Headlines:
- Muslim School’s Segregation Policy is Unlawful Court Rules
- Burqa Ban in Canada and Germany
- Pakistan says Fence on Afghan Border Will Reduce Attacks
- Somalia in Limbo
- United Nations – The Hypocrisy
- Britain’s Interests Before Human Life
Muslim School’s Segregation Policy is Unlawful Court Rules
An Islamic faith school’s policy of segregating boys from girls is unlawful sex discrimination, a court has ruled. Three Court of Appeal judges in London overturned last year’s finding by a High Court judge that Ofsted inspectors were wrong to penalise the mixed-sex Al-Hijrah school in Birmingham. Inspectors had found that separating the pupils left them ‘unprepared for life in modern Britain’.. In a test case ruling on Friday, the Master of the Rolls Sir Terence Etherton, Lady Justice Gloster, and Lord Justice Beatson unanimously allowed a challenge by Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman against Mr Justice Jay’s decision. In a landmark decision, the appeal judges said: ‘It is common ground that the school is not the only Islamic school which operates such a policy and that a number of Jewish schools with a particular Orthodox ethos and some Christian faith schools have similar practices.’ Ofsted had made it clear, they said, that if this appeal succeeded, ‘it will apply a consistent approach to all similarly organised schools’. The judges said there was ‘a strong argument’ for the Education Secretary and Ofsted ‘to recognise that, given the history of the matter, their failure (despite their expertise and responsibility for these matters) to identify the problem and the fact that they have de facto sanctioned and accepted a state of affairs which is unlawful, the schools affected should be given time to put their houses in order in the light of our conclusion that this is unlawful sex discrimination.’ They added: ‘The relevant central government authorities should not pivot in the way they have gone about this without recognising the real difficulties those affected will face as a consequence.’ Meanwhile, a head teacher who introduced single-sex GCSE English classes in September in a bid to improve exam results has said he is “very impressed” with the way it has been working. [Source: Metro and BBC].
However, the UK government is not reprimanding this school, and this clearly shows the hypocrisy of the UK authorities towards Islam.
Burqa Ban in Canada and Germany
The Canadian province of Quebec is the latest place to make it a crime to wear a face-covering garment in public, a move that critics derided as discriminatory against Muslim women. Quebec’s law, enacted on Wednesday, is the first of its kind in North America, but similar measures — sometimes referred to as burqa bans — have existed in Europe for years. Very few Muslim women in Europe or North America wear full-face veils, but laws that forbid the coverings have come into force in at least five West European countries. Many more lawmakers — including in Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway — have considered them. Supporters of the laws say they are necessary to protect public safety, defend Western values or encourage migrants to assimilate into their new societies. But rights groups say they discriminate against Muslim women, some of whom view garments like niqabs and burqas as a religious obligation. The French-speaking province of Quebec has barred people with face coverings from receiving public services or from working in government jobs. That means it is illegal for them to ride a public bus, work as a doctor or teacher, or receive publicly funded health care while covering their faces. The government said people could apply for exemptions, but some are already built into the law: Doctors are allowed to wear a surgical mask that covers the lower half of the face, but not a veil that does the same thing. Quebec’s minister of justice, Stéphanie Vallée, said the law fostered social cohesion, but critics disagreed. Ihsaan Gardee, the executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, called it “an unnecessary law with a made-up solution to an invented problem.” A law banning face coverings while driving took effect in Germany this month, coming on the heels of legislation prohibiting anyone in the civil service, military or working for an election from covering their faces. Bavaria took the measure one step further, banning teachers and university professors from covering their faces. Chancellor Angela Merkel has faced increasing pressure from the right in recent years and supported the new legislation last year as part of measures to help assimilation into society. She told reporters at the time, “From my standpoint, a fully veiled woman scarcely has a chance at full integration in Germany.” There are roughly four million Muslims in Germany, about a quarter of whom arrived from 2015 to 2016 from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, after Ms. Merkel opened the border. [Source: The New York Times]
The growing number of Western countries banning the burqa is met with a wall of silence from the leaders of the Muslim world, and strongly indicates their support for such measures in the West.
