by Howard Rotberg
Besides Christmas, what is the most popular holiday among children in America? I would have to say it is Halloween, a pagan holiday, where children (and some adults) get to dress up in a costume and pretend that they are somebody else. For some reason, which is never discussed much, they get to go door to door and get candy, so this hiding of identity goes hand in hand with getting treats. No one seems too interested in discussing with their children anymore the actual meanings of various holidays like this one.
One aspect of attraction to Islamism, the radical Jihadist, pro-Shariah law and pro-worldwide caliphate form of Islam, is having the ability to hide your own identity and assume a different identity. This is especially attractive to people who are less than satisfied with their own identities and overcome that with a new costume. Islamism can bring with it a new “costume” or a new “fashion.”
In the context of Islamist attitudes to women and rape, the Burka full face cover takes on a special function, which has never occurred to those who ridiculed former Canadian Prime Minister Harper’s policy that no woman hiding her face behind a Burka or Niqab should be able to take the oath of citizenship. Daniel Greenfield, writing for Frontpage Magazine, explains:
“Muslim apologists insist that the Burka has something to do with female modesty. But the Koran spells out clearly the reason for it. ‘Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils) all over their bodies that they may thus be distinguished and not molested.’ The Hijab was invented for similar reasons in 1970’s Lebanon to mark out Shiite women so they wouldn’t be molested by Muslim terrorists. The purpose of the Burka was closer to a cattle brand, separating women married to Muslim husbands, from slave women who were captured in war. The former were the property of their husbands and untouchable, the latter were fair game for everyone… The Burka placed responsibility on women to defeminize themselves and mark themselves as property. Centuries of Islamic jurisprudence put the burden of responsibility for any assault on a woman as the object that tempts men to sin. .. femininity is inherently an object of temptation. The Burka and the Hijab began as a way of defeminizing women for their protection, but then became an indictment of women. Women were no longer being defeminized to protect them, but to protect men from them.”
And so, by December, 2016, bearing in mind the upcoming elections, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the wearing of full-faced veils should be prohibited in the country “wherever it is legally possible.” At a meeting of her CDU party, she backed a burka ban in schools, courts and other state buildings. Most experts believe that a total ban would violate Germany’s constitution.
“The full veil must be banned, wherever legally possible. Showing your face is part of our way of life,” she said.
“Our laws take precedence over honour codes, tribal customs and sharia.”
The burka is one extreme, but what about the scarf called the keffiyah, so on display now where Islamists and their leftist allies are forcing universities to submit to their protests and occupations. So many wear the keffiyah, while they shout for the genocide of the Jews by a conquest of the main part of Israel, west from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. with the Jews having the choice to leave or die. (“Palestine shall be free – from the river to the sea”)
In my book, The Ideological Path to Submission … and what we can do about it. I discuss how many actions by Islamists, (who are the radical Muslims who adopt or support terrorism to advance an agenda of a worldwide caliphate, Sharia Law, and violent Jihad) are part of a political/cultural revolution where the West must “submit” to Islam.
And so we understand better the actions of Islamist member of the Ontario legislature, Sarah Jama, who refuses to take off her keffiyah scarf in the Leglislature and leave, despite a ruling that she leave due to breach of the policy against wearing “overtly political attire”. Jama admits that the keffiyeh is “cultural” but she uses it for “political purposes”. What does that mean? In the context of studying and writing about Islamism, it appears to me that actions like wearing a keffiyeh, a burka, or blocking roads, bridges, harassing Jewish students, blocking entrances to university buildings, are all part of an agenda to enforce submission to Islam, as the West struggles to accommodate immigrants whose values are radically different from traditional western values. Whether we are told we must submit to certain clothing, to loudspeakers effecting a public call to prayer, setting aside school rooms for Muslim prayers, or asserting Arab Palestinian “victimhood” as justification for terrorist murder, the goal is submission.
How else to understand that it was after the most obscene murders, burning, rapes, hostage-taking, and murder of babies in front of their mothers, that the reaction of so many students was to celebrate this most vile terrorism, and dress up for their “team” and pretend that they too are Hamas.
