Toronto’s fourth Journey of Faith Conference. Where you too can find tolerance through Islam’s Revelations and Prophetic Traditions!

Written by Grace

As the Toronto Star makes a brief mention of the Journey of Faith conference in Toronto this weekend, Xtra!, Canada’s gay and lesbian news offers a more in depth look into the organizations promotion of ” the understanding of Islam through the Revelations and the Prophetic Traditions.

While hundreds of thousands will be celebrating Pride this weekend, down the street the Metro Toronto Convention Centre an Ontario Crown Corporation, will play host to the popular, annual religious conference. Last year’s Journey of Faith conference saw over 10,000 Muslims and a scattering of non-muslims in attendance, all eager to take in themany speeches of renowned Islamic scholars from around the world.

If you’re at all confused by Islam, are a non-muslim interested in learning more about the faith or ever wanted to see what Islam truly teaches and what its values and principles are, the organizers at Journey of Faith extend a special invitation just for you! Forget Gay Pride-this is the place to be. Admission is free for non-Muslims and all are welcome to bring the kids, enjoy the crafts bazzar, assorted treats and who knows- maybe you’ll be lucky enough to sheikh hands with some prominent speakers imported from abroad.

So take some diversity time before lunch on Saturday or break away on Sunday to learn more about the most ‘misunderstood religion on earth’. Get to know some scholars and what they preach. Unsure of what to see first? How about taking in Dr. Bilal Philip’s lecture entitled Emman Town. The Journey of Faith site describes it as:

“Imagine a city of Faith, teeming with religious conviction, compassion, and cooperation. Dr. Bilal Philips will impart the blueprint of Madeenatur-Rasool (the city of the Prophet) to help us transform our homes, Mosques, schools and entire societies into powerhouses of Emaan, gleaming with and spreading the light of Islam. Join Dr. Bilal for the communal change of a lifetime”.

This esteemed popular scholar, teacher and author was born Dennis Bradley Philips in Kingston, Jamaica. At age 11 he moved to Canada settling down with his family. Before his conversion to Islam in 1972 he was a Communist Party activist. He graduated from the Islamic University of Medina with a BA and later obtained an MA in Islamic theology from the King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He now lives in Qatar and comes back to Canada to occasionally lecture. Continue Reading →

East End “Gay Free Zone” sticker man Mohammed Hasnath busted, fined

From The Telegraph U.K.

Muslim fanatic fined £100 for ‘gay free zone’ stickers.

A Muslim fanatic who posted homophobic stickers declaring London’s East End a “gay free zone” has been fined £100.

1:18PM BST 01 Jun 2011

Mohammed Hasnath, 18, posted stickers warning gays that homosexuality was wrong and that “Allah is severe in punishment”.

The stickers showed a rainbow flag with a black line through it stating “Gay free zone”.

They caused outrage among the community, with one Jewish resident said it reminded him of Nazi signs his mother had faced in the 30s declaring an area a “Jew free zone”.

Others said it made them fearful for their safety.

Hasnath, who is on benefits, admitted putting up a handful of the notes but said he had been given them, and pointed out there were “hundreds” of similar offensive stickers in the area.

Darren Watts, prosecuting, said: “This is in relation to a series of homophobic stickers put up around the East End area in February.”

The stickers, which were posted at Bow Church DLR, on the inside of a bus, at a bus stop in Whitechapel and outside the Royal London Hospital, showed a rainbow flag with a black line through it.

Above the flag was printed “Arise and warn” and below it said “And fear Allah: Verily Allah is severe in punishment.” Both were followed by references to the English version of the Koran.

Mr Watts told Westminster Magistrates Court that Hasnath was arrested after he was spotted on CCTV putting up the sticker at Bow Church and confessed to police he had also been handing them out to young Muslim men in the area.

“He said this was because in the Koran it was forbidden for any person to be a homosexual and as a practising Muslim it was against his religion,” Mr Watts said.

“These stickers have deeply upset many of the community in and around the area.”

In a statement read to the court Jack Gilbert, a board member of the Sandy Row Synagogue and co chair of the Rainbow Hamlets community forum, said: “For me I read this no differently from a sign that said ‘Jew free zone’.

