The Turkish headscarf ban, whose roots date back almost 90 years to the early days of the Turkish Republic, has kept many women from joining the public work force, but secularists see its abolition as evidence of the government pushing an Islamic agenda.

The new rules, which will not apply to the judiciary or the military, were published in the Official Gazette and take immediate effect in the majority Muslim but constitutionally secular country.

“A regulation that has hurt many young people and has caused great suffering to their parents, a dark period, is coming to an end,” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of his AK Party, which has its roots in Islamist politics.

The debate around the head scarf goes to the heart of tensions between religious and secular elites, a major fault line in Turkish public life.

Erdogan’s critics see his AK Party as seeking to erode the secular foundations of the republic built on the ruins of an Ottoman theocracy by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923.

“There was a witch hunt for civil servants with a headscarf,” said Safiye Ozdemir, a high-school teacher in Ankara who for years had to remove her head scarf at work against her wishes, but had started to defy the ban in recent months.

“Today it became clear that we’ve been right. So we are happy, and we are proud. It’s a decision that came in very late, but at least it came, thank God.”

The lifting of the ban, based on a cabinet decree from 1925 when Ataturk introduced a series of clothing reforms meant to banish overt symbols of religious affiliation for civil servants, is part of a “democratisation package” unveiled by Erdogan last week.   »»» Reuters

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s own wife was usually seen in public wearing a headscarf. Even more important, Kemal himself once said that women’s headscarves did NOT threaten the secular foundation of the modern Turkish State.

Kemal wrote, “The religious covering of women will not cause difficulty…. This simple style [of headcovering] is not in conflict with the morals and manners of our society.” (Quoted in Atatürkism, Volume 1 (Istanbul: Office of the Chief of General Staff, 1982), page 126).

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Senior representatives of Christian Churches of Jerusalem expressed their solidarity with the local Muslim community on Monday. According to Fides News Agency, the delegation visited the Al-Aqsa mosque to give their support in response to “recent provocative actions staged by Jewish settlers” near the Muslim holy site. Among the members of the delegation was Catholic Bishop William Shomali, the Patriarchal Vicar of the Latin Patriarchate, Anglican Bishop Suheil Dawani, and the Armenian Patriarchal Vicar, Joseph Kelekian.

Mufti Muhammad Hussein and Sheikh Kamal al-Khatib welcomed the delegation according to sources close to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Fides News Agency reported that the leaders from both faiths sign a joint declaration denouncing the actions committed against the Mosque.    »»» EWTN.com

In the Qur’an, God says words that may be translated as follows:

“You will find the nearest in love to the believers (Muslims) those who say: “We are Christians.” That is because among them are priests and monks, and they are not proud.” (Q. 5:82)

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Buddhist mobs killed a 94-year-old Muslim woman and burned more than 70 homes on Tuesday as sectarian violence again gripped Rakhine State, despite a visit by the president aimed at resolving the tensions, officials and residents said. More than 700 rioters, some swinging swords, took to the streets in Thabyuchaing, the police said. An elderly Muslim woman was stabbed to death, a police officer said, and 70 to 80 homes were set on fire.   »»» NYTimes.com

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The Malaysian Prime Minister used his address to the United Nations today to call on all peace-loving Muslims around the world to unite against the extremists who are using their religion as an excuse to commit violence, stressing that moderation is the key to winning the battle being waged for the future of Islam.

“Around the world, extremism is taking lives and crushing opportunity. This affects us all; but it is one people, of one faith, who suffer most,” said Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak

“I believe the greatest threat to Muslims today comes not from the outside world, but from within.”

“Our religion – founded on peace and premised on tolerance – is being twisted by extremists, who are deploying false arguments to foster division and justify violence. Across the Islamic world, extremists are wrapping their perverse agenda in religious cloth; tearing families, countries and the ummah apart,” he stated, referring to the collective community of Muslims.

“I believe that peace-loving Muslims – the overwhelming majority of Muslims – should unite against the extremists who use our religion as an excuse to commit violence,” he stated, adding that one of the most powerful tools in this regard is the practice of moderation.    »»» United Nations News Centre

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In Islamic circles it isn’t polite to call a new adherent a convert. The preferred term is a “revert”. The idea is that Islam is the natural state of man (or woman) until their parents interfere and make them one thing or another.