And so, Sarah Jama, Ontario Canada Member of the Provincial Parliament, who seems obsessed with anti-Israelism and antisemitism, understands what is at stake, and every day she appears in a keffiyeh is another day that the West submits to Islamism. In my novel, The Second Catastrophe, I assert that the goal is a Second Holocaust. Part and parcel of that is, as we see now in Europe, Islamist protests against teaching the Holocaust on the basis that it didn’t really happen, just as some of the protesting leftist and Islamist students deny the murders of October 7th, – despite proof in videos and through witnesses, including among Islamist Palestinians who are proud of their actions.
Rana Abdulla asserts the Islamist view of the keffiyeh scarf:
“The keffiyeh is one of Palestine’s (sic) most iconic symbols. It is incredibly important; it is Palestinians’ daily reminder of the repression they face on a daily basis and its cultural appropriation. The keffiyeh is the hope that’s been passed down with every worn-out keffiyeh, generation after generation. Keffiyeh reminds all Palestinians of their right to resist. Keffiyeh reminds all Palestinians of their right to live in their land without any occupation. It is important, therefore, that non-Arabs, wear it only out of respect for the wishes of Palestinians themselves.”
But “resistance” is murder and before murdering people one should really understand who is occupying who.
In late 2000, the keffiyeh became political when the fashion world collided with the political world. All of a sudden, the traditional Arabic head dress became a fashion statement. In 2007, it even made it to the major couture houses including Balenciaga and stores across the US including Urban Outfitters as they began selling the keffiyeh as a fashion symbol scarf. The idea offended just about everyone. Those who understand the history of the Palestinian Arab’s attempt to evict indigenous Jews from Israel, were appalled that it was suddenly fashionable to wear the terrorist’s choice of scarf; those who were Islamist dissed those who used fashion to “culturally appropriate” the Islamist symbol of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Radhika Sanghani, writes in The Telegraph about one 16-year-old pupil who was barred from her school in England for wearing a niqab – a veil that shows only her eyes. She canvassed thoughts from Muslim young women by taking the following from Reddit website. It seems to me that in a world where women must submit to men then the slightest choice in fashion becomes liberating. It is so sad.
One young lady writes: “I like to use it to promote feminism, however it is very hard to express it because of how people view it. There ARE a lot of women who are forced to wear it, and I think that’s really wrong, no matter how religious or what country.”
Another says, “The hijab is forced in some places in the world, or by certain people – especially men in many cases. I will not deny this. This is not feminism. I want to take this hijab and make it my own. First choose if I even want to cover or not. Define WHY and HOW. I will choose what colors I will wear. What materials. Not just black and white.”
Another says she started wearing a hijab five years ago in her secondary school, and writes: “I genuinely like wearing it. It makes me feel put together and confident in a weird way. Maybe because it does take a certain level of courage to visibly separate yourself from normal society. To start wearing a hijab I had to stop caring about what other people thought and now I can be proud of that.
“It definitely doesn’t stop street harassment, but men do treat you with a bit more respect. I don’t think it’s right to treat a girl differently because of how she’s dressed but it does happen. When I’m wearing a hijab it’s much easier not to care when I’m getting leered at because what exactly is he looking at? My face?”
Another writes: “I wear the hijab because it is part of being a Muslim. It is a choice at the end of the day, but I prefer to wear it and identify myself as a Muslim. It’s also a sign of modesty that I wear it, like I can’t wear short or tight clothes with the headscarf. It definitely keeps away the male attention where they won’t approach you to flirt etc.
Regarding the niqab, which covers the face, one young woman says “I don’t like it, but that’s just my opinion. Firstly, because it isn’t an obligation to cover your face in Islam and second, I want to be able to breathe…? It’s suffocating as I’ve seen a lot of people I know who do wear a niqab. I’m not forced to wear a niqab/burqa. The only times I wear a burqa – the black robe thing, is when I don’t feel like changing so I just throw it on when going somewhere.”
