Muslim street cleric wants to protect Canadian women

[Ogopogo]

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/07/16/mu ... o-cover-up

Muslim street cleric wants to protect Canadian women from sex assault by forcing them to cover up

By Terry Davidson ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Monday, July 16, 2012 04:00 AM EDT


Muslim cleric's letter to the Sun about preventing sex assault
Many Islamist men don't understand imperative of consent

Canadian laws should be changed to require women to "cover themselves" to prevent sexual assaults, says an Islamic street preacher in Toronto.

Al-Haashim Kamena Atangana, a 33-year-old Islamic convert, called for legal change in response to recent sex attacks at York University.

Atangana is connected with a group called Muslim Support Network and is one of a number of street-corner clerics commonly seen at the Yonge and Dundas Sts.

In an e-mail to the Toronto Sun, Atangana said "the reason ... these sex attacks are continuously happening is because (of) Canadian laws, which give too much freedom to women" when it comes to how they dress.

"You should take your example from the way Muslim women dress," he wrote. "Why does (sic) Muslim women who wear long dress and covers her head aren't targeted for sex attacks?"

The clash between western culture and values and the beliefs of some Muslim adherents has been a source of controversy and conflict across North America.

Atangana, who plans to distribute his views on paper in the coming weeks, went on to state that "the reason ... a woman gets raped is because of the way she (dresses)," and suggests that "Toronto (become) the first city in North America to introduce laws that would make it illegal for women to dress provocatively."

If Toronto did this, Atangana said in an interview, other Canadian cities would follow suit.

"If (women) want to prevent being sexually assaulted, they should cover themselves," said Atangana, adding that while he doesn't expect Western women to dress as Muslim women do, they should have a "dress code" and take note of the burka the head scarf and face veil some Muslim females wear.

Atangana says he began planning to distribute his views after a recent spate of sex assaults at York University's Keele campus, and praised Const. Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto police officer who ended up in hot water after telling students at a York University safety forum in January 2011 that women should avoid dressing like "sluts" if they didn't want to be victimized.

The website Atangana provided for his group, Muslimsupport.net, is sparsely populated but contains links to other sites that offer advice on conversion to Islam and Islamic dress, including such advice as this:

"Men must cover their body from the navel to the knees. But when praying he must also cover his shoulder."

"Women must cover their whole body except the face, hands and feet while inside. But they are also required to cover their whole body including a part of the face while going out, according to the majority of the Madhabs (school of thought)."

Moderate Muslim writer Tarek Fatah says Atangana's view is a stark example of radical Islamist misogyny. It is an example, Fatah says, of passages taken from the Qur'an, Islam's holy book, and exaggerated to fit an antiquated, patriarchal ideology such as that of the Muslim Brotherhood.

"This is not about what women wear," Fatah said. "This is about ... some Muslim men believing that any woman whose head is uncovered is fair game because she is lustful...and doesn't belong to the pious (Islamic) sisterhood."

Fatah says it is "hogwash" to think a woman wearing traditional Islamic dress will not be sexually assaulted, and points to an on-going problem of sexual harassment in Egypt, where Muslim faith dominates.

According to a 2008 report from the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, 83% of Egyptian women had experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault at some point. And well, over half of those surveyed around 70% wore veils of some kind, particularly