 women have been murdered and their bodies dumped in the street by militiamen, according to the Basra police chief. Major-General Abdul-Jalil Khalaf said that some of them had been killed alone, others gunned down with their children. One unveiled mother was murdered together with her children aged 6 and 11.
This persecution is occurring while the British army is nominally in charge of Basra. When the British formally hand control of the city back to the Iraqis later this month, the situation for the Christians in Basra will become even worse.
Christian women are not the only ones facing persecution. Like the Taliban, the Basra militias are enforcing their version of Islamic purity on other Muslims, but in this case it’s the Shiites who are imposing their rules on the local Sunnis:
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At the university, Sunni students complain of being harassed by Shia militias. Ahmed, a 19-year-old Sunni freshman, was told that he had to grow a beard but keep his hair short to adhere to Islamic norms. He said that boys and girls who try to sit next to each other will be told to stay apart and given a lecture on Islamic virtue.
Self-appointed morality police, similar to the Bassiji who haunt students across the border in Iran, also grab people’s mobile phones and scroll through them looking for “immoral” video clips, music or pictures, Ahmed said.
Another student, Ali Yusuf, said that militiamen halted a freshers’ week party for new students, turning off the music system and ripping down the decorations. One armed thug picked up the DJ’s microphone and started praising Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the fanatical cleric who leads al-Mahdi Army, the most powerful Shia militia, before reading out a list of rules.
When allowed unfettered expression, Islam is not particularly tolerant. Celebrating diversity is not its forte.Unless, of course, Muslims are in the minority. Then it’s time for mandatory diversity!
Remember the ban on headscarves in French schools? Or the legal fight in Britain on behalf of a girl who wanted to be allowed to wear the full hijab in school?
These battles over women’s apparel were couched in terms of the rights of a religious minority. Muslims are well aware of the “human rights” trump card and know how to play it to great effect. But where Islam is in the majority, the rights of religious minorities are of no moment.
So when Islam is in the minority, women have the right to wear the veil.
When it is in the majority, women have no right not to wear the veil.
There’s a certain mathematical symmetry about these rules.
Which is not surprising since, as we are often told, mathematics was an Islamic invention.
9 comments:
If I were a betting man I might be tempted to wager that the situation is very different in American controlled areas. Our soldiers on the ground can't be blamed, as such, since they're trying to operate with limited resources and incredibly bad orders. The problem is that Blair and the MoD are trying to wear two hats: alliance with the states to fight in Iraq and, at the same time, alliance with the EU to reform our armed forces in to part of the European "rapid reaction force". Mutually incompatible goals. Unfortunately most of the defence budget is being spent on shiny toys that are useless for current operations on the off-chance that we might possibly be able to use them in some future war. Defence of the Realm (EU Referendum's sister site dealing with military matters) has done several extensive posts on the subject.
Sorry, Blair was trying to wear two hats. At least he had the foresight to join in, even if it was half-hearted. Brown is pulling us out to appease the bloody EU.
I read something a number of years ago about the arab custom of "getting the lower hand".
I'm not able to find that article right now but in looking around I found a couple mentions of it in Iranian culture:
Item 1:
"Similarly, Iranians may choose to take a lower status position, "getting the lower hand" as it's called, thus invoking a cultural pattern of protection within which the higher status person then feels emotionally obligated to do things for him or her (Beeman 1986, in Tannen 1994)."
Item 2 (pg. 185):
"Inferiors express their own demands through making petitions for things they need or desire, providing tribute and service to superiors as the balance of the bargain. The inferior person is in fact in an advantageous position with regard to the superior. If he is unable or unwilling to fulfill his obligations in the relationship, he has resort to his own inferiority as an excuse. Thus, in situations where power relationships are not defined, individuals will often jockey for the inferior position rather than the superior position as a means of "getting the lower hand," in the relationship."
Sorry. The quote in item #1 was on page 9.
"as we are often told, mathematics was an Islamic invention."
-Yet another egregious example of islamic fabulism the West has been all too eager to swallow whole. It makes my blood boil to hear it repeated, even if derisively as above. Propaganda I was spoon-fed all my life by credulous nincompoops! People in positions of authority and to know better if they'd simply bothered to look, but that, owing to a need to believe that something, anything of value, could have ever been produced by the "religion of peace", chose not to instead.
In related news, you could scratch Maldives as your holiday destination. Here's why!
As for the topic: this is the "democracy" Bush has brought to Iraq, the project thanks to which the fight against global jihad has been set back for years. But hey, "Iraqis" voted for it, so that makes it A-OK.
Such girls should either kill the s.o.b.'s who threaten them or be prepared to be their slaves.
That's how the world has worked since Paramecium A ate Parmecium B.
You bow to madness, you get more.
You oppose it, you get a chance.
@profitsbeard: legions of martyrs can attest to that.
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