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The other day, George Jonas passed on to his readers a characteristically shrewd observation gleaned from the late poet George Faludy: “No one likes to think of himself as a coward,” wrote Jonas. “People prefer to think they end up yielding to what the terrorists demand, not because it’s safer or more convenient, but because it’s the right thing . . . Successful terrorism persuades the terrorized that if they do terror’s bidding, it’s not because they’re terrified but because they’re socially concerned.” This is true. Resisting terror is exhausting. It’s easier to appease it, but, for the sake of your self-esteem, you have...

Women forbidden by law from feeling sunlight—hey, that’s a positive message for young girls The other day, George Jonas passed on to his readers a characteristically shrewd observation gleaned from the late poet George Faludy: “No one likes to think of himself as a coward,” wrote Jonas. “People prefer to think they end up yielding to what the terrorists demand, not because it’s safer or more convenient, but because it’s the right thing . . . Successful terrorism persuades the terrorized that if they do terror’s bidding, it’s not because they’re terrified but because they’re socially concerned.”

A burka-wearing student has been banned from enrolling at a college after staff claimed the Muslim garment was a barrier to ‘safety and communication’. Shawana Bilqes, 18, was forced to abandon her learning plans after she refused to remove the head-to-toe gown which reveals only her eyes. She had been asked to show her face as a check to avoid identity fraud in case she was posing as someone else. But when she explained she could not due to her religious belief she was forced off her Access course for an HE Diploma at Burnley College, Lancashire. Today Miss Bilqes...

A SPANISH judge has expelled a Muslim woman wearing a burka from his court for refusing to show her face when testifying in the trial of a group of Islamic extremists. "Seeing your face, I can see if you are lying or not, if you are surprised by a question or not," Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez told the woman, the sister of an Islamic radical killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq in 2005. The woman said that her religion forbade her from appearing in public without her burka... But after speaking to the judge later in his chambers, a...

As I always do around this time of year, I pushed aside the Arab-Israeli conflict for a moment to contemplate the more serious conflict between secular Muslims and Christian Arabs and the growing religious extremism in the Middle East. There are 22 Arab countries, yet only two had the courage (or pride in their women) to field entrants in this year's Miss Universe Pageant, which was held in the Bahamas, where string bikinis replace car bombs and women are truly free. The only two Arab countries that entered contestants, again, were Egypt and Lebanon. Now I know Egypt and its...

The Conservative Party Integration Spokesman Naser Khader is calling for a ban on the burka or niqab in the public space. The junior minority coalition Conservative Party wants to introduce a ban on Muslim burka or niqab dress codes which require women to completely cover their faces in the public space, according to Jyllands-Posten. “We don’t want to see burkas in Denmark. We simply can’t accept that some of our citizens walk around with their faces covered,” says MP Naser Khader, a Syrian-Palestinian of extraction and the Conservative Party’s recently-appointed integration spokesman. At home Khader says the burka is un-Danish...

A POLICE force in Yorkshire was yesterday accused of wasting time and public money after sending three officers out to spend a day dressed as Muslim women. Sgt Deb Leonard, Sgt Deb Pickering and Pc Helen Turner dressed in traditional Islamic costumes including burka, jilbab, hijab and niqab. They were accompanied by four Muslim women in Sheffield as part of a scheme called In Your Shoes Day, designed to help South Yorkshire Police learn about the Muslim faith. In return, the Muslim women had a tour of the police custody suite and closed circuit TV offices and were shown the...

Here is a video report on the efforts of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to ban the wearing of the Muslim "Burka" by women. He says it is not a religious symbol, but a sign of enslavement, and not welcome in France. The controversy is a result of growing tensions in France due to the huge Muslim population there - over 5 million. Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa have migrated to France in recent years. . . . . . (Watch Video)

FRENCH officials were on alert last night after a group linked to al-Qaeda threatened to retaliate over criticism of the burka. The Algeria-based group issued a statement on Islamic websites vowing to “seek vengeance”. It followed comments by French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week in which he said the veils would not be welcome in France. Muslim robes may even be banned in public there. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said last night: “French authorities reaffirm their determination to fight terrorism.”

