t home from Denbigh high school in Luton for wearing a jilbab, an ankle-length dress that leaves only the face and hands visible.
Begum, who was regarded as a promising pupil, was orphaned last April with the death of her mother. Her father had died in 1992. Her 21-year-old brother, Shuweb Rahman, who helped her bring the case, is an HuT supporter. […]
Mahmood, who has in the past likened HuT to the British National party, said it had a record of targeting young people in schools and universities to lure them away from the mainstream of the Muslim community in Britain. “It is important that social services look into that role,” he said.
Denbigh High school was an unlikely target for criticism. Almost 80% of its 1,000 pupils are Muslim, and its dress code, which allows pupils to wear a shalwar kameez (trousers and a long tunic), was introduced with the support of the town’s Council of Mosques.
The school argued that going further, by permitting the jilbab, might create divisions by implying that those who did not wear it were not as devout as those who did. It also suggested that the garment posed a safety hazard. […]
HuT’s ultimate aim is a worldwide Muslim state, ruled by sharia, Islamic law, and it urges Muslims not to participate in democratic politics. It was founded in 1953 in the Middle East, and was banned in Egypt after an attempted coup in 1974.
I didn’t watch this week’s Question Time, but was amused to read that Germaine Greer had come out strongly against the High Court ruling. Didn’t she used to be a feminist?
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