Protest in SF Against French Hijab Ban

When is the march protesting Muslim oppression of Christians in the Sudan going to take place? Is that one next week?

"We together with the people of Iran, see the law of hijab (Islamic veil) as violation of our most basic rights. We see how Islam is enforcing sexual apartheid in the society, we see how Islamic law on marriage perpetuates rape of children, we see how Islamic law of eye for an eye and stoning is ruining the lives of millions of people in Iran? The list is endless. We regard the whole philosophy of Islamic government in violation of human and civil rights. Contrary to your explanation, there is a whole world of contradiction between political Islam and human rights. There is no common ground between women's and children's rights and Islam. Your statement not only refuses to address these issues, but by endorsing, it paves the way to consolidating the very cause of violation of human rights in Iran." read the whole thing

charles and his gang of zionist thugs and racist creeps are planning to infiltrate our meeting. they've done this before, and posted our pictures on their sites. littlegreenfootballs fronts as a "graphic design company" but it is actually a start-up of cjc/uja or some branch thereof.
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/

P.S. Be very careful of these people. They are racist to the n'th degree. They preach hate against all muslims and support the ongoing genocide in palestine. Anyone who shows up to our meeting should be questioned.

Dear Good People,

Do not worry. France is on our side. This is all
a sop to the Americans and will be forgotten
shortly.

Genocide on the West Bank, total lie. If there was genocide, then all the Palestinian and the human excrement like you would be dead, no big loss. Gee, didn't your scumbag, fascist palestinian and arab brothers once support Hitler and vowed to exterminate the Jews? I thought you were protesting France. Why should the leftists pigs care about some medieval, backwards religion anyways? Why do the leftist pigs always support totalitarian third world garbage and hate Israel and America so much? If you are so concerned about religious freedom, then why don't you cowardly, brainless, post hippy detritus help the non-conformist Muslims and other different religious folks who get murdered and persecuted in Islamic countries? Why don't you cowardly hypocrites go picket the Iranian or Saudi consulate? You make a big stink of how tolerant you are,look at how those countries treat women and homosexuals!

No. You people don't support religious intollerance, just intollerance of Christianity and Jews.

As long as it is anti-Christian or anti-Jewish, you support it.

So go ahead an show your "support" for Islam. Hope you never have to live in an Islamic Republic yourselves.

When the Muslims take over. Read some history and the their "bible." They hate the left as much as they do Jews. I forgot, young girls and boys will be kept, they have uses for them.

Why did you allow people to display the flag of Saudi Arabia at your protest? Why weren't you protesting at the Saudi embassy too, because they don't allow Bhuddism, Christianity, Hinduism or Judaism to be practiced within their kingdom!? At least France has elections, but your moral outrage and principles seem highly subjective. Next time, protest all who oppose religious freedom, including Islamic tyrants.

"When the Muslims take over. "
Someone is being paranoid.

Of course France's human rights record is better than most countries in the Middle East, but thats why people are concerned that religious symbols are being banned. If someone's religion says they must wear something than a government should have a very good reason to be able to ban it. France is also banning Jewish students from wearing yarmulkas. That should bother people too.

Have you people ever marched for the rights of religious minorities in Saudi Arabia, Iran for an example? Have you ever marched against Christian slavery in the Sudan? Have you ever thought for a single moment about what the Iranian dissident is telling you?

Probably not. Though I am sure you'll be deleting these comments anyways.

Go ahead, promote sexual apartheid.

There is a difference between requiring one gender to wear a religious garb and outlawing it. Should it be illegal for men to wear yarmulkas in American schools? France's proposed law is dangerous since one expects more from Western democracies if they are to set an example for the rest of the world. A protest against this law in France make more sense than a protest against Saudi Arabia since the protest against France is an appeal to the French public as well as the government. The Saudi royal familly would not be effected in the least if there were protests here against the opressive religous laws there.

That said, there SHOULD be protests here against the proposed religious laws in Iraq that look like they will take away many rights from women.
see
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/01/1667862.php
and
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/01/1667909.php
Unlike Saudi Arabia, Iraq is under US control so a protest here could make a difference.

"That said, there SHOULD be protests here against the proposed religious laws in Iraq that look like they will take away many rights from women."

I absolutely agree with that statement. However, I am disgusted with the left's willingness to jump on the "anything Islamic bandwagon." How many women in France's suburbs have to indure gang rape before you admitt there is a problem. You (the collective) are concerned with the right to wear a hajib in a school, yet indiffent to the consequences for not wearing one in private.

