.... The Daily Express notes Hargey’s warning that Britain had been ‘conned’ and ‘hoodwinked’ into thinking ‘that the burka/niqab is intrinsic to Islam’ by ‘Muslim zealots’.
“It is nothing of the sort: it is pre-Islamic, non-Koranic and ipso facto un-Muslim,” he states.
Describing it as an “archaic tribal rag” and an “imported Saudi fad”, Hargey proclaims that it should be rejected on “compelling religious, social, sexist, security and health grounds”.
Ignoring the many women who declare that they choose to wear the niqab of their own volition and that they do so on their reading of the Qur’an and, importantly, the traditions of the Prophet (saw), Hargey pushes for the selective denial of religious freedoms to suit his own disposition.
He takes no account of the myriad of opinions in all religions in respect of text interpretation and he singularly overlooks the validity of the traditions of the Prophet’s wives in his assessment of what is or not ‘intrinsic to Islam’. [MEND] Read more