PARIS (AP) — A top Muslim group in Britain lashed out at Nicolas Sarkozy as "patronizing and offensive" on Tuesday, after the French president said body- and face-covering Islamic garments such as the burqa turn women into prisoners. In Paris, parliament formally created a commission Tuesday to study the wearing of body-cloaking Muslim robes in France, a day after Sarkozy told lawmakers that the burqa would not be welcome in the country. A top official with the Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella organization for British Muslim groups, accused Sarkozy of "divisive politics," and said his comments could fan an...

Stop Islamist oppression of women.

Shopping in Harrods last week, I came across a group of women wearing black burkhas, browsing the latest designs in the fashion department. The irony of the situation was almost laughable. Here was a group of affluent women window shopping for designs that they would never once be able to wear in public. Yet it's a sight that's becoming more and more commonplace. In hardline Muslim communities right across Britain, the burkha and hijab - the Muslim headscarf - are becoming the norm. In the predominantly Muslim enclaves of Derby near my childhood home, you now see women hidden behind...

President Sarkozy's proposed ban may be pure politicking, but it does expose a fundamental cross-Channel difference"The burka is not a religious problem, it's a question of liberty and women's dignity. It's not a religious symbol, but a sign of subservience and debasement. I want to say solemnly, the burka is not welcome in France. In our country, we can't accept women prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity. That is not our idea of freedom.” So spoke Nicolas Sarkozy in Versailles during his first state of the nation address to France's two chambers,...

President Nicolas Sarkozy lashed out Monday at the practice of wearing the Muslim burqa, insisting the full-body religious gown is a sign of the "debasement" of women and that it won't be welcome in France. The French leader expressed support for a recent call by dozens of legislators to create a parliamentary commission to study a small but growing trend of wearing the full-body garment in France In the first presidential address in 136 years to a joint session of France's two houses of parliament, Sarkozy laid out his support for a ban even before the panel has been approved—braving...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has spoken out strongly against the wearing of the burka by Muslim women in France. In a major policy speech, he said the burka - a garment covering women from head to toe - reduced them to servitude and undermined their dignity.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's government is to consider banning the burka and other Islamic clothing which French MPs claim is degrading to women. In a move that sparked fierce debate, a group of parliamentarians called for an inquiry into the wearing of the head-to-toe Islamic veil in France and whether Muslim women who cover themselves completely in public constitute an assault on French secularism and women's rights. In a call that won support from senior figures in Mr Sarkozy's government, they demanded that a parliamentary commission consider the fate in France of the burka, where the eyes are covered by a...

Bazooka or Burka & fear of criticizing Islamofascism... thesun.co.uk — Many people are scared to criticise the worst excesses of Islamofascism while being hysterically sensitive to the perceived wrongs of our own culture, especially when it comes to the oppression of females. http://digg.com/arts_culture/Bazooka_or_Burka_fear_of_criticizing_Islamofascism

Saudi cleric Sheikh Mohammed al-Habadan has declared that a Muslim veil, or hijab, that covers all but the eyes encourages women to use eye make-up to look seductive, the BBC reported Friday. Al-Habadan has called on Saudi women to wear a full veil, or niqab, which covers the entire face, including one eye. The question of how much of her face a woman should cover is a controversial topic in many Muslim societies. The niqab is more common in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, but women in much of the Muslim Middle East wear a headscarf which covers only their...

A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye. Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.

A Muslim member of the French Government has attacked the head-to-toe Islamic dress as a prison, applauding a court decision to deny citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wore it. “The burka is a prison, a strait-jacket,” Fadela Amara, the Minister for Urban Affairs and a longstanding women's rights campaigner, said yesterday. “It is not religious. It is the insignia of a totalitarian political project for sexual inequality.” The court decision denying Faiza Mabchour, 32, French citizenship has drawn approval from both Left and Right, highlighting a rejection of Muslim customs that conflict with the values of the secular French...

The fiancée of one of the leaders of the failed July 21 suicide attacks has been sentenced to three years in jail for helping him escape by dressing in a burka as a Muslim woman. Fardosa Abdullahi, who was 17 at the time, gave Yassin Omar her mobile phone handset, provided a scarf and handbag for his disguise and accompanied him to Golders Green coach station where he fled to Birmingham in his feminine disguise. Omar's family persuaded her to contact police but she claimed she did not know where he was and it was not until six days after...

When I came to this country, I took off my hijab. It wasn't an easy decision. I worried at night that God would punish me for it. That's what I had been taught would happen, and it filled me with fear. I was 27, coming from my home country of Iraq to study in California. I hoped that by taking off the hijab I had been wearing for eight years, I would be able to maintain a low profile. In Baghdad, you keep a low profile to stay alive. But in the United States, I merely wanted not to be...

