« Sticks and Stones | Main | We will get the terrorists where they live..unless we can get them to attack Iran for us »

April 13, 2006

More Muhammad Cartoon Fallout

Inspired by the Danish Muhammad cartoon fiasco, a new 8-part series on Danish television, "Adam and Asmaa," has tried to "dissect the misunderstandings between Islam and the West." On the show, co-hosts Adam and Asmaa debate immigration, Islam and integration with various guests.

But a most amazing thing has happened (amazing to me, anyway). Because Asmaa, a devout Muslim woman, wears a headscarf during the show, several groups are outraged and want the show canceled unless the headscarf disappears.

Why, you might ask, would so many people be so offended that a devout Muslim woman on a talk show is wearing a headscarf?

"Religion should remain private," Vibeke Manniche recently told Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. "That's why a headscarf doesn't belong on a TV host on public television."

Manniche heads the Women for Freedom Association.

"The choice of Asmaa as a co-host is an insult to Danish and Muslim women," said Manniche. "She sends the message that an honorable woman can't go out unless she's covered up."

Even Denmark's minister for social affairs and gender equality, Eva Kjaer Hansen, is jumping into this bizarre fray:

"I want to remind DR that its employees should not serve as missionaries."

Asmaa disagrees:

"You can still be strong and independent even with a piece of fabric over your head," she argues. But the piece of fabric and her pro-Islamic views have earned Hamid the label of a fundamentalist. Hamid sees that as a glib response. "I have a hard time accepting that just because you wear a headscarf you are labeled a fundamentalist. That's too simplistic. I have no ties to fanatic circles."

All I can say is I hope the anti-fundamentalist furor that is stirring in the United States doesn't get this carried away. It's one thing to expect fundamentalists to refrain from efforts to impose their beliefs on the rest of us via our legal and governmental systems. It's quite another to suppress the peaceful public expression of a belief system.

Posted by Becky at April 13, 2006 10:08 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.preemptivekarma.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1149