“When I see that sticker I see the signs my mother saw in the 1930s which actually carried less suggestion of punishment.

“For me I perceived an immediate threat of violence and had to make an instant risk assessment to my personal safety.”

A retired resident in the local area made a statement saying: “I was deeply shocked and decided to remove it as it immediately struck me as deeply offensive contained a implied threat of violence.”

The statement of a police officer working in the East End read to the court added: “I felt upset and offended. It made me feel I shouldn’t be working in the area and it should be a gay free zone.

“As far as I am concerned I should feel free and at peace to work in my community.”

When told the allegation against him of a public order offence of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour between February 11 and 14 Hasnath said: “But I just put up stickers, I didn’t harass or swear at anybody or anything.”

Hasnath, who was representing himself, pleaded guilty to the offence.

When asked by District Judge Jeremy Coleman what he had to say for himself Hasnath said: “Basically, some people just handed them to me so I just put them up. I didn’t say anything, it doesn’t say that I am going to punish them it just says what God says in the Koran.

“I wasn’t the one who made them, some people gave them to me and I only put up a few, there were hundreds of them up. I didn’t know the police were going to get involved or that it was a offence or anything.”

Hasnath, who lives with his family in Tower Hamlets and survives on job seekers allowance, was fined £100, ordered to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge. The offence could not carry a custodial sentence.

District Judge Coleman said: “I think you used these stickers deliberately to offend and distress people, you certainly succeeded in doing that.

“You have upset people and they deserve an apology, you are not entitled to behave in this way.”

The court heard that Hasnath is on bail for allegedly defacing a women’s fashion advertising board.

 

 

 

Religious groups protest secular laws in Tunisia

Story Published: Apr 1, 2011 at 1:00 PM PDT CATU.COM

Story Updated: Apr 1, 2011 at 1:00 PM PDT

Religious groups protest secular laws in TunisiaTunisian demonstrators pray near the Prime Minister’s office as they stage a protest calling for the resignation of Tunisia’s Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi in Tunis, Friday, Feb. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Salah Habibi)

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) – Police fired tear gas Friday on stone-throwing youths in Tunisia’s capital after a demonstration by hundreds of Islamists protesting the country’s secular laws.

The violence at the end of a day of peaceful, small protests disrupted a period of relative calm in the North African country, where an uprising ousted the longtime president in January and prompted revolts around the Arab world.

It was unclear whether anyone was injured or arrested in the clash.

Protesters held two demonstrations in Tunis on Friday, one by a group demanding more economic freedoms and another by young Islamists shouting “God is great” and other religious slogans.

Their demonstration came as the Interior Ministry announced Friday that women are no longer required to take off headscarves for official state ID cards. The Islamist protesters want the government to remove restrictions on the headscarf in public buildings and other measures.

A strong secular flavor pervades this former French colony, partly because ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his predecessor, Habib Bourguiba, kept Islamists in check.

Even though 98 percent of the population are Muslims, only a minority of women wear Islamic headscarves, and Friday, the Muslim day of rest and special prayer, is part of the Tunisian work week.

Police showed up in force Friday to ring the historic Casbah to try to prevent violence at the planned protests. The Casbah saw tensions during protests earlier this year, in which scores of people were killed when police under Ben Ali’s hard-line regime fired on protesters.

Friday’s demonstrations were mostly peaceful, with a few hundred people, including Islamists in white prayer caps.

In the evening groups of youth marched near the Casbah and clashed with police, who responded with volleys of tear gas.

Karin Laub in Tunis contributed to this report.

THE CELL NEXT DOOR, THE TORONTO 18

The story about home grown terrorism in Canada, in which 18 mostly Muslim men stand accused of wanting to stage bombing attacks on public targets, including the offices of the Canadian Intelligence Service.

Click here to view the vid.

NOTE: Remember folks, this Muslim “hero”, is as dangerous as the men he’s helped to deliver to the Canadian authorities. He would like nothing better for the Islamization of Canada. The documentary only focuses on the violent terrorists.

Phyllis Chesler: ‘Turning a blind eye to Islam’s brutal treatment of women’.

