Ohio: Muslims cry “racism and bigotry” over cancellation of public school hijab promotion

April 18, 2015 7:37 am By Robert Spencer 53 Comments

This Cincinnati Enquirer report about this controversy is not as bad as it could have been, given the mainstream media’s policy of obfuscating the reality of the global jihad. It is full of the usual nonsense: those who oppose the promotion of Islam in a public school are guilty of “racism” and “bigotry” — charges that would never be leveled at anyone who opposed the promotion of Christianity or Judaism in a public school. Muslims quoted in the story eagerly play the victim as usual, pretending to be the victims of discrimination, with no hint that anyone has any reason other than

“bigotry” to look askance at the promotion of a garment that has been the cause of the murder and oppression of untold numbers of women.

Here is a glimpse of how the mainstream media works, although here again, I’ve seen much worse. Here is my actual exchange with the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Hannah Sparling, followed by what she published:

1. What was your initial reaction to the challenge?
I thought it was unfortunate that the school would be glorifying what is for all too many women around the world a symbol and manifestation of their oppression. Women have been killed for not wearing hijab (I provide a very partial list here: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/04/ohio-public-high-school-hosting-a-covered-girl-challenge-asking-students-to-wear-hijab-for-a-day ), including even in the West: Aqsa Parvez was murdered by her father and brother for not wearing the headscarf in Ontario in 2007. In Iran, women stand up for their freedom and dignity as human beings by posting pictures of themselves not wearing the hijab, even though in doing so they risk jail time or even death. See details here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/12/iran-women-hijab-facebook-pictures-alinejad
I thought it was a shame that this one-sided event would go on with no mention being made of Aqsa or those Iranian women, or the other women who have been brutalized and killed for not covering their heads. I also thought it unwise of the school to hold an event presenting Islam in an uncritically positive light while not holding similar positive events about Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.
2. What are your thoughts on it being canceled?
It is a victory for common sense, although I would have had no objection to its being held if Wear A Cross Day, Wear A Kippah Day, Wear A Bindi Day, etc., had also been scheduled, as well as Stand Up for Aqsa Parvez and Other Women Like Her Day.
3. Who is at fault here (assuming anyone), and why? School officials? The students in the Muslim Student Association?
The students in the MSA have been told by their elders that Muslims are oppressed and face discrimination in the U.S., and that it is important to present a positive image of Islam to counteract supposedly rampant “bigotry” and “Islamophobia.” They can’t be faulted for acting on what they were told. School officials likewise meant well but should have informed themselves more fully about some of the implications of holding this day, i.e., some of the facts I listed in #1 above.
4. Does anything need to happen now, as followup to what happened?
It would be refreshing if Mason High School held an event about women’s rights in Islam, featuring not just a spokesperson from, say, the MSA, which is the kind of person they would likely bring in, but also an ex-Muslim woman such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nonie Darwish, or Wafa Sultan, who could explain the other side of what it is like to live as a woman under Islamic law.
5. Could you provide me with a quick overview on your organization? Who you are, what you do and you ultimate goals?
Jihad Watch is dedicated to raising awareness about the way in which the ideology of jihad in Islam has impact on world events. I am the director. I am the author of 13 books, including two New York Times bestsellers, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. I have given training seminars on the beliefs and goals of jihad terrorists to the FBI, the US Army Central Command, the CIA, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the US Army Command and General Staff College, and other groups. My ultimate goals are to secure the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law, and to protect the principles enshrined in the US Constitution and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

Here is what Sparling found fit to print:

The event was publicized by Jihad Watch, a nonprofit which says it’s dedicated to ‘raising awareness’ about Islam but which some critics have called anti-Islam.
Director Robert Spencer said in an email to The Enquirer that a hijab day would be “glorifying what is for all too many women around the world a symbol and manifestation of their oppression.” Muslim women have been killed for not wearing the hijab; others risk jail time.
Spencer said school officials probably meant well in holding the event but should read up on women who have been “brutalized” for not covering their heads. Canceling, he said, was “a victory for common sense.” He suggested, instead, an event focusing on women’s rights in Islam.