It has on occasion been patiently explained to me – a convert to Islam at the age of 18 – that the relative ease with which someone can convert to Islam shows just how open the community is to converts, regardless of their race, background, bank balance or life history.

And the theory has found favour with some of the most famous converts to Islam – from the black consciousness leader Malcolm X to the great Leopold Weiss, known in the Muslim world as Muhammad Asad. The famous feminist Muslim scholar, Amina Wadud, is a convert to Islam, as was the historian and recorder of the Muslim pilgrimage, “Harry” St John Philby.

These are names worlds away from the likes of the so-called white widow, Samantha Lewthwaite, whose notoriety has gone up several notches following reports linking her with the attacks in Kenya. She has captured the imagination, despite there being no firm evidence of her involvement in the atrocity.

Though she may be an aberration – with the Muslim community predictably reacting with shock at having unwittingly harboured her – Lewthwaite’s story isn’t unique.

Her apparent drift to extremism, after some perfectly ordinary early years “within the fold”, though definitely exceptional in its nature and extent, partly reflects the reality found among many more converts to Islam than we might care to admit.

Frightened that the acceptance they so crave might never come, they may find themselves constantly needing to prove their bona fides to people sceptical of their ability to be “real Muslims” after a previous life presumed to have been loaded with hedonism and sin.

Many converts, unless they have married into the community, once the initial novelty has died down, find themselves alone and alienated, “rebels in search of a cause”.

You will find them, desperate to find some meaning in the journey they have undertaken. Some find it in Sufism. Others in jihad – immersing themselves in the writings of the likes of Sayyid Qutb, Abul A’la Maududi and Ayatollah Khomeini – the godfathers of the Islamic movement. Because of their need to prove themselves, they are the impressionable types targeted by fringe groups looking for recruits.

Because we have yet to hear Lewthwaite speak from the dock – or have her explain the motives behind her alleged crimes, it is conjecture to suggest she was radicalised because her initial attempts at integration were rebuffed. But it’s a reasonable assumption.

Converts seeking a bread-and-butter Muslim existence, of mosque attendance, raising children, praying and fasting, readily fit into the communities they choose to attach themselves to.

But those Muslim women seeking a more cerebral experience soon find themselves isolated in communities that are often insular and intolerant of a reinterpretation of the scriptures that might give more meaning to someone born and raised in the west.

There are those converts like Lewthwaite who will show you just how committed they really are – by embracing militant Islam. Others leave Islam altogether. Others become more devout. Then there are those who die disappointed, that despite their best efforts remained “a foreign body in contemporary Islam, a transplant rejected time and again by his hosts…”   »»» theguardian.com

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Two acts of terror this past week demonstrate how the evils of terrorism are often masked by warped religious ideologies. In northwestern Pakistan, a couple of suicide bombers detonated explosives in the vicinity of the All Saints Church in Peshawar’s Kohati Gate district.

The blasts took place just as worshiperswere streaming out after church services. More than 60 people died, and another were 120 injured in the powerful blasts.

In a different continent, another group of terrorists seized and held hostage shoppers at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. The Al-Shabab group with known links to Al-Qaeda, killed more than 60 innocent shoppers when they invaded the mall.

These two acts of terrorism demonstrate how dangerous these fringe elements have become. Both groups are blatantly using religion as a cover for their abhorrent deeds. And this has many Muslims upset, as their acts are the furthest thing from Islam.

Public condemnation of such acts by Muslims everywhere is on the rise. Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif stated that “the terrorists have no religion and targeting innocent people is against the teachings of Islam and all religions. Such cruel acts of terrorism reflect the brutality and inhumane mindset of the terrorists.”

In a widely circulated press release, the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organizations, condemned the terrorist attacks in Peshawar and Nairobi. Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan, President of AIMMM, said in a statement “that the terrorist attacks on innocents in a church in Peshawar and a commercial mall in Nairobi are the worst examples of anti-Islamic behavior which deserve to be condemned and resisted by all possible means. These crimes by fringe groups working at the behest of powers in their respective regions and beyond are simple terror which in no way is sanctioned by Islam or has the consent of Muslims anywhere in the world…attacking innocent civilians is a plain and simple criminal act against Islam and humanity.”

