 No comment…
 Western Women are exploited, right?
 Time to get in on the action, ladies!
*
Quebec debate over face-covering during vote rouses everyone except MuslimsÂ
MONTREAL (CP) — Federal and Quebec political leaders have unanimously blasted an Elections Canada decision to let Muslim women wear traditional face coverings when voting in three federal byelections in Quebec.
Muslims groups say they are mystified about the uproar, saying they never asked for any special treatment.
* Sure. Its a normal thing to wear a burka, right?
Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon said Friday the federal government doesn’t support Election Canada’s decision to allow burkas and niqabs during voting in three federal byelections in the province on Sept. 17.
“We find it doesn’t make any sense,” said Cannon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Quebec lieutenant.
“As a government and a political party, we do not agree with Elections Canada,” Cannon said in Ottawa.
Premier Jean Charest also said it’s a bad idea.
“For me, it’s a bad decision,” Charest said. “The federal chief returning officer should have done the same thing we did in Quebec, which is that everyone who presents themselves to exercise their right to vote must be clearly identified. For me, it’s as simple as that.”
Muslims, on the other hand, say it won’t be an issue in the three federal byelections in Montreal-area Outremont and rural St-Hyacinthe-Bagot and Roberval-Lac-St-Jean ridings.
Sarah Elgazzar, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations in Montreal, said it’s unlikely many Muslim women will have covered faces when voting.
“We’re talking about a minority of a minority of a minority,” she said. “It’s a very small section of the practising Muslim women, which is already a small enough section of the Muslim community that actually wear the niqab.
* See, nothing to worry about: its only ‘a tiny minority of extremists…’
“I can almost guarantee that in the Outremont riding . . . there won’t be a single woman wearing niqab, so this debate is almost completely and utterly useless.”
* ‘He can guarantee…’ he sez. Who wouldn’t belive a Muslim? After all, Muslims are forbidden to lie by Allah, right? Right????Â
Update:
Turkish soap opera showing wife as equal called “decadent” and “sinful” in Saudi Arabia
Where it is nonetheless wildly popular. The clash here is between the Saudi authorities, who style themselves as the guardians of what is Islamically correct, and secular Turkish culture, which is comprised largely of Muslims acting in ways that cannot be justified by Islamic law. This befuddles Westerners, who see self-identified Muslims living as modern Westerners in Turkey and jump to all sorts of conclusions about Islam and its compatibility with secularism, pluralism, and democracy — conclusions that have no warrant. For it is against manifestations of secularism like this very soap opera that the forces of political Islam in Turkey are fighting against, on the grounds that they transgress against Islam.
Sharia Alert: “A Subversive Soap Roils Saudi Arabia,” by Faiza Saleh Ambah for the Washington Post, August 3:
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — A Turkish soap opera featuring an independent fashion designer and her amazingly supportive and attractive husband is emptying the streets whenever it’s on and has more than doubled the number of Saudis visiting Turkey this summer.Millions of people — especially women, apparently — are tuning in nightly to find out whether the couple will stay together or be torn apart by jealousies and old flames.
But “Noor,” the story of a multi-generational, upper-class Turkish family, has also sparked a backlash. The show has become the subject of angry Friday sermons in this strict Islamic kingdom, and the country’s chief cleric recently issued a fatwa calling it “decadent” and sinful to watch.
“Noor” has had such a deep influence because, unlike American or Mexican soap operas broadcast here, it is about a Muslim family living in a Muslim country. The show is also dubbed in an Arabic dialect, not classical Arabic, which makes it easier to understand and feels more intimate to viewers.
And then, there’s that husband.
The blue-eyed, blond Muhannad, played by Kivanc Tatlitu, a 24-year-old Turkish actor and model, is tall, handsome, romantic, respectful and treats his wife, Noor — the title character — as both a love object and an equal.
“Saudi women fantasize about what they’re lacking,” said Amira Kashgari, an assistant linguistics professor at King Abdul Aziz University who writes about social issues for al-Watan newspaper. “They are almost obsessed with this show because of the way he interacts with and treats his wife.”…
“Nuns with Guns” had nothing on Burkas in Barrows and Boots. Off to the car-boot sale in Makkah?
Courtesy to women – Islamic style.
Women want to vote all covered up? Let them do so in Saudi Arabia, the bastion of women’s rights.