From The National Post, Full Comment

Phyllis Chesler: Turning a blind eye to Islam’s brutal treatment of women

National Post, March 12, 2011 – 7:03 AM ET/Last Updated: March 12, 2011 5:10 AM ET

http://www.nationalpost.com/ Phyllis Chesler in New York City

My feminist generation believed in universal human rights — one standard for all. I still do. Therefore, I have taken a strong stand against the persecution of immigrant women and dissidents. I now submit affidavits on behalf of women who have fled the threat of such killings and who are seeking asylum in the United States.

Those of us who condemn the plight of such women, who are mainly Muslims and ex-Muslims, have been demonized in activist circles as “Islamophobes” and racists because we do not, in the same breath, blame America, the West or Israel for their suffering. Many Western academic feminists are so afraid of being condemned as “racists” that this fear trumps their concern for women’s rights in the Arab and Muslim world.

Islamic gender apartheid, which has penetrated the West, is characterized by normalized daughter- and wife-battering, forced veiling, female genital mutilation, polygamy, purdah (the segregation or sequestration of women), arranged marriage, child marriage and first-cousin marriage. Girls and women often are honour-murdered if they resist such practices, if they wish to divorce a dangerously abusive husband, or if they are viewed as too independent, too modern.

Today, at its most extreme, Islamic gender apartheid is characterized by acid attacks, public stonings, hangings, and beheading of women in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Saudi Arabia — countries in which female rape victims are jailed, tortured and executed.

Feminists should be crying out from the rooftops against these practices. Some are. I am. Yet, many Muslims, as well as many intellectually “progressive” Western infidels, are not. They are welcoming the imposition of Islamic religious law, Sharia law, not only in the Middle East but also in the West. Continue Reading →

Mosque school arrest following Channel 4 documentary

From The Guardian:

h/t to Bains

Police act after alleged assault on child as second mosque featured in film is forced to close amid far-right attack fears

Channel 4 Dispatches A clip from the Channel 4 documentary. Photograph: C4 TV/PAPolice have arrested a man concerning alleged assaults on children at a mosque after viewing a Channel 4 documentary screened on Monday.

Dispatches, Lessons in Hate and Violence, secretly filmed a man apparently hitting and kicking children during Qu’ran lessons at a school in the Markazi Jamia mosque at Keighley, West Yorkshire.

An Islamic school in Birmingham in the same documentary, where a preacher was filmed making offensive remarks about non-Muslims, said it would close early for half-term, amid fears pupils could be the target of far-right groups.

West Yorkshire police issued a statement regarding the arrest: “We have recently become aware of a number of incidents of alleged assault at a mosque and just before the weekend were able to view edited footage of the alleged incident. One man has been arrested and released on police bail pending further inquiries. West Yorkshire police are receiving full co-operation from the Keighley Muslim Association who are working with us in support of the inquiry.” Continue Reading →

Canada: Tory MP wants veiled voting banned

From The National Post

Tory MP wants veiled voting banned

4268216.bin.jpg

A Conservative MP introduced a private member’s bill on Friday that would require Canadians to show their faces before they vote.

Laura Stone, Postmedia News · Friday, Feb. 11, 2011

OTTAWA — A Conservative MP introduced a private member’s bill on Friday that would require Canadians to show their faces before they vote.

Steven Blaney, who represents the Quebec riding of Levis-Bellechasse, said the bill would fix a “gap”in the electoral system and is not meant to discriminate against Muslims.

“For me it is important that we all share this transparency,”said Blaney. “We are all proud to live in this country, we are all proud to share (its) basic principles. I think one of these basic principles is transparency through our election and democratic process, so that’s why I’m presenting this bill and it is applying to everybody and treating everybody in the same way,” he said.

Blaney steered clear of mentioning Islamic head coverings such as burkas or niqabs in his press conference to introduce the bill, instead drawing on examples such as Halloween and ski masks that he said Canadians have donned while attempting to vote.

He also said that while citizens are still allowed to vote by mail, his bill only addresses the process of voting at an election booth. The bill includes an exception for medical reasons.

Elections Canada has an “administrative procedure”in place for validating identities when faces are covered, said spokesman John Enright.

The voter can remove the face-covering in private, or swear an oath of eligibility certifying that they are qualified electors as well as providing two pieces of identification. Anyone who refuses to remove the covering or say the oath will not be permitted to vote, said Enright.

