If I were a Western female, I would wear a veil in protest

Anti-Muslim fanaticism in the West is racist hypocrisy.

Frankly, I care for Islam as much as I care for Christianity, probably even less. But I absolutely abhor the despicable current wave of anti-Islamic sentiment which is largely a beat-up of conservative politicians, transnational corporations and communications media that crave nothing more than a good controversy and a good war to raise their power and financial standing.

In Western countries like France, Australia, the USA and the UK, there is a veritable jihad against traditional Muslim clothing. Read about the UK's Jack Straw controversy. Prominent politician and Leader of the UK House of Commons Jack Straw says he refuses to talk to any woman who wears a veil. I challenge Mr Straw about his hypocrisy in this. Wedding veils are a significant and traditional industry in Western countries. You can see 'nice people' wearing them any weekend in any city in any Western country.

So Sheikh Hilaly in Australia said some outrageous things. Don't read me wrong, dear reader, I have lived with Muslims in Australia for years and tend to find them much nicer and more hospitable people than many Christians, but I don't like what the sheikh said one bit, and I think that if a sheila wants to wear a veil, that's her own choice and she doesn't need a bloke to tell her.

But may I add: when I was a bit younger than today, most of what the Imam said was taught in my church (not mosque) -- a Baptist church in Sydney, Australia. And it was preached in Presbyterian, Methodist, Anglican churches -- almost any Christian church you care to name. We're talking about only one generation ago.

All the women and girls in my youth had to wear hats and gloves to go to church, for so the Bible proclaimed, apparently. Just as we teenage boys were forbidden to grow hair longer than short-back-and-sides (army fashion) because St Paul said it was sinful, just as it was sinful for a woman to have short hair. Painfully do I remember the wounding battles I had with Christian family, elders, preachers and my peers over the length of my hair, which barely touched my forehead and collar but apparently doomed me to eternal torment in Hell.

And not so long ago, seven days a week the women and girls had to wear 'modest' clothing. Except on beaches, Australians didn't see a woman's cleavage in public until about 1995. (Damn shame.) Yet I don't recall anyone in my youth calling for the deportation of our church elders and preachers for telling females that if they dressed sexy, they might have problems. These elders and preachers, with their old-fashioned ideas, were in fact pronounced leaders of the community. It's not so long ago.

As a kid, I lived near a Roman Catholic convent. Every Saturday afternoon about 20 nuns in headgear (nuns' 'wimples') -- headgear almost identical to Islamic hijabs -- walked past my house on their weekly stroll. No one spat at them, no one demanded that they apologise for offending "Australan values". No one banned them from schools -- they taught in the bloody schools! Everyone (even we Protestants) nodded and smiled as they passd by, paying them great respect. No one suggested that they were inciting anything un-Australian by wearing those burqa-like costumes. It's just one generation ago, dear reader.

If I were a Western female, I would wear a veil in protest
Enough of the Whiteman bullshit, superiority, arrogance and hypocrisy. I think that if f I were a Western woman, I would wear a veil just to get up the noses of the bigots. I wish Western women would show such solidarity, and I wish Western men would show a bit of cultural respect. And, certainly, yes, I wish Muslim imams would catch up with the West, but they're only about 25 years behind where the Protestants and Catholics were, so enough already with the slanders and incongruities from amnesiac self-righteous Westerners. It's racism far more than it is culturalism -- because most Muslims, let's face it, are 'tinted'.

Tagged: islam, christianity, australia, fundamentalism, racism, hijab, clothing