Cambridge University has been given £8 million by a Saudi Arabian prince to establish an Islamic studies centre. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, ranked in the top 20 richest men in the world, with a fortune of about £10 billion, has donated the cash to the university to fund a centre in his name for the study of the role of Islam in the Middle East and globally. The gift has been recommended by the university's general board and is expected to be announced in June. advertisement The grandson of King Ibn Saud and nephew of King Abudllah, the prince counts...

A fringe sect of Jewish women with a Taliban-like dress code will be overcome by a major spiritual crisis after the arrest of the group's leader on charges of child abuse, haredi sources in Beit Shemesh predicted Wednesday. According to haredi media and a well-informed source in Beit Shemesh, the 54-year-old mother of 12 who is suspected of serious child abuse and failing to report multiple cases of incest among her children, is none other than the head of a sect of women who adhere to a dress code more stringent than that of the most extreme Muslim sects and...

A burqa may not be the flirtiest garment ever invented for women. The highly modest head-to-toe robe even shrouds the eyes, so for centuries it's been difficult for women wearing them to send suggestive signals to men. But now a German designer has debuted a digitally-enabled burqa that can broadcast a photo of the wearer to nearby mobile phones. Markus Kison calls it the "CharmingBurka," and says it isn't forbidden by Islamic law. A model demonstrated a prototype of Kison's garment at the Seamless 2008 design and fashion show in Boston, a high-tech fashion event run with support from the...

The bright blue veil of the burqa is one of the most iconic and widely worn pieces of women’s clothing in Afghanistan. Since the fall of the Taliban, fewer women wear the burqa in Kabul, but elsewhere, in the provinces, the burqa is as ubiquitous as ever. The Zamarai family, shown in the video, have been tailors and burqa-makers for three generations. But recently there’s a new player in the Kabul burqa market: China, which mass-produces a style of burqa that many women here find more fashionable than the Zamarais’ traditional hand-assembled garments. The Chinese-made burqas’ tightly-crimped folds and machine-produced...

Little girls in the militancy-hit Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan hate a diktat issued by pro-Taliban rebels to attend school in burqas. Burqas are the only option some girls' schools in northwestern Pakistan have against being shut down or worse, being bombed. "I want to study, but not in a burqa," said Shah Rukh, a 12-year-old girl enrolled at a primary school at Saidu Sharif in Swat. Shah Rukh is just one of many girls who have learnt to speak out against the burqa diktat in the picturesque Valley. "My 11-year-old daughter cries every morning when she has to wear...

'I 'd like a one-way air fare to New York on the next available flight. I have no luggage. Could you make sure the ticket is refundable … in case I change my mind?" I was standing at the Delta shuttle counter at Washington's Reagan National Airport, dressed in my Saudi burka. "Sure, no problem," the clerk replied brightly. "Do you have Skymiles?" "Uh, no." "I'll need some form of identification." I handed her my driver's licence, which showed the occupant of the black tent to be a blonde, blue-eyed resident of the District of Columbia. "Thanks." Tap, tap, tap...

HIDDENITE, N.C. -- Police are investigating an unusual robbery in Hiddenite. Someone dressed in a burgundy burka walked into the People’s Bank at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, showed the teller a handgun and demanded money. The robber then took off down N.C. 90 in a burgundy sport utility vehicle

THIS is the face of the anti-war Left!I took this from the Navy Memorial side of the counterprotest today, 15 September 2007, Washington, DC. More left-wing insanity: The enemy: the Code Pinkos, trying their best to stir us up. The veterans who have turned their backs on their brothers and sisters. This "Free Palestine" character stood out. Accompanying the conspiracy nutjobs... http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v112/196/104/662887830/n662887830_199561_7230.jpg". Hugo Chavez fan. Don't know if he was an illegal or not. And the coup de gross:She just couldn't keep her mouth closed as well.

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Stuck for inspiration about what to wear at their village carnival, one group made a last-minute decision to dress up in mock Muslim burkas. Calling themselves the "Page Three Beauties from the Ramalama Ding-Dong Times", the 17 men and women carried placards with made-up names such as "Miss Hairyarmpitsbad", "Miss Slackistan", "Miss Notbadinbedabad" and "Miss Reallyamanistan". As they walked the one-mile parade route, the group knelt down in mock prayer and used fake compasses to try to find Mecca. Their routine impressed carnival judges - a mayor, two district councillors...