Islam is enemy #1 for women. A woman in Iran is about to be executed for killing a man who attempted to rape her. A woman in Nigeria is about to receive 100 lashes after being raped by her father.

Tired of this "radical, fashionable, Islamic chic." Young, white kaffiyeh wearing brats are today's brown-shirts.

ISLAM DOES NOT PROTECT WOMEN, IT INSLAVES THEM!

Who runs this site, the Mossad?

http://watch.windsofchange.net/themes_75.htm

Secular Muslim is my favorite way in describing me. When me and myself sit to discuss the issues of religion and culture, we never fight.
Islam is that huge heritage of architecture – my grandfather’s court yard house, music – um kalthum and fayrooz, food – doolma and yabsah, colors – green palm trees and brown bricks, language – my love letters and quraan, poems – Sayyab and motanabbi, books Jaaberi and kanafani, smell and taste– bakhoor and hareesa, chai – abo el heel and noomi al basra, quraan – mosques and harmony, and .. me :”)
Maybe that’s why we can’t drop that heritage or hand it over easily to other people with long beards just because they are religious and me and my self are anti-religious. I mean,, where is the point? I don’t believe in the Islamic religion, but I am a part of the Islamic culture and society. My ex-girlfriend told me once “rayyyd .. you try to treat me in a modern way, but from deep inside I can feel the Islamic system in you”
I’m sure Kilroy will feel happy to call her as a witness in his trial.
But anyway ... the point that I am a secular person, I belong to the big seculars family, and all this crap about religions doesn’t move a hair on my body (it’s an Arabic expression).
But unexpectedly, the thing that made most of the hair on my head stand .. like some one being shocked by the so-called electricity, was when I heard the news about France and Belgium taking these ultra-stupid-shallow-decisions of veil / hijab !!! what the hell!!
I mean .. I find myself forced to criticize my secular tribe!! What the hell are you doing there??? This is not supposed to be OUR part of the game
I lived in Saudi Arabia for four years, in a small city in the south called Abha. And there .. the medieval-stupid-shallow-corrupted-government used to send religious men called “mtawwe” to insure all women will cover their bodies and look like black tents, I remember my mother – the sophisticated feminist engineer – putting that black thing on her, covering her head and face, to the point that no one can tell in which direction was she standing, these are the people whom WE (me and my secular cousins) must teach how to live and understand life

Did french people decide to hate freedom after McDonald’s changed the name of French fries to freedom fries?
Is it envy then? Haa?

I mean .. how the *falafel* did you decided to go and run after women to take off the stupid piece of cloth on their heads!! Where is the point??
Isn’t a punk allowed to come to school with his/her red head? Isn’t a Goth allowed to come with his black eyes? I mean!! Why do you start another fake battle between cultures out of nothing??
Doesn’t the UN crap speak about freedom of beliefs?? Isn’t that what WE are trying to convince the rest of the world of?
Don’t words like discrimination pull any triggers here? Ding ding?

Shame on you ..
SHAME ON YOU..

:: raed 6:05 PM [+] ::

http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/2004_01_01_dear_raed_archive.html#107443850139112810

"Islam is enemy #1 for women. A woman in Iran is about to be executed for killing a man who attempted to rape her. "

Certain interpretations of Islam are sexist as are certain interpretations of Christianity. When was the last time a woman in the US was executed for killing a man in self defense? I bet not that long ago. Don't blame Islam, blame fundamentalism. Why are there few secular Islamic countries? (there are a few like Turkey, Albania and some former Soviet Republics in Central Asia) The reason has less to do with religion than history. Western secular democracies are quite recent and just 100 years ago most European countries were not democratic or officially secular. Switzerland didnt give full voting rights to women until 1971. Yet one hears a lot these days about Islam and the oppression of women as if the problem was unique.

During the Civil Rights movement in the US, mainstream white Southern preachers used to quote the bible to justify segregation. But things have changed and you will hear few mainstream preachers saying those things today. Islamic societies can be reformed in a similar fashion. If you attack Islam as a religion and demonized it and try to say its a problem you are only making things worse. If you really care about secularism and the rights of women in Islamic countries you would be working with people in those countries to make things better. Attacks from the outside tend to make people more hardline in their views and is counterproductive.

