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Australian Policewoman Allowed to Wear Hijab

MELBOURN, November 28, 2004 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A 30-year-old former graphic designer who hails from Lebanon made history this week when she became the first Victoria Police officer to wear hijab as part of her uniform.

Maha Sukkar graduated from the police academy on Friday, November 26, with 49 recruits in a ceremony attended by Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon and Police Minister Andre Haermeyer, the Herald Sun reported on Saturday, November 27, 2004.

“Police designed a headdress -- known as a hijab -- to meet health and safety requirements,” the paper said.

Constable Sukkar, who hails from Lebanon, was involved in the design, including testing several types before settling on one with a Velcro to enable its release should she get caught in a physical scuffle.

The specially designed headwear had to be designed to meet both religious and occupational health and safety standards, the Australian Associated Press reported.

A Dream

Constable Sukkar said she was very proud to be a police officer and her family had flown all the way from Lebanon for the big day, the Herald added. “It has been a dream since I came to this country four years ago,” she said. “And now it's here.” Sukkar said she was not worried about anybody picking on her because of her hijab. “People can't understand things they don't know about,” she noted. “But once they know about me and my religion, they accept it totally and there is no problem at all.” Sukkar said she does not expect the headpiece would attract any unwanted attention, but if it did she would handle it “just like any other police officer.”

Commenting on the move, The Australian newspaper said “Sukkar stood tall despite being the shortest recruit on parade at her police graduation ceremony.”

Support

The former graphic designer was supported by her parents and friends from the Muslim community, The Age, Melbourne's oldest newspaper, said. “At first we were worried by how people would respond but we really admired her courage and she has been an inspiration to us,” said her best friend, Aiesha Hussain, at the ceremony.

Chief Commissioner Nixon said Victoria Police wanted to attract more women and more recruits from culturally diverse backgrounds that reflected the community, The Age said.

“I think this is Victoria Police showing that we are very welcoming of people from a whole range of backgrounds and nationalities who want to join us.” Australian Muslims have grown to represent a significant section of the Victorian population. Some Muslim organisations estimate as high as 350,000 the number of Muslims in Australia.

The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) is the umbrella organization of Islamic societies in Victoria and their sole representative body to Australian government and Australian community at large. It is a member of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC), the umbrella organization of all Islamic Councils in Australia.

US University Allows Revert Muslim athlete to Wear Hijab

CAIRO , September 15, 2004 (IslamOnline.net) – The University of South Florida has ruled that one of her Muslim athletes is entitled to wear hijab during basketball competitions.

After a meeting between university officials and representatives from the Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL), the university allowed Andrea Armstrong to wear the Muslim headscarf during the basketball activities and to reinstate her athletic scholarship.

The University also agreed to work with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to allow 22-year-old Armstrong to wear hijab during her team's matches in the new basketball season, CAIR said Wednesday, September 15. Armstrong, who recently reverted to Islam, complained that she was forced to quit her basketball team and deprived of athletic scholarship after she insisted on wearing hijab during the basketball games.

"An athlete should not be asked to choose between engaging in healthy sporting activities and her deeply-held religious beliefs," said Bedier. He further said Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) used to urge to teach children activities such as swimming, archery and horseback riding.

‘Just to Play'

Andrea, a co-captain of her basketball team, said her coach Jose Fernandez forced her to leave the team after she told him she would wear long pants, long-sleeve shirts and a hijab during the basketball activities. “I just want to play,” the Muslim player told the St. Petersburg Times Saturday, September 11. “I've been doing this since third grade. This is my life,” she added. Armstrong said Fernandez told her the clothing would make teammates uncomfortable and also said Islam oppressed women. She also said he telephoned her parents in Oregon and told them she had joined a “cult”. Armstrong said she was raised Catholic, but began exploring other Christian churches in college. None moved her, she said. At USF, she began asking questions of Muslim students and visited a nearby mosque. In June, she recited the Shahadah (Testimony of Faith) to officially declare herself a Muslim.

“It's pure to me ... it's just beautiful,” Armstrong told the paper. “Each day, I look forward to learning more and growing.” Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one's affiliations – unlike the symbolic Christian crucifixes or Jewish Kappas. Hijab has taken central stage recently in several European countries, which banned it in state-run schools and public institutions. France has triggered the controversy by adopting a bill banning hijab and religious insignia in public schools.

German State Bans Hijab For Teachers

Khaled Schmitt

BONN, April 2, 2005– A southern German state has become the first to ban Muslim public school teachers wearing hijab, a move expected to draw ire of the more than three million Muslims in the country.

The legislature of Baden-Wuerttemberg, led by a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union and the liberal Free Democrats, of state voted unanimously Thursday, April 1, for the new law.

It will go into effect on April 8, with the exception of Christian and Jewish symbols, much to the consternation of the Muslim community.

