Well I'm angry again! So what's upsetting me this time? Well you might have guessed in the
media i read that the European Union's highest court the European Court of Justice last week on
thursday ruled that employers can ban workers from wearing religious symbols including headscarfs in
their workplaces. Now this seems to have had little reaction from the American government, the British
government, or anyone else. Turkey however has stepped up to the plate and has spoken
out clearly and unambiguously condemning this so kudos to Turkey. Turkey, according to the Guardian
yesterday, Turkey's cabinet ministers have criticized a european union's court decision
to allow employees to ban headscarves from their workplaces saying it is a blow to the rights of
muslim women and that it will grant legitimacy to racism of course it would of course it would
in response a chap called ibrahim kalin he's the spokesperson for erdogan the turkish president
tweeted that the move would courage encourage islamophobia he wrote the decision by the european
court of justice on headscarves in the workplace is another blow to the rights of muslim women
he said it would play right into the hands of those warmongers against islam in europe and
asked does the concept of religious freedom now exclude muslims well of course it does
this is a outrageous ruling and it clearly violates uh the dignity and rights of muslim women
uh to wear a headscarf and the idea that as i i've been told oh well it applies to all people
yeah right of course it does as if there isn't an issue here to do with anti-muslim prejudice
and oberdan's communications director described the decision as unbelievable and an attempt to
grant legitimacy to racism well i'm not sure it's unbelievable i think it's very sadly uh
to be expected and he continued instead of denouncing its dark past which europe
does with jews and rightly so when it comes to muslims europe now he says seeks to embrace it
we condemn this ruling he said which infringes on human dignity well of course it does um everyone
should be angry about this and then the guardian in the article which i'm reading from yesterday
helpfully tells us the ruling came after two separate cases were brought to german courts
by muslim women who were prevented from wearing their head scars to work can you believe it
the first a child care worker was suspended twice from her place of work and issued with a written
warning for wearing a headscarf i mean losing her livelihood the childcare center had banned staff
from wearing any religious symbols to work yeah the second woman a sales assistant at a chemist
was not was told not to wear any item of clothing which was considered a conscious political
philosophical or religious symbol but the worker said that her head covering was mandatory
for her religion and refused the chemist's ban now this is right uh the consensus of scholars
the ulama, islam is very clear in the quran it's very clear in the authentic hadith is
that women must dress modestly and cover at least at least the the everything apart from their face
and their hands many scholars talk about covering the face too but that's a separate issue
so muslim women are obliged uh because of their faith to draw a head head scarf and of course
men too are also obliged to dress modestly not supposed to go around wearing tight jeans and
you know showing bits and pieces they're supposed to dress modestly too so to actually
tell a muslim woman whose faith requires her to dress modestly that she should dress
immodestly to no one else's harm dress wearing a hijab is completely harmless is an outrage
um now the european court justice said employers need to show a genuine need for the ban
such as wait for it the legitimate wishes of the customers including presenting a neutral image
towards customers or to prevent social disputes now what's missing from this is any consideration
for the legitimate wishes of muslims i mean i've looked this up apparently muslims make up about
six million people in Germany so half of them are women and in europe as a whole about five percent
more or less of the population is muslim so but their genuine need and their legitimate wishes to
aware the hijab which is as i say compulsory in in islam are completely disregarded ignored are not
taken into account at all according to the ruling isn't that remarkable they deliberately ignored
anyway um on twitter the european network against racism said and i think quite rightly
that the latest ruling would lead to quote justifying the exclusion of muslim women
who are increasingly portrayed as dangerous for europe in the collective narrative quote unquote
um this is uh obviously an outrageous ruling it goes against basic human dignity and the rights of
human beings to dress modestly in a place of work um and it makes a mockery of europe's boasting
about diversity inclusion liberty i mean france we we boast about liberty egality fraternity
in france here women cannot wear headscarves at universities and schools
in nursery you know it's uh makes a mockery of that and this this speaks to a civilizational
conflict going back literally hundreds of years between the islamic world and the west um but
in our liberal democratic inclusive era the same old taboos prejudices and discrimination
are enshrined in law at the highest level that's why i am angry i hope you are too! Till next time.