Shahid Burney from Pune writes: “This act is barbarian, deplorable and Muslims should protest against such acts. This is not what Islam preaches and what we see today. People have become savages and barbarians, merciless killers having no respect for humanity. Shame on them! And more shame on those Muslims who seal their lips and do not utter a word of protest.”

“When a small section of illiterate extremists keeps fueling anti-Islam feelings in the world with senseless killings, the peace-loving majority of Muslims find it very hard to convince the international community what Islam really stands for. We urge all Muslim countries to have zero tolerance on those who preach extremism.”   »»» Sailan Muslim (Sri Lanka)

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On Sunday, around 500 worshippers attended mass at the All Saints church in Peshawar, north-western Pakistan. After the service, they gathered outside the church to receive free food that was being distributed. As they did so, two huge explosions ripped through the crowd; a double suicide attack. The death toll currently stands at 81, with 100 more people injured. It was one of the most devastating attacks on the Christian population in Pakistan’s history.

It takes a lot to shock Pakistan, a country where small bomb attacks or targeted killings happen on a daily basis somewhere in the country, and often fail to make headlines. Nor are attacks on the country’s religious minorities anything out of the ordinary. At the beginning of this year, an enormous attack in a Shia Muslim area of the southern province of Quetta killed more than 80 people, while Sunni militants have carried out numerous execution-style killings of Shias.

Across the country, Muslims and non-Muslims alike have turned out to protest against Sunday’s attack and the government’s inadequate response.

Pakistan was explicitly conceived as a secular state with Islam as its main religion. My grandmother, who left Pakistan 40 years ago, watched the news on Sunday in horror: the country that was formed when she was a young woman had set out to be tolerant and inclusive. In an oft-quoted speech at the country’s creation, the founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah said: “We have many non-Muslims – Hindus, Christians, and Parsis – but they are all Pakistanis.” Over the years, with military dictator General Zia ul-Haq’s programme of Islamisation, and the increasing influence of extremists, this fundamental principle seems to have been lost.   »»» theguardian.com

Responsibility for the church bombing in Peshawar has been claimed by groups affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Both groups have a very un-Islamic belief that they and they alone are the only “true” Muslims. They attack Shia Muslims because the latter are a small minority in Islam. The attack Christians because they are not Muslims (although the Qur’an says Christians must be protected when they are a minority in a Muslim land). They also attack Christians in Pakistan because of U.S. drone strikes against Taliban operatives, who see the U.S. as a Christian government (in spite of its Constitutionally imposed secularism) and therefore they see all Christians as U.S. collaborators.

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Christian and Muslim religious leaders in Kenya have joined in condemning the murderous attack on the Westgate Mall by members of the Somalian radical group al-Shabaab.

Adan Wachu, the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Muslims in Kenya, said that his group has sought to ensure inter-religious dialogue. “We are convinced beyond doubt that the attempt to sow seeds of discord between Muslims and Christians will fail miserably and that we shall remain united,” he said.    »»» CatholicCulture.org

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Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Saudi Arabia have been told not to arrest women driving cars.

“There is no law or specific text that allows the Commission members to do it,” a source at the religious organisation said, the London-based Saudi daily Al Hayat reported.

Women are generally banned from driving in the vast Saudi kingdom, but there is no law that supports the ban, which is seen as a social, not legal, restriction.   »»» GulfNews.com

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The Indian army has been called in to Uttar Pradesh in the north of the country to stem the tide of violence between Hindus and Muslims.

At least fifteen people have died after being caught up in rival clashes, including a journalist and police photographer. Forty people have so far been reported injured.

Trouble first broke out in the district on August 27 after an incident in a local village. The man accused of the crime of molestation was stabbed to death, prompting his community to lynch two members of the other community.

Eight hundred troops were dispatched to the region on Saturday night, as armed gangs of Jats – a Hindu sect – attacked a mosque and a village containing Muslim residents.   »»» Army called in to quell Hindu-Muslim violence in northern India | euronews, world news

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