Because the Muslim dress code is "open to interpretation" including a possible espousal of the "Islamist political views," it had no place in the classroom, State culture minister Annette Schavan said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The State justice minister voiced reservations, saying the law could be easily invalidated by the constitutional court for its religious discrimination.

The court, Germany's highest tribunal, ruled in September that Baden-Wuerttemberg was wrong to forbid a Muslim female teacher, Fereshta Ludin, from wearing a hijab in the classroom. But it said Germany's 16 regional states could legislate to ban religious dress code if it was deemed to unduly influence children.

Six states have now put forward draft laws banning hijab or other religious symbols in public institutions. The latest came this week when the left-wing government in Berlin agreed on a sweeping ban on religious insignia that would cover not only Muslim hijab but also large Christian crosses and Jewish skullcaps. It will apply to police officers, judges and bailiffs as well as public school teachers.

Analysts said the Thursday ban came to reflect a wide perception of hijab as a political symbol. In Islam, hijab is a religious obligation which has nothing to do with portraying any political affiliation.

Criticism

Muslim groups have fiercely slammed hijab bans as compromising their freedom of religious expression. The ban could upset relations between the community members and the state. German President Johannes Rau said in an interview published December 28, that there is nothing wrong for Muslim women to put a piece of cloth atop of their heads in obedience to their religion.

Rau said also if hijab was banned, all crosses and other religious signs should be taken off as well. The President asserted that hijab should not be a cause for concern inside the German society, as these concerns are groundless.

In Hesse state, the dominant party, the conservative Christian Democrats, proposed in February a ban on Muslim civil servants wearing hijab. Claiming the covering is a political rather than religious statement, the party leader, Franz-Josef Jung, hoped the ban would come into effect by the summer.

Courtesy:www.islamonline.net

Belgian King Renews Support for Hijab-clad Worker

Nasreddine Djebbi

BRUSSELS, April 20, 2005– Belgian King Albert II and Queen Paola have made a rare visit to a factory where a hijab-clad woman was forced to quit her job over death threats, to express their support for the Muslim employee and her factory colleagues against extremist threats.

Naimi Amzil, of a Moroccan origin, was forced to quit her job in the Remmery seafood factory on March 3, after receiving death threats from an extremist group for no reasons other than being a veiled Muslim.

Expressing outrage at the extremist threats, the Belgian monarch decided to visit the factory to back the Muslim employee and other factory workers against the extremist death threats.

During a reception party held on the sidelines of the King's visit Tuesday, April 19, Rick Remmery, the factory owner, said the visit represents a powerful sign of support for the Muslim employee and the factory workers.

He expressed hope that King Albert II's visit to the factory will bring an end to the extremist death threats against the factory staff.

“Arresting the culprits is not a priority for me. All I do care about is to see an end to the series of death threats,” said Remmery.

The latest in a series of death threats against the Muslim woman was a letter containing two bullets signed by an extremist group calling itself “New Free Flanders”.

The fundamentalist group said that an execution was being prepared, threatening to poison the produce made at the delicatessen factory in west Flanders where she worked.

Amzil and her employer Rick Remmery hit the newsstands after they were received by King Albert II, following their refusal to bow to death threats against them.

The tragic chain of events became known last November when the “New Free Flanders”, demanded that Remmery sack 31-year-old Amzil if she insists on wearing hijab, accusing him of being “a bad Belgian who collaborates with Muslims.”

The group threatened Remmery and his family in case of noncompliance. Amzil offered to take off her hijab during working hours or resign, but a brave Remmery shrugged off both options.

Sympathy

During the reception party, one of Amzil's sons presented the Belgian King a painting portraying the tragic situation in which the Muslim family lives since the series of the tragic events began.

The Belgian Monarch and Queen also met with hundreds of students of the primary school in which Amzil's sons are studying to show their sympathy.

Afterwards, King Albert and Queen Paola toured the factory, ending with the packing department, where Amzil was working, and listened to an explanation from her colleagues on the role the Muslim employee used to play.

The number of Belgian Muslims amounts to 400,000 of the country's 10 millions, represented before the state bodies by the Islamic Executive Council, which is officially recognized by the king and government.

There are hundreds of mosques as well as cultural and social societies in major Belgian cities.

Several political activists, of Muslim origin, have managed to sit in the Federal Parliament and provincial parliaments as well as municipalities.

The recent government has included the first Muslim minister, Anisa Timsmani, of Moroccan origin, who had to resign under the pressures of Belgian press and media.

The issue of hijab has recently taken a central stage in several European countries.

France triggered a controversy by adopting a bill banning hijab and religious insignia in public schools, a decision dismissed by the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) as “discriminatory.”

Last year, Belgian ministers locked horns over whether they should follow the French example by passing a law banning hijab in state schools.

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one's affiliations – unlike the symbolic Christian crucifixes or Jewish Kappas.

Courtesy:www.islamonline.net

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