On Friday the 9th of March 2018, the Algerian businessman, Rachid Nekkah, famous for paying the fines of niqab wearing women in France and active in French and Algerian politics, will have a press conference in front of the Danish parliament with the same intent.
Comment:
Though Rachid Nekkah might at first seem to many as a contemporary Moatasim, coming to rescue his Muslim sisters in need, his motives are quite different. When asked why he is coming to Denmark to neutralize the proposed ban, he immediately stresses that he is against niqab and he feels it as damaging the integration in the European countries, and continues: “I am not coming to Denmark to defend Islam or religion. I am a human rights activist. It is about the freedom for women to wear niqab or not to.”
The response from Danish politicians was quite expected. The Conservative Peoples Party sees it as an attempt to undermine Danish law, and Naser Khader says: “We have already discussed how one can prevent that a rich Islamist pays the fines for the women… In the end we can change the punishment from fine to prison.”
Danish Peoples Party is also aligned. Martin Henriksen sees it as an opportunity to get a majority in parliament for prison sentence, which was not backed earlier.
So, is it all good or bad?
When it comes to Rachid Nekkah, it seems that his focus is on positioning himself in Algerian politics, where he runs for presidency next year. Apparently, he wants to play the role as the “man in the middle”, appealing both to secularists and “Islamists”, by showing that “true freedom” will secure the rights of practicing Islam.
When it comes to Danish politics and politicians, there is no hope for change. As always they will use any possibility to tighten the screw on Islam and Muslims in the hope of force secularizing us all.
Success in dunya is an illusion. Your strategies and plans might work and succeed, but along with it comes the pleasure of Shaitan and wrath of Allah (swt). Muslims will keep facing these, other attacks, and false promises and illusions of “freedom” to practice Islam in the shade of secularism until we take things into our own hands. We, as Muslims in the West, no longer consider ourselves as a minority, but as part of an entity that makes up one fifth of the worlds population. We realize that only Islam can protect us, and that it needs to materialize by our hands and by our sacrifices.
Junes Kock