Among Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox Jews or some Amish and Mennonite Christians, there are requirements for females to dress modestly, covering their hair, and wearing long sleeves and long skirts; within reason, this doesn’t bother me.
We, in the west, must ask ourselves, “are so many men mistreating women, sexualizing them, using them for sex and then leaving them, that women may soon reject the halter tops and other revealing garments that make them feel that their purpose in life is to arouse men?” Will these women start to conclude, as much of Islam does, that men are beasts, incapable of controlling their sexual urges, and need to be “protected” from “slutty” women, being defined as those who show more skin than their face only? If we continue to see the increasing rate of rapes by Arab and other Muslim men against western women, might some western women finally conclude that if you can’t beat them, join them, in putting on “protective clothing”?
The most common definition of “fashion”, according to the Oxford Dictionaries, is “A popular or the latest style of clothing, hair, decoration or behaviour.” However, we tend, in our usage of the word, to emphasize clothing or hair rather than “behaviour.” Perhaps we don’t like to remind ourselves that our behaviour is a mere “fashion” as that connotes that the ideologies in our environment might have more control over our behaviour when we narcissistically think we are completely and individually in control.
So, while we start this article with the above introduction to Islamist clothing, we might emphasize that certain behaviours are no doubt in fashion and certain other behaviours are no longer in fashion. Young people, especially, like to adopt the latest way of dressing, talking, and behaving. The university protests show a love for chanting stupid slogans. That dress, talk and behaviour can be seen as desirable for reasons of comfort or esthetics, but it can be adopted out of desire to appear “with it” or what we call “fashionable.”
Accordingly, while the keffiyeh and the burka can be seen as fashionable in some circles, mainly Islamist, they can also be seen to be fashionable amongst those wanting to rebel against their own stagnant culture by embracing a new culture. And, since fashion applies to behaviour, we must acknowledge that certain behaviours are a function of Islam becoming fashionable. To those followers of fashion who want to make the loudest statement of their dislike of their own culture, what can be more appealing than the culture of Islam? Islam, through its Islamist bosses, is being swept into media and the arts, as a tolerant way to welcome the others, even perhaps as being in the forefront of a perceived future. Even though I consider Islamism as an evil, we acknowledge that Islam is a worldwide religion – even though we may want to see many aspects of it reformed to accord with our liberal values as it comes into the West through immigration policies.
By considering Islam as a “fashion” we may understand that those who want to be in the forefront of the latest “fashionable” ideology, may be drawn to it. It is not financially difficult, given that the Saudis and the Qataris are funding certain Islamic studies programs and other cultural events, and in fact funding the construction of mosques, while other religions make do with trying to fundraise among their members for decades until they can afford to build a structure.
When I attended university in the early 1970s, young men could fashion their rebellion away from their parents’ culture by merely growing long hair and a beard. Some eastern religions, such as Hare Krishna, became fashionable for short periods of time. Later the “Moonies” came into fashion. But for those who tried them and later found them wanting, leaving the movement was of no consequence. In the fashion of Islam, as controlled by the Islamists, leaving the religion may be punishable with death. Leaving the conservative dress codes for women may result in sexual assault based on the assumption by the Islamists that the victimized woman was asking for the assault by dressing immodestly. To the young people who are drawn to the structure and opportunities in today’s Islam, they must be taught that they are not dealing with the fashion of mere clothing, but a fashion that requires a life commitment. No fan of fashion should fail to understand this. Islamism as fashion is a serious business.
Perhaps that is why on April 24th, 2024, the Leftist/Islamist students’ next target for occupation was New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology.
Howard Rotberg is the author of five books on ideologies, culture and values and has written over 100 columns for international newspapers. He is founding president of Mantua Books. His new book is Second Generation Radical. See www.howardrotberg.com. This essay is adapted from a chapter in his book, The Ideological Path to Submission.
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One Response
IMTO, it’s wonderful that some odiophiles want to identify theirselves with infanticidists, rapists, murderers, mutilators. Pity that the Nazi swastika has fallen out of feral fashion as a moral identifier in the West and Middle East.