“What Mason’s hijab battle tells us,” by Hannah Sparling, Cincinnati Enquirer, April 17, 2015:

MASON – What if students wore a hijab for one day?
What started out as a cultural awareness effort by Mason High School Muslim students this week morphed into a fierce 48-hour debate about prejudice, freedom and religion in public schools.
By the end, Mason High School canceled the “Covered Girl Challenge,” and principal Mindy McCarty-Stewart sent an apology to district families. The challenge was student-sponsored and voluntary, meant to combat stereotypes students may face when wearing head coverings, McCarty-Stewart wrote.
“As word spread beyond our school community … we received many strong messages that made me reconsider the event’s ability to meet its objectives,” McCarty-Stewart wrote. “I now realize that as adults we should have given our students better guidance.”
Even afterward, though, the episode and arguments illustrate the fault lines in Greater Cincinnati – and the U.S. – over where cultural awareness ends and promoting a religion begins. And where avoiding controversy ends and turns into bigotry.
‘Bullied and intimidated’
“This is ridiculous!!” read one email sent to Mason that the Enquirer obtained under a public records request. “You’re spending our money to support Sharia and Islam…”
“There is absolutely no reason to do this,” read another. “Stop trying to down play the horrible thing (SIC) that have occurred in this nation at the hands of Muslims.”
But for Shakila Ahmad, her first reaction when she heard about the response to the hijab challenge was disappointment.
“You know what? I really thought we were a better community than this,” said Ahmad, a Mason resident and president and board chair for the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati. “To let ourselves be bullied and intimidated, to cancel something whose whole objective was to build understanding is extremely disappointing.”
Ahmad doesn’t wear a hijab herself, but she has respect for those who do, she said.
And, while she hasn’t heard specifically of the “Covered Girl Challenge,” the concept is common, she said.
“It’s purely allowing people to experience a diverse perspective,” she said, “and to really build understanding of what a fellow community member, a young person in my same community, might be experiencing.”
‘I think we crossed that line’
The challenge was student-led rather than school-sponsored, but an email promoting the event came from a school account.
That should not have happened, McCarty-Stewart said, adding that MHS will put policies in place to ensure school accounts are only used for school-sponsored events.
Really, that’s where school officials tripped up, said district spokeswoman Tracey Carson.
“The key there is, it’s student-led and student-driven,” she said. “In this case, I think, honestly, where we messed up is because adults got too involved in this process.”
Mason has a duty to allow students to freely practice religion, Carson said. Students of all faiths are allowed to wear traditional religious garb to school.
“But at the same time, we can’t promote religion,” she said, “and I think by us having the permission slip (for the Covered Girl event), by adults having sent the email, I think we crossed that line.”
Not Mason’s first controversy over Islam
The Enquirer reached out to the Muslim Student Association via school officials, but no students responded to the request for comment.
This is not Mason school’s first brush with Muslim-themed controversy. About a decade ago, former school board candidate Sharon Poe and then- board member Jennifer Miller publicly blasted school officials for allowing Muslim students to have a separate lunch hour for fasting during Ramadan, which occurs during the ninth month of the Muslim calendar.
That holiday practice continues at Mason schools. The area, however, is open to any student, regardless of faith, Carson said.
As word spread of the Covered Girl Challenge – and its subsequent cancellation – opinions on both sides were strong.
Poe said the event would have been inappropriate, a breach of separation between church and state.
“My belief is wearing these hijabs represents the oppression of women and Sharia law,” she told The Enquirer.
“I do not recall ever getting an email announcing a Christian Cross Wearing day or a booth for information about the Christian persecution from Islamic terrorists. What happen to the argument of the separation of church and state?”
Others, however, were upset it was canceled, saying the school “caved to bigotry.”
Yasmeen Allen is an Iraqi native with two teenagers at Mason High. Allen’s daughter wears a hijab to mosque worship but not to school, Allen said, adding that the family is “really upset that the school is succumbing to outside pressure of racism and bigotry toward people who are different from them.”
Muslim students “were robbed of an opportunity” to support their religion and counter some of the negativity it faces around the world, she said.
“They are American Muslims, and they have a right to be heard just like anybody else,” she said. “Mason schools have failed miserably in upholding their diversity mission.”
Canceling a ‘victory for common sense.’
The event was publicized by Jihad Watch, a nonprofit which says it’s dedicated to ‘raising awareness’ about Islam but which some critics have called anti-Islam.
Director Robert Spencer said in an email to The Enquirer that a hijab day would be “glorifying what is for all too many women around the world a symbol and manifestation of their oppression.” Muslim women have been killed for not wearing the hijab; others risk jail time.
Spencer said school officials probably meant well in holding the event but should read up on women who have been “brutalized” for not covering their heads. Canceling, he said, was “a victory for common sense.” He suggested, instead, an event focusing on women’s rights in Islam….