Saturday October 10, 2009

I've Been Thinking:

Egypt is in the midst of a major conflict between the modern world and the traditional world.
That's not just conjecture, it is the claim made by Ali Gomaa the Grand Mufti of Egypt in an OPED published in Thursday's Wall Street Journal.

And then Sheik Azhar Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, one of the most important Sheiks of Egypt, has also issued a new Islamic law, a fatwa, that forbids female students in state schools from wearing the veil known in Arabic as a niqab.

It is all a direct response to the rise of the Taliban.
The Taliban are influencing the entire Islamic world.
That influence is most clearly seen in the niqab, the facial veil that is becoming more and more prominent on Arab streets.

When he entered a classroom the Grand Sheik noticed a girl wearing a niqab.
He shouted at her and said "Niqab has nothing to do with Islam. I know about religion better than you and your parents."
He spoke the truth.

There is no clear Muslim obligation to wear the niqab.
There is no real significant international Islamic leader who has called on women to wear them.
Wearing the veil is an outgrowth of the tribal period before Mohammed.

There is a real conflict in Egypt.
It is a manifestation of the conflict within Islam.

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