Pakistan says Fence on Afghan Border Will Reduce Attacks
Pakistan’s military said Wednesday that new fencing and guard posts along the border with Afghanistan would help prevent militant attacks in both countries, but the stepped-up fortifications have angered Kabul, which does not recognize the frontier as an international border. Maj. Gen. Nauman Zakaria, the commander for the South Waziristan tribal region, told reporters during a visit to the border that after the fencing is complete, no “terrorist” will be able to use Afghan or Pakistani soil to launch cross-border attacks. Pakistan began construction of the fencing in June. Standing at a post overlooking Afghan villages across the border, Zakaria said troops and paramilitary forces had defeated militants by launching several operations in the troubled region, which was a longtime stronghold for al-Qaida and the Taliban, as well as criminal gangs. President Donald Trump has reiterated longstanding U.S. accusations that Pakistan turns a blind eye to militant groups that launch attacks in Afghanistan from within its territory, allegations denied by Islamabad. Afghanistan has leveled similar accusations, and has also objected to the building of the border fence. The two nations are divided by the 2,400-kilometer (1,500-mile) Durand Line, drawn by British rulers in 1896. Kabul does not recognize it as an international border, causing friction between the two neighbors, with Pakistan suggesting Afghanistan has designs on part of its territory. The line runs through ethnic Pashtun territory, dividing families and tribes between the two countries. [Source ABC News]
For centuries, people of from Afghanistan and the territories of neighboring Pakistan have intermingled freely. However, the nation state model imposed by the Western colonialist powers have turned the people against each other. Building a border along the false Durand line will only worsen Pakistan’s security predicament. The time has come to remove the cancer of the nation state and merge the two countries into one. However, this can only be achieved through re-establishment of the rightly guided Khilafah (Caliphate), which Muslims of both countries must work towards.
Somalia in Limbo
A truck bomb blast on Saturday in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, killed at least 276 people and injured more than 300. The death toll is expected to rise, with people believed to be buried in the rubble of destroyed buildings. “We expect the death toll will rise today,” said Abdirahman Omar Osman, Somalia’s information minister, adding that rescuers need extra support because the city’s tools cannot move the amount of rubble. It is the deadliest attack in Somalia since the al-Shabab group launched its insurgency in 2007. President Mohamed Abdullahi “Farmajo” Mohamed blamed the attack on them, calling it a “heinous act”. However this is despite any group claiming responsibility for the attack. Somali has been in Civil war since the 1980’s as various armed opposition arose against the military leadership, however constant US meddling and interference has escalated the conflict and caused a power vacuum. The result has been the suffering of the Somali people with this attack being one of the largest since 2006.
United Nations – The Hypocrisy
Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq, said 5.4 million civilians had fled their homes over the past three years. The latest figures come in the wake of the recapture of the town of Hawija – IS last major urban stronghold in Iraq. IS now hold only a stretch of territory on Iraq’s border with Syria. Ms Grande said the UN was “deeply worried” for the wellbeing of those who have been displaced.” Hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of very young children, have been exposed to extreme danger, stress, and trauma and will require years of specialised support and care,” she said in a statement. However its surprising to see mention of the value of human life coming from the UN whose own peace keeping force has been under scrutiny for mass rape and unethical behaviour against the very people that they are meant to be protecting. It is also quite obvious that the UN tends to make noise regarding humanitarian issues but only acts when the US deems it necessary.
Britain’s Interests Before Human Life
Matthew Rycroft, the UK’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, told reporters on Tuesday that the country has measures in place to ensure weapons are used correctly. “The UK has extremely stringent measures in place to ensure that the end use of any and all weapons that the UK sells are appropriate, said Rycroft. “We monitor that in relation to Saudi Arabia extremely attentively.” The comments come after a UN report placed the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition on a blacklist of children’s rights violators for their actions in Yemen. UN figures released on October 5 stated that the alliance was responsible for causing death and injury to 683 children in 2016, including in attacks on schools and hospitals. Britain has continued to supply arms to Saudi Arabia despite knowing the violence that is being caused in Yemen. In July, the high court in London ruled in a high-profile court case that the UK could continue to export weapons to Saudi Arabia, despite claims by campaigners that the arms were resulting in human rights abuses. As such, when the interests of Britain and the economic gain from pursuing them are weighed against the loss of innocent lives the former for Britain always takes precedence.