Muslims in the West Must Be More Vocal for the Sake of the Young

By Mona Eltahawy

I began my article last week on Shabina Begum’s case by saying that I was very angry. Well, this week, new information I have come across about this case has made me even angrier.

I thank every reader who wrote to express an opinion and I look forward to your responses to this new information that sheds more light on this controversial case.

Shabina is a 16 year old schoolgirl in the British town of Luton who won the right to wear a jilbab to her school. Shabina’s school did not prevent her from wearing a headscarf. In fact, the school went out of its way to accommodate the needs of students who are nearly 80 percent Muslim, speak 40 different languages and who are from 21 different ethnic groups. She was sent home when she went to school one day wearing the jilbab which the school said was against its uniform policy.

She lost the first case she raised against the school but with the help of Cherie Booth, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, won the case in Britain’s Court of Appeal.

I disagreed with both Shabina and the Court of Appeal judge who gave the final ruling in her case by saying her school had violated her human rights by refusing to allow her to attend while wearing the jilbab. I argued that Shabina was taking to an extreme the interpretation of modest clothing that Islam orders for both men and women. I also argued that the judge should not have accepted this extreme interpretation.

I was also angry that any discussion about Muslim women begins and ends with how they dress.

Since I wrote my article last week I have learned that the extreme fundamentalist organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir was involved in this case. Not only did they advise Shabina, but her brother is reported to be a supporter of this group, which is banned in most Middle East countries. This sheds a sinister shadow on a case which represents many challenges that Muslims in the West face today – how do we stand up to fundamentalists among us, how do we integrate our values with life in the West and how do we protect our young people from the influence of these extremist groups?

As I was writing last week’s article, I kept wondering who was influencing Shabina. With all respect to 16 year olds -- I remember being 16 and how easy it is to be influenced at that age. Shabina’s parents are dead. Her guardian is her 22 year old brother. And if he is a supporter of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, it is easy to see how he convinced her to wear the jilbab.

How much choice did Shabina have in this? Listen to what the judge in the case that Shabina lost had to say about the influence of her brother: "One wonders why it should have been her brother who articulated what she was perfectly capable of saying herself."

As for Hizb-ut-Tahrir, you can easily learn about the group’s goals by visiting their website.

Clearly, this is the kind of group that has been recognized as a cancer in the Middle East. This organization is banned in most Middle Eastern countries. If western governments and more importantly Muslim communities in the West do not more actively counter its activities, then we have learned nothing from the tragedy and disaster of September 11, 2001 and March 11, 2003.

On its website, Hizb-ut-Tahrir calls the West Dar-ul-Kufr and says it is a political party which aims to restore the khilafah. In fact it says it is fard for every Muslim today to work to establish the khilafah. Another aim of the group is to lead the Ummah into a struggle with Kufr, its systems and its thoughts so that Islam encapsulates the world.

Clearly Shabina had very little say in this case. The Muslim headmistress of her school understood this, which is why she upheld the importance of the uniform – not only did it give Muslim schoolgirls the right to wear hijab if they wanted but it also protected them from being forced to wear a more extreme form of hijab, such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir would enforce.

Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, the leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, said he was "saddened" by Shabina's victory because he too understood what Shabina’s “victory” meant – a defeat for Muslims who want to fight political organizations like Hizb-ut-Tahrir, their extremist thoughts, and their use of religion to achieve their political aims.

Groups like Hizb-ut-Tahrir are experts at using the liberal system of “Dar al-Kufr” to achieve their goals. What are the countries of “Dar al-kufr” doing about it? And more importantly, what are Muslims in the West doing about it?

Of course Shabina has a human right to wear what she wants but if there is a uniform policy – and one that was reached after discussion with Muslim scholars - in the school, she must respect it.

But it is now obvious that this young girl was nothing more than a political football – first kicked by her brother and Hizb-ut-Tahrir and then kicked further by Cherie Booth, whose husband angered Muslims by blindly following George Bush into invading Iraq. And so Tony Blair’s wife wanted to give a consolation prize to Muslims by defending the “right” to cover Muslim women in an extreme way. It is a very timely prize, considering that Britain will soon have elections and Tony Blair’s Labour party needs their votes.

Of course choices and rights are important. But do groups like Hizb-ut-Tahrir believe in choices and rights?

On its website, Hizb-ut-Tahrir makes it clear it is at war. How will we fight back?

Mona Eltahawy is a New York-based columnist for pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. Her website is monaeltahawy.com