In 2007, both the Conservative federal government and the Quebec government announced they would introduce legislation to ban veiled voting after Elections Canada ruled Muslim women could vote with their faces covered during Quebec byelections. Ottawa passed a law that year which required voters to produce identification, although not necessarily containing a photo if two pieces of ID bearing the voter’s address were presented.

The Quebec government adopted in 2007 the law to compel all voters to uncover their faces. The Conservatives dropped their plans in 2009 amid opposition dissent, although the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois originally supported the decision.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he disagrees with the Elections Canada procedure outlined by Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand.

According to Elections Canada, there has not been a single instance of an individual attempting to vote with their face covered since 2007.

Postmedia News

Europe no longer marks meat as halal, ending all the gains by animal rights groups.

Yet the leftists still support Islam and Muslims over all else. Islam is inherently anti women’s rights, antisemitic (No stupid word games please we all know what this means) anti homosexual in a big way (unless of course it is with children) and clearly anti animal rights yet the left, which claims the victories on all these subjects, still supports Islam.

Europeans must demand the right to know if the meat they are buying was killed and processed in accordance with Western humane methods. They must demand it to governments, the respective agencies and the stores that sell the meat.

From The Hudson Inst. NYC:

(H/T A Millar)

Robert Sibley: “Don’t blame the West”.

From The Ottawa Citizen

By Robert Sibley, Ottawa Citizen January 3, 2011.

Don’t blame the West

The ‘root causes’ of Islamist terrorism do not lie in poverty or western imperialism, but an age old conflict between reason and revelation

During the last decade of Islamist terrorism, numerous commentators, particularly those on the left, have adopted a materialist approach to explain why some Muslims want to slaughter guests at hotels in Mumbai or detonate bombs at Christmas festivals in Sweden.

Terrorism, they argue, is rooted in poverty, frustration over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and memories of western imperialism. In other words, so the argument goes, the West itself is to blame for terrorism. If only the West would apologize, make reparations, abandon Israel, leave the Middle East and Afghanistan, all would be well. Or at least that’s where the root-cause crowd’s assumptions logically lead.

The problem with this materialist view of terrorism is that it largely misses the spiritual motivations that inform Islamist geo-politics. As political theorist Barry Cooper argues in his book, New Political Religions, or, An Analysis of Modern Terrorism, the Islamists, like the Nazis and Communists, are motivated more by a “disease of the spirit” than materialist aspirations. “When ordinary human beings see themselves as specially chosen by God, or even as gods themselves, they are not necessarily psychopaths, but they most definitely are spiritually disordered.”

Cooper draws on Eric Voegelin, a 20th-century political philosopher who coined the term “pneumopathology” to account for the spiritual diseases of the modern world. Voegelin argued that some people — politicians, intellectuals, journalists, for example — prefer to see the world as a projection of their desires rather than comprehend its reality. Such fabulists effectively live in what Voegelin called a “second-order reality.” If they acquire power they all-too-often pursue extreme measures — genocide, gulags, crashing airplanes into buildings — to transform the world to suit their fantasies of perfection.

In the case of the Islamists, they imagine Islam spreading across the globe and the establishment of a worldwide caliphate based on shariah law. They see themselves empowered by Allah to bring about this new world order by destroying a civilization they regard as spiritually empty. Thus, Islamism constitutes a political religion of apocalyptic proportions. Continue Reading →

The Sharia Shack: Toronto halal restaurant seats women in separate section.

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This story first came to light when posted on Small Dead Animals, one of Canada’s more influential blogs, thanks to a reader who sent in the photograph. It appears the owners and operators of Juba Restaurant feel perfectly comfortable applying sharia standards in a public establishment. Canadian values do not support gender segregation; men and women are considered equal in all aspects of life, with legal statutes firmly in place reflecting this societal value. Sharia law considers gender mixing unIslamic, so it stands to reason that the good Muslims over at Juba’s sharia shack would defy both the value of gender equality and the laws supporting it.

