Indigo Jo on March 15th, 2010

Today I found a post at the blog The Answer’s 42 alleging that the so-called burqa was to blame for the increased incidence of vitamin D deficiency in Asian women in the UK and resulting rickets in their children. The author linked a discussion between Nigel Farage and Salma Yaqoob on the Radio 4 […]

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Indigo Jo on January 17th, 2010

I didn’t watch the Muslim Driving School programme, which was on BBC2 last Tuesday (at the right time to clash with Defamation, which I reviewed in my last entry), but I finally got round to seeing it just now, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was all shown in the north of England around […]

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Indigo Jo on October 22nd, 2009

Gary Younge in today’s Guardian traces the upsurge in anti-Muslim bigotry to Jack Straw’s attack on the niqab in 2006:

Three years ago this month Jack Straw argued his case for urging Muslim women who attend his MP’s surgery to remove their niqab. He said that he wanted to start a debate. In this, […]

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Indigo Jo on October 14th, 2009

Last Friday and last Sunday, Shelina Zahra Janmohamed appeared on BBC Radio debating the issue of hijab with two foreign anti-hijab agitators. One of them is part of London’s small but well-connected Iranian exile community, namely Diana Nammi; the other is Marnia Lazreg, who has just published a book entitled Questioning the Veil, through […]

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Indigo Jo on October 7th, 2009

Much as I suspected that the snake Tantawi’s words would be thrown in the faces of Muslims in the West, this has now happened, as an MP from Silvio Berlusconi’s political machine “People of Freedom” has cited him as justification for banning the ‘burka’ in Italy:

The Northern League’s proposal would amend a 1975 […]

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Indigo Jo on October 6th, 2009

Yesterday it was reported that Muhammad Tantawi, the dean of al-Azhar University in Egypt, announced that he was going to issue an “edict” banning the niqab or female facial veil. This happened after he visited a girls’ school, and found one student wearing niqab and demanded that she remove it:

“Why are you […]

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Indigo Jo on August 2nd, 2009

The sister known as Digital Nomad has posted two interesting entries recently, the most recent on this nonsense of condemning mobile phones as a cause of fitna and fornication. This is not just within the Muslim community — Haredi Jews in some places have “kosher” mobile phones which won’t ring certain numbers and can’t […]

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Indigo Jo on June 22nd, 2009

I’ve been getting a lot of tweets lately about talk of a ban on the so-called burqa in France, the latest chapter in the long saga of the French obsession with what Muslim women wear on their heads (Muslim responses: 1, 2. I’m sure I’m not the only Muslim who gets annoyed at the […]

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Indigo Jo on April 14th, 2008

Continue reading about Sister Ardo responds to “Blog Niqaab”

Indigo Jo on February 17th, 2008

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Indigo Jo on January 28th, 2007

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Indigo Jo on December 28th, 2006

Continue reading about Khadijah Atkinson’s alternative Christmas message

Indigo Jo on December 24th, 2006

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Indigo Jo on December 24th, 2006

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Indigo Jo on December 7th, 2006

The contrived controversy over the Channel 4 “Alternative Christmas Message” dragged on today, with the Daily Mirror featuring an interview with the lady in which she told the interviewer that she, being a patriotic British citizen, will be watching the Queen rather than her own message. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, however, comes out with the usual attack on the niqab, alleging that Channel 4 “has decided to glamorise and validate the veil, showing cool indifference to the meanings of one of the most violently contested symbols in the world today”. The article appeared in the Evening Standard, which does not generally publish its opinion pieces online.

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Indigo Jo on December 5th, 2006

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Indigo Jo on November 21st, 2006

Continue reading about Naima Bouteldja: Muslims and European authoritarianism

Indigo Jo on November 12th, 2006

Continue reading about Abu Iman Squires refutes MCC on niqab

Indigo Jo on November 5th, 2006

Continue reading about Niqab row “has increased veil’s popularity”

Indigo Jo on November 4th, 2006

Continue reading about Searchlight features Nazi bombs and niqab