Niqab Wars Episode IV: A New Hope-lessness
Posted by: admin
in Unity Blog
on Jan 30, 2010 
By now, the Niqab Wars were in full swing and Muslims were bracing themselves for a new round of bans, headlines and diatribes being hurled at them by the Western world and their liberal Muslim sympathizers. What they didn't expect was for the Sheikh of Al Azhar to join in. Clearly, they hadn't been paying attention.
Over the years, Muslims have learnt to have a love-hate relationship with Al Azhar. Al Azhar is widely respected by many Muslims as a centre for the transmission of knowledge. However, Muslims know it is for all intents and purposes a department of the Egyptian government, they know that the intellectual standards there have dropped to an all time low and they know that for many issues they just cannot take everything that comes out of there seriously - still, this third rate institution is the premier University in the Islamic world!
Tantawi (the current Sheikh of Al Azhar) was meeting female students at the University when his eyes met a sight that made his blood boil. Was it the sight of a despot ruling over his people for decades? Was it the sight of a Zionist leader who was directly involved in attacking Palestinians? No - he shakes the hands of those guys. It was something far, far worse... a woman in Niqab. Even though they had been present in the city of Cairo and his University since they were founded, apparently a millenia of conditioning was not enough and Tantawi flew into a rage demanding that the student remove her Niqab. When she refused he insulted her calling the Niqab "a tradition" directly negating centuries of scholarly opinion from his own predecessors. After the 16 year old girl relented he looked at her face and was reported to have said, "Hmph, what would you have done if you were actually pretty?"
Of course publicly humiliating a 16 year old girl and unilaterally throwing out a legitimate viewpoint in Islamic law was not enough. He went on to try and enact a ban of the Niqab on Al Azhar campuses. The Egyptian ministries decided that if Niqab wasn't good enough for Al Azhar, then why should it be accepted anywhere else so they decided to go about the vital task of forbidding it in all educational institutions - and that my dear brothers and sisters is how a Niqab ban is born.
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written by Hanaa, February 02, 2010
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written by WTF?!, February 05, 2010
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written by ..., February 05, 2010
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written by Mahmoud, February 06, 2010
I don't know about 70 excuses. But this is the same tantawi who legitimised interest by banks. The same Tantawi who supported the French ban on hijaab as their right. The same Tantawi who pushed for a ban on niqaab at all academia settings in the whole of Egypt.
The same Tantawi who was watched by many on Egyptian TV (including me) ridiculing people who wore the niqaab and creating a hate campaign to the point of making childish comments like "they think they're more religious than us all..."
The likes of him are symptoms of corrupt governance and oppression within the ummah at multiple level.
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written by A.Aydin, February 14, 2010
According to the UK branch of Al-Azhar (in East London) the reason for the veil being banned is actually to prevent a Haraam occuring. What Haraam am I talking about?
All of Al-Azhar's School's are all segregated. In fact there are separate schools for men and separate schools for women. So, unfortunately, what has happened in the past were men who had lets say 'girl friends' in the ladies school would dress up and put on a veil and enter the school and because the security guards don't check they entered the school on many occasions. News of ADULTERY in the Al-Azhar schools were reported.
In order to prevent this Al Azhar did ban the veil on the principals that to prevent a Haraam from occurring is more important than placing the veil (which falls into different categories for different scholars I guess). But this was the main reason for banning the veil in Al Azhar to prevent such loathsome acts that have occurred before.
I don't know how true are all the things he said, I feel the media could have added some later on to hide the reason but the way Tantawi did this was wrong but the principal was I think RIGHT!
I kindly request that we research things before we put them up on here iA.
JzkAllah
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written by salaam, February 21, 2010
Also, this threat of men impersonating women under the Niqaab is not something new in this day and age but has been an ever-present problem from the time of the Prophet (SAW.) Clearly nothing new has happened to cause it to be banned now. In fact, in Al Azhar they know very well that a female security guard (which they have) can easily check the niqaab clad sisters as they enter the university. This happens in Saudi Arabia all the time. So this excuse for banning the Niqaab is excessive.
Finally, Tantawi did not deny that the exchange took place with the 16 year old girl or that he shook hands with Shimon Peres or that he supports the regime of Hosni Mubarak or that he has nothing to say about the blockade of Gaza or 101 other such things... he doesn't need to because people like us indulge people like him and let him get away with it all.
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written by Admini, February 21, 2010
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