Tarek Fatah Won't Like It

Toronto Police has opened its doors wide to all applicants in an effort to be more representative of the communities it is serving.
In this ongoing effort, it is also seeking to enlist its first hijab-wearing officer, Superintendent Cyril Fernandes had told Focus this summer.

The message is: Toronto Police allows hijabs, as it does turbans.

Actually, I am assuming this is a bit of hyperbole on Superintendent Fernandes part.

Hijab Sanity Breaks Out In Alberta!

How the hell did this happen?

CALGARY -- Muslim girls in Alberta will be allowed to wear hijabs while playing soccer, ending the latest battle over religious clothing in sports.

[...]

Under a ruling announced Tuesday, the association said players will be allowed on the soccer pitch if they're wearing a sports-friendly hijab approved by the game's referee.

Whereas in Quebec, where they do all sorts of allegedly progressive things like dump cheese curds on Fries, and where the downtown men of Montreal prance about in fish-net stockings, they're still bashing Muslims and wallowing in their own Catholicism. How could these folks get out-evolved socially by a bunch of cowboys from a town where the streets all run one way? What's happening in this country?

Charge 'Em

...and, if convicted, lock 'em up. But there are no grounds in this for a ban on hijabs or traditional garb if and when they are worn as the result of an act of Free Will. Certainly no grounds for a change of opinion on the Tory's ridiculous veiled voter legislation.

Jaffer Takes A Stand; Fatah Jumps The Shark

Finally someone from the federal Tories (Alberta MP Rahim Jaffer, himself a Muslim) has spoken up re the latest Quebec Hijab incident, wherein a girls' Tae Kwon Do team was banned from participating for wearing the offending garments. Jaffir says:

"There seems to be a little bit of over-sensitivity against the hijab," Jaffer said. "We've seen this more and more over the last little while. And it's unfortunate that that sort of attitude is developing – especially when this is the week that we're celebrating the anniversary of the Charter."

In response, Tarek Fatah goes apeshit:

Rahim Jaffer should have read the website of the Mosque that had sent these young girls to the TaeKwonDoo competition.

The Montreal mosque that hosts these young pre-teen TaeKwonDoo girls, says on its webiste that taking off the Hijab is to invite rape and risk becoming unwed mothers!

[...]

Is this what Rahim Jaffer, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and all bleeding heart liberals are supporting? Why didn't even one media outlet or MP from any party protest the garbage being dished out by these apologists of the Hezbollah in Canada?

[...]

What sort of sick minds would tell a 10-year old girl that she could be raped if she took off her hijab. This is the garbage that is being forced on to young girls, as young as 5 years of age. Is this a matter of 'choice' ? In my opinion, it is hate and bigotry being forced on young minds.

Where are Canada's feminists and women's groups? Why are they all silent as Canadian women who do not cover their heads are referred to as 'unpaid prostitutes'?

The symbolism of the hijab is disturbing to alot of people, myself included. But is Mr. Fatah then suggesting that the tournament organizers, who had the unfortunate girls banned from competing, were attempting to act in their best interests? Acting to "free" them from oppression? That seems very unlikely and in fact faintly ridiculous. And just as we do not find physical assault to be acceptable even where it "knocks some sense" into the person under assault, we should not find what happened in Quebec acceptable, no matter what we think of the hijab's cultural implications. Two wrongs, Mr. Fatah, do not make a right.

More Hijab Madness From Quebec

Yesterday evening I wrote that, in this particular instance, I had a certain amount of sympathy for the Tae Kwan Do tournament organizers who banned a team of hijab wearing girls for "safety reasons". However, as KNB pointed out, the team was wearing "sports hajibs" (pictured left), and in any case helmets cover the garment so there is no risk of it coming loose, or being used to choke the competitor. Furthermore, it takes the tournament referee about three sentences to undermine his own stated rationale:

International referee Stephane Menard said on Sunday that the decision was made for safety reasons, and that it came out of a referees' meeting in Longueuil earlier in the day.

Menard told the Canadian Press that the hijab isn't included under the equipment allowed under World Tae Kwon Do Federation rules.

"We applied the rules to the letter," he said.

Well, which is it? Was the team banned because of safety considerations, or because the organizers scoured the rule-book until they found a reason not to include them?

Yo Quebec: "reasonable accommodation" does not mean immigrants should have to accommodate themselves to being hassled because they're Muslim.

PS. The girl in the photo at the top of the post is, I think, wearing a sports hijab under her helmet. In any case, here is a picture sans helmet. Not sure it does much for me aesthetically, but...

Well, This Time I See The Point

From Canada.com:

MONTREAL — A Tae Kwon Do team of mainly Muslim girls says it was kicked out of tournament south of Montreal today because its members refused to remove their hijabs.

Tournament organizers told team officials that the girls can’t compete because the Muslim head scarves are a safety risk.

As someone who once took a Karate lesson, it seems to me that a hijab could could easily fall down over the face and result in somebody's losing an eye. Karate garb takes the form that it does for a reason.

Interesting too in that its difficult to argue that Western Culture is being intolerant here. After all, the gals are being asked to observe the traditions of a Chinese fighting form.