On the issues of the French ban on religious symbols, I would think that this should be a clear cut issue of religious descrimination. It is an attack on Jews and Muslims since Christians are not required to wear yarmulkas or headscarves. It isnt about secularism. Schools in France have open celebrations of Christmas and Easter. Sure much of the religious content is taken out of the celebrations but to ban one religions symbols while pretending that more mainstream Christian symbols are not religious is hypocritical. The end result of the French ban will be a justification of oppression of religions around the world (if France is allowed to ban symbols of minority religions...). France's ban on headscarves will do more to setback the rights of religious minorities and women in the Middle East than it will do to advance secularism.

S.F. religious rally decries French plan

About 250 Muslims, Christians and Sikhs marched on the streets of San Francisco on Saturday to protest a proposed ban of religious symbols in French public schools, including the hijab, the Muslim head scarf that many of the protesting women wore.

The Bay Area protest, which started in front of City Hall and culminated in front of the French Consulate, is one of several similar rallies held Saturday in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, denouncing the proposed French ban. There also were protests in Los Angeles and New York City.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/7739835.htm

PARIS (Reuters) - France's small Sikh community grew confident on Wednesday its boys could continue to wear turbans to state schools after talks with officials to explain their headgear was not a religious symbol taboo under a looming ban.

http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp;:400edf8b:6986c05e259e8be?type=worldNews&locale=en_IN&storyID=4179520

Here's News for Cowboys: Bandanna Can Be Religious
By ELAINE SCIOLINO

Published: January 21, 2004


PARIS, Jan. 20 — And now for the bandanna ban.

The proposed French law prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols in public schools was initially interpreted to include Islamic head scarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses. Those were the three items singled out last month in a speech by President Jacques Chirac and in a report by a blue-ribbon commission on religion and the state.

Then the issue of the turbans worn by Sikhs was raised, as France's tiny Sikh community protested that its boys would quit school before removing their turbans.

On Tuesday, Luc Ferry, the minister of national education, went even further than Mr. Chirac, telling the National Assembly's legal affairs committee that any girl's bandanna that is considered a religious sign (as opposed to a fashion statement, presumably) will now be banned.

During the two-hour debate on the proposed ban, lawmakers wanted to know why the draft law was worded to ban "ostensibly" religious symbols and not everything that is "visibly" religious.

Mr. Ferry explained that the wording afforded the state the ability to broadly interpret what constitutes a religious symbol and prevent the possible subversion of the law. That's where the bandanna came in.

"If we had chosen the word `visible,' we could have seen the appearance of other signs," Mr. Ferry said. For that reason, he explained, "The bandanna, if it is presented by young girls as a religious sign, will be forbidden."

Mr. Ferry did not define what constituted a religious bandanna, how teachers would decide what was an "ostensible" sign of religion or how the new law would be enforced.

Asked to define a bandanna, an official assigned to deal with press inquiries in the ministry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: "There is no definition. It will be left to the discretion of the heads of schools."

The respected French Larousse dictionary defines a bandanna as "a small cotton square of lively colors, usually worn as a scarf."

When one deputy asked about beards, Mr. Ferry said that even they might be a no-no, Reuters reported. "As soon as it becomes a religious sign, it would fall under this law," Mr. Ferry was quoted as saying. Beards are required for Sikhs; some Muslim and Jewish men grow beards as a display of religious commitment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/21/international/europe/21BAND.html

there was a comment above mentioning women in french suburbs being gang-raped. what is this referring to? is this for refusing to wear the hijab?

No, it's because young Muslim men in France have done next to nothing to assimilate themselves into French society.

From http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=114798

France takes on plague of sexual 'rite'
Elaine Sciolino/NYT NYT
Thursday, October 23, 2003

VIGNEUX-SUR-SEINE, France The boys were patient, standing in line and waiting their turn to rape.

Their two victims, girls of 13, were patient as well, never crying out, at least that is what the neighbors said, and enduring the violence and abuse not once, but repeatedly over five months.

That was three years ago. Late last month, 10 young men, now ranging in age from 18 to 21, were convicted of rape in a closed courtroom in nearby Evry and sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to five years. Seven others will go on trial in November. The fact that they are being brought to justice at all is highly unusual.

The phenomenon of gang rape in France has become banal. It occurs - how often is unknown - in the concrete wastelands built as cheap housing for immigrants on the outskirts of France's big cities. Here, according to sociologists and prosecutors, teenage boys, many of them loosely organized into gangs, prey on neighborhood girls.

Many of the boys are raised in closed, traditional families and are hopelessly confused or ignorant about sex; others are simply street toughs. In this world, women enjoy little respect; often girls who appear weak, or who wear tight-fitting clothing or go out unaccompanied by their fathers or brothers are considered fair game.

****************

Read the whole article.