A Virginia school district has placed a teacher on leave for removing a student’s hijab from her head. The student took to Twitter after the incident Wednesday saying that her hijab was “ripped off her head” by a teacher she appreciated and valued, according to WJLA.
An account that appears to belong to the student said she was talking with her friend when the teacher pulled off her hijab from behind. To her shock, he then said: “Oh, your hair is so pretty,” she said on Twitter. The Fairfax County Public School district released a statement calling the incident “inappropriate and unacceptable.” “FCPS takes this incident seriously and, while a thorough investigation of the incident is conducted, the teacher has been placed on leave,” the district said. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) confirmed the Twitter statements from the student. “We welcome the decision to place the teacher on leave and to apologize to the student and her family, but further disciplinary action needs to be taken based on the results of the investigation into this disturbing incident,” Nihad Awad, CAIR national executive director, said. “No student should be bullied or attacked because of his or her faith. Teachers must protect students, not subject them to harassment or intimidation.” (Yahoo)
Comment:
The mainstreaming of Islamophobia towards Muslims and Islam in America during the Presidential campaign, primarily by Trump has given license to all sectors of society including teachers to vent their hate and bigotry towards Muslims including young girls. The demonisation of Islam whereby Islam is viewed as a crazy, violent and unacceptable belief in democratic societies like the United States is reflective of this society than it is of Islam. The FBI’s annual Hate Crimes Statistics report highlighted 6,121 hate crime incidents recorded last year, an almost 5 percent rise from 2015 and a 10 percent increase from 2014. Muslims were targeted in 307 religion-based crimes, up 19 percent from 2015 and double the number in 2014. It did not give a reason for the rise. The democratic political system, the media and commentators are certainly responsible for rising hate crimes. They regularly spout their bigotry and hate as a ‘political discourse’ which scapegoats Islam and Muslims as a means to avert responsibilities and failures of the democratic capitalist system. This re-direction away from the failures of the Capitalist system has now filtered down to the classroom level where once upon a time playground bullies were attacking Muslim students, now includes teachers assaulting Muslim girls by ripping their hijabs of their heads.
In May this year, news reports of 8-year-old Safa Alzockary, who was said to be misbehaving in class at a Bronx Public School 76 was ordered by the substitute teacher Oghenetega Edah, 31, to remove her hijab. When Safa refused, Edah pulled the hijab off her head, bringing the scarf down across her face and causing irritation to her right eye, police said. Safa’s dad Mohamed Alzockary, an immigrant from Yemen, was shocked by what his daughter said happened in school. “I didn’t expect a teacher to do that to a child,” Alzockary said.
It is therefore, the secular, democratic system that has enabled dangerous xenophobic ideas to become mainstream within societies, while Islam, the very ideology they attack and vilify provided a formula of beliefs and laws to eradicate such noxious views from people 1400 years ago as well as an unrivalled approach of guaranteeing respect, rights and protection for the religious minorities it ruled. The classical scholar Imam Qarafi stated regarding the responsibility of the Khilafah to the dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen of the state), “It is the responsibility of the Muslims to the People of the Dhimma to care for their weak, fulfil the needs of the poor, feed the hungry, provide clothes, address them politely, and even tolerate harm from them even if it was from a neighbour….The Muslims must also advise them sincerely on their affairs and protect them against anyone who tries to hurt them or their family, steal their wealth, or violates their rights.”
Tsuroyya Amal Yasna