Purdah, the separation of men and women, is based upon the central theme of Namus (honour) and is expected in public in many Islamic countries. Religious Saudis believe it is forbidden for a woman to eat in public as part of her veil would have to be removed to do so, revealing her face which would compromise purdah. For this reason, segregation is especially strict in restaurants and it is common for establishments to have defined areas for women only often marked as “family” and “women section only”. It is common to see western restaurant chains with both separate entrances and seating sections as they too, must abide by sharia standards. This McDonald’s in Riyhad comes complete with a segregated section where women must sit in the “family” section.

File-McDonald's_branch,_Takkassusi_street,_Riyadh,_Saudi_Arabia.jpg

Sharia law is not legal in Canada. and this is not Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan or any other country where sharia is the standard. This is Canada where Islamic law finds little, if any respect.

I might add, restaurants in Canada have been declared public property, and that was the entire basis for the now nation wide smoking bans. If a restaurant is considered public property, even though I do not believe it is, for the purpose of social engineering, then surely the kind of gender apartheid, (using the word correctly for once) being applied in this restaurant must be illegal and certainly should be stopped. This will only encourage Muslim men who are trying to make certain that women from Muslim nations will not and cannot integrate into Western society, and make it that much easier to force them to standards here in Canada, that should not apply even in the Islamic Magreb.

Stoning 101; the anatomy of barbarism.

From The National Post

November 20, 2010 – 10:11 am

Graphic: Anatomy of a stoning

In Saturday’s National Post we look at the brutal practice of stoning. This method of execution is still practiced in certain countries, notably Iran, where it is used to punish adulterers and other criminals. The graphic below looks at how a stoning occurs (click on graphic for a full-size version):

Part one

Adam McDowell, Asmahan Giarrit, Jonathon Rivait, Richard Johnson/National Post

Part two

Adam McDowell, Asmahan Giarrib, Jonathon Rivait, Richard Johnson/National Post

Britain: Islam channel condones rape, cites women as whores

From The Daily Mail U.K.

Britain’s Islam Channel rapped for advocating marital rape and calling women prostitutes

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:17 PM on 9th November 2010

A Muslim religious channel that allowed presenters to condone marital rape and call women who wear perfume in mosques ‘prostitutes’ has been censured by the TV watchdog.

In one programme, the host told viewers that it was ‘not strange’ and ‘not such a big problem’ for a man to force his wife to have sex.

Ofcom ruled the Islam Channel, which broadcasts on Sky, breached the broadcasting code in five programmes between May 2008 and October 2009.

Censured: The Islam Channel condoned domestic violence and called women who wear perfume in mosques 'prostitutes' Censured: The Islam Channel condoned domestic violence and called women who wear perfume in mosques ‘prostitutes’

A phone-in show in May 2008, in which a female caller asked if she had the right to hit a violent husband back, was deemed in breach of the code.

The presenter at one point stated: ‘In Islam we have no right to hit the woman in a way that damages her eye or damages her tooth or damages her face or makes her ugly.

‘Maximum what you can do, you can see the pen over here, in my hand, this kind of stick can be used just to make her feel that you are not happy with her.’

Ofcom said it considered the presenter was clear some form of physical punishment was acceptable.

A discussion programme in April 2009 on sexual relations within marriage was found to have breached guidelines, as was a programme in October 2009 in which it was said women who wore perfume outside the home could be declared ‘a prostitute’.

Breaching broadcasting guidelines: Regulator Ofcom ruled that discussions containing contentious views on violence against women and marital rape on Islam TV were against broadcasting guidelinesBreaching broadcasting guidelines: Regulator Ofcom ruled that discussions containing contentious views on violence towards women and marital rape on Islam TV were against broadcasting guidelines

In a submission to the report, the Islam Channel said it ‘does not condone or encourage violence towards women under any circumstances’ and ‘does not condone or encourage marital rape’.

Two further programmes in October 2009 relating to aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were found to have breached the code relating to impartiality in political matters.

Ofcom previously imposed a statutory sanction on the channel in 2007 for various breaches.

The findings followed an inquiry begun after allegations were laid against the TV station by a moderate Islamic think tank, the Quilliam Foundation.

The Islam Channel, launched six years ago, has been accused in the past of giving airtime to extreme views, including those of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a group that Tony Blair said he wanted to ban in the aftermath of the 2005 London transport bombings.