Once-exotic forms of Muslim women's head and body garments have now become both familiar in the West and the source of fractious political and legal disputes.

THE leader of a radical Pakistani mosque was arrested while trying to flee in a woman's burqa as security forces stepped up pressure on a few hundred hardcore followers still holed up inside. Firebrand cleric Abdul Aziz's capture sparked an exodus from Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, with 1,200 male and female students surrendering to the authorities a day after clashes there left 16 people dead. The government of embattled President Pervez Musharraf hailed the capture of the firebrand preacher as a major success, after months of criticism that it was failing to tackle extremism. "After all the things...

Islamabad, 4 July (AKI) - (Syed Saleem Shahzad) - The leader of a radical mosque in Islamabad besieged by Pakistani security forces has been captured as he tried to escape the complex wearing a burqa. Maulana Abdul Aziz was arrested as he tried to leave the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) amid a crowd of women wearing the black burqas favoured by the Taliban. Reports say that his wife Umme Hasan has also been arrested. However, Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, the other hardline brother leading the mosque's months-long challenge to central government authority, is believed to have remained in the complex with...

LONDON: Increasingly, Muslim women in Britain take their children to school and run errands covered head to toe in flowing black gowns that allow only a slit for their eyes. Like little else, their appearance has unnerved Britons, testing the limits of tolerance in this stridently secular nation. Many veiled women say they are targets of abuse. At the same time, efforts are growing to place legal curbs on the full Muslim veil, known as the niqab. The past year has seen numerous examples: A lawyer dressed in a niqab was told by an immigration judge that she could not...

Caption the Speakertress in dhimmitude... Practicing for her grand vision of post-surrender USA. Dim-Dhimmi-Dems....

Michael Moore calls Muslim terrorists "Minutemen" ("The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win."). But Islamists are cowards who kill innocent civilians, and then run away and hide, disguising themselves as women: Why should we believe Moore, whose "rage against the machine" includes investing in stocks like Halliburton? Here's more proof of Islamist "bravery:" CCTV images of one of the 21 July bomb suspects apparently fleeing London in a Muslim veil have been shown in...

CCTV images of one of the 21 July bomb suspects apparently fleeing London in a Muslim veil have been shown in court.The jury at Woolwich Crown Court saw footage prosecutors say is Yassin Omar, 26, wearing a black full-length dress and burka with a handbag over his arm. He is said to have travelled by bus to Birmingham from Golders Green in north London on 22 July 2005 - the day after an alleged attempt to bomb the Tube. Mr Omar and six other defendants deny charges of conspiracy to murder. The footage shows Mr Omar mingling with ordinary commuters...

Young Muslim women will definitely save money on bikini wax and suntan lotion at the beach this year. That's because the burkini, the latest in swimwear for Muslim women, is making its appearance and creating quite a stir on Australia's beaches, famous for their scantily-attired females. A hybrid of the Islamic burqa and the Western world's much-beloved bikini, the lycra, two-piece bathing suit covers its wearer from head to foot, showing only the hands, feet and face. The full-length swimsuit's designer, Lebanon-born Aheda Zanetti, told the media her lightweight creation is meant to allow Muslim women to enjoy water sports,...

Dramatic film of a fireman confronting one of the alleged July 21 bombers on a Tube train as other passengers fled in panic was shown to a jury yesterday. The CCTV footage showed Ramzi Mohammed, 25, wearing a rucksack and boarding the busy Northern Line Tube at Stockwell, south London. He turned his back towards a mother with a child in a pushchair before detonating his device. The detonator exploded, although the main charge, made up of liquid hydrogen peroxide and chapati flour, failed to go off. As other passengers tried to run, Angus Campbell, an off-duty fireman, stayed and...

The would-be suicide bombers gathered the night before July 21 in a flat in north Kensington in London; everything was ready for an attack that had been planned for weeks and was to be carried out with explosive devices cooked up on a kitchen stove, mixing high-strength hair bleach, nail varnish remover, acid, lightbulbs, batteries and chapati flour, the jury at Woolwich crown court heard. When the five men walked out of 14 Dalgarno Gardens the next day, Ramzi Mohammed left the remnants of a draft suicide note to his two children; evidence found later suggested a suicide video had...