Joke of the year: Iran and Saudia Arabia seat contenders for UN Women’s Agency

From CNS News

Late Entry May Foil Iran’s Bid for a Seat on Board of New U.N. Women’s Agency Wednesday, November 10, 2010
By Patrick Goodenough

(CNSNews.com) – Iran has some unexpected competition in its bid to be elected to the executive board of the new United Nations agency tasked with promoting the equality of women.

East Timor, one of the smallest countries in the Asia regional group, say it also will run for a seat on the board of U.N. Women.

Earlier the Asia regional group approved only 10 countries for the 10 seats earmarked for Asia on the 41-member board, which will approve projects and budgets for U.N. Women. That uncontested slate would have assured Iran of a spot in Wednesday’s vote.

A list of candidates provided to CNSNews Tuesday night shows that East Timor does not have the Asia group’s endorsement. Nonetheless its candidacy offers countries that object to Iran being on the board the opportunity to direct their votes elsewhere.

Queries sent to East Timor’s foreign ministry and its mission to the U.N. brought no response by press time.

Several other countries whose treatment of women has raised concerns among women’s rights advocacy groups do look set to get posts on the board, however.

They include Saudi Arabia, which is not standing on the Asia slate but is one of two countries (Mexico being the other) nominated for two seats set aside for emerging donor countries.

Among others with poor records on women’s rights and equality are Libya, Ethiopia and Cote d’Ivoire, all standing in the Africa group, which has put up a clean slate (10 candidates for 10 available seats); and Pakistan, one of the countries in the running for the Asia seats.

“We are relieved to know that the Asia group is in the end not offering Iran a free pass to the U.N. Women’s board and now has 11 candidates for 10 seats,” Philippe Bolopion, U.N. advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said in response to queries Tuesday.

“In our view, what sets Iran apart is not just its dismal record on women’s rights but also the fact that it’s aggressively going after women’s rights advocates who dare to speak out against discriminatory laws in the country,” he added.

“Iran has time and again shown outright hostility to the very objectives U.N. Women was born to realize, and certainly should not be elected to its board.”

Wednesday’s vote will not involve the full 192-nation U.N. General Assembly but the 54-member Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the U.N. organ that coordinates socio-economic and related affairs.

Like other U.N. bodies, ECOSOC is itself constituted along geographical lines, which has an impact on voting patterns: Africa controls 14 votes, the Western group 13, Asia 11, Latin America and the Caribbean 10 and Eastern Europe six votes.

ECOSOC last April ushered Iran into another U.N. entity dealing with women’s issues, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

On that occasion, despite protests by more than 200 Iranian women’s rights activists, neither the U.S. nor any other member of ECOSOC raised an objection. As a result of their silence, Iran got the post “by acclamation.”

The Obama administration, a strong supporter of the new agency, has spoken out against Iran’s U.N. Women bid.

No suitability criteria

Officially called the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, U.N. Women will consolidate the work previously done by four separate U.N. divisions dealing with women’s issues.

Four months after it was established by the U.N. to great acclaim, the prospect of countries with poor records on women’s rights getting seats on the board has caused dismay.

The exiled Iranian rights activist and Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi told a press conference in New York Tuesday that giving places on the board to countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia was “like a joke.”

“This is a critical point for this agency, as it starts its work,” she said.

The France-based opposition group, National Council of Resistance of Iran, called Iran’s candidacy “an insult to all Iranian women and all women’s rights advocates around the world” and urged countries not to support the “misogynous regime.”

Thirty-five of the board’s members will come from the U.N.’s five regional groups. The remaining six seats are earmarked for contributing countries – four for the largest funders of the U.N. Women budget and two for developing state contributors (the category in which Saudi Arabia is a candidate).

The only criteria laid down for membership on the board are those relating to regional group and contribution status. The agency’s founding resolution contains no further requirements – for instance, that countries are expected or urged to nominate and vote for candidates with strong records on women’s rights.

“The question of who gets to sit on the board overseeing U.N. Women is a matter that is left up to member states,” Farhan Haq, a spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, confirmed during a briefing Tuesday.

“We respect the right of member states to elect their own members of the board, and of course, it is certainly up to them.”

Haq added that all member states were expected “to uphold fundamental human rights.”

One current measure of suitability against which candidates for the U.N. Women board could be judged is a recently-released World Economic Forum report on the “Global Gender Gap,” a rating of how successfully countries have closed gaps between women and men in economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival.

Out of 134 countries rated in the 2010 report, both Iran and Saudi Arabia were placed near the bottom, at positions 123rd and 129th respectively.

Other candidates in Wednesday’s election that scored badly in the Global Gender Gap were Pakistan (132nd place), Cote d’Ivoire (130th) and Ethiopia (121st).

Not all countries were rated; Libya and East Timor were among those not assessed.

Scotland: No men allowed in ‘halal’ hair salon.

From Herald Scotland, courtesy TROP

Now it’s halal hairdressing: a snip for Scottish Muslims

  • Mahida Iqbal
  • Mahida Iqbal struck on the idea of a ladies-only salon after offering an at-home hair service to her Muslim customers.

Exclusive: Helen McArdle

24 Oct 2010

With its frosted windows, CCTV cameras, and tightly monitored security entrance, it is going to be one of Aberdeen’s most secretive business enterprises.

So, you could be forgiven for wondering if the shop has something to hide.

Well, it does – its customers. Or rather it is the customers who want to remain hidden. For this is Scotland’s first ‘halal hairdressers’ – a beauty salon which conforms to the strict rules of Islam; a place were Muslim women who wear the veil or headscarf can be seen uncovered without the risk of the gaze of men.

Discreet Creative Hairdressing, scheduled to open in three weeks, is the brainchild of 21-year-old Mahida Iqbal and her husband of nine months, Fueb Mieh.

The salon will be a ‘man-free zone’. The frosted windows will stop any inquisitive men passing by from gawping at the clients. No-one can get in without passing through a secure buzzer entry system with CCTV. All this means that the Muslim ladies who have come for a new hair-do can remove their headscarves safe in the knowledge that only other women can see them.

Our salon is completely discreet, completely hidden from the public, from men, whereas the salons here, men still walk past and they can still see in or come in.

Mahida Iqbal

Iqbal hit on the idea when she began wearing the headscarf for the first time last year, although she credits her husband – a fellow entrepreneur who runs Indian takeaways – for coming up with the proposal.

“At first I was just going to open up a hair salon that was going to be ladies-only,” said Iqbal. “But then my husband suggested I should target the Muslim community because there isn’t a salon yet in Aberdeen that provides these services.” She spoke to Muslim women who wanted a ‘halal’ service, but had nowhere to go. “So I used to go and do homers for the ladies, or they would come to my house.”

While there are other salons in Scotland which offer a ladies-only service, Iqbal wants to offer something geared to the needs of the Muslim community.

She said: “There are hair salons in Glasgow that are ladies-only, but not like our salon. Our salon is completely discreet, completely hidden from the public, from men, whereas the salons here, men still walk past and they can still see in or come in. Ours has a buzzer entry system, and we’ve got CCTV so that we can see who’s actually approaching the door.

“We can allow people in and if there is a man there then we won’t let him in. And there’s the window frosting as well. There’s a big population in Aberdeen that are Muslim. There’s Pakistani, Bengali, African, black American, Arabic – there’s a very large Muslim community. And me myself, attending mosque and attending Muslim events, I’ve got to know a lot of the Muslim ladies, so I’m hoping to generate a lot of business by word of mouth.”

However, Iqbal is not content to stop at hair-styling alone. Her salon will be a haven to a whole range of the pampering needs for Muslim women, with a variety of specialist beauty techniques such as henna tattooing and facial threading – an ancient hair-removal technique – also on offer.

“We’ve got an African hair stylist because afro hair is different from European hair, so she’s going to be doing braiding and taking care of African clients. We’re going to have a make-up artist, a beautician, a nail technician, a henna artist, a threading specialist, and teeth whitening as well.”

“It is somewhere where customers can feel comfortable, feel pampered and relaxed, knowing that no-one is going to come in and disturb them,” Iqbal added. “Muslim husbands can feel relaxed knowing that their wife is safe, where no man is going to be able to see them, and then they can come home and show their beauty. Muslim clients have never experienced this ever. It’s a great feeling.”