Jewelry stores in the Indian city of Pune are considering a ban on burqas after a series of thefts of big-ticket items by customers wearing the head-to-toe Islamic garment. Security cameras in stores help to fight crime and reduce shoplifting. But what can shop owners do if thieves hide behind the all-covering Islamic garment, the burqa? This is the problem facing jewelers in the Indian city of Pune after a number of expensive pieces of jewelry were stolen by burqa-clad shoplifters. Indian Muslim women wearing burqas. The head-to-toe Islamic robe could be banned at jewelry stores in an Indian city...

San Diego - Today I took my elderly mother to WalMart for a shopping expedition. While shopping in the Christmas section, I noticed a fully veiled female. I was taken aback a bit but then noticed she was an employee with a blue WalMart shirt on. I'm not talking a head scarf but a full on burka, with a full dress down to the feet. Only the eyes and the hands were visible. I thought for security reasons this was not allowed. For a moment I thought I was dreaming. Is anyone else seeing fully veiled females anywhere else let...

snip In other action today in Iraq, coalition forces operating near Baqubah engaged and killed four armed terrorists and detained 11 suspected terrorists during a raid that targeted individuals associated with al Qaeda. ... One of the 11 terrorists detained was hiding in a house dressed as a woman, pretending to nurse a baby, officials reported.snip

Holland is to become the first country in Europe to ban the burqa after the government announced plans to introduce legislation outlawing the head-to-toe Islamic garment "within days".The cabinet decreed yesterday that it posed a "terrorist threat" because it prevented the wearers' face being identified. The ban is likely to extend to all face-covering veils and prevent anyone "appearing in public with covered facial features". Rita Verdonk, the hard-line immigration minister known as "Iron Rita", has made no secret of her dislike of the garment, which she believes "aids and abets the repression of women". Calling it "a danger to...

Legal advisers and solicitors may wear the Islamic veil in court unless it interferes with the "interests of justice", judges have been told. The judiciary were told to use their discretion to interpret the temporary guidance, which covers all courts. The advice was issued by immigration tribunals chief Mr Justice Hodge after a case had to be halted when a legal adviser refused to remove her veil. The Lord Chief Justice said full rules on the veils issue were being drawn up. Case adjourned Earlier this week it emerged legal adviser Shabnam Mughal had refused to remove her headwear during...

   Full-face ... lawyer dressed in veil like this one    EXCLUSIVE  Trial halted over lawyer's veil By JOHN SCOTTNovember 07, 2006           AN immigration tribunal was halted yesterday after a lawyer twice refused a judge’s request to remove her veil.  Shabnam Mughal was dressed from head to foot in black with a full-face veil leaving just her eyes visible.Miss Mughal was acting for Sikh businessman Jagdev Singh in his appeal against the Home Office’s refusal to grant his nephew permission to visit the UK.She was asked to remove the veil by tribunal chairman George Glossop during...

The new look for Britain’s hospitalsTHIS is the latest look coming to our NHS hospitals – a burka-style gown for patients. Instead of standard issue clothing, women who want to cover up because of their faith are to be offered the striking turquoise garment. Although welcomed by doctors as a breakthrough to encourage Muslim women to seek treatment, critics last night said the move was "another example of political correctness". The "Inter-faith gown" is being piloted at Royal Preston Hospital after complaints from women that regulation dress was too revealing. Hospitals across the country are also being offered the £12...

A MUSLIM woman was prevented from getting on a bus in Greater Manchester because she would not remove her veil. The 22-year-old Manchester University student from Oldham says other passengers laughed when the driver refused to let her on because he could not check her identity with her bus pass. Now the driver's bosses at First Manchester are to meet with their trade association, the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), to seek advice on how to deal with the problem if other passengers with photo passes refuse to lift their veils. Advertisement your story continues below They say they have...

A journalist dressed in a Muslim burka was not required to reveal her face to Copenhagen airport security A reporter from daily newspaper B.T. dressed in a burka was able to pass through at Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport without being asked to reveal her face to security personnel. Burkas are an item of Muslim clothing worn by women and exposing only the hands and eyes of their wearers. B.T.'s female reporter was required only to pull down the outfit's veil past her nose when passing through the security checkpoint. The reporter flew from Copenhagen to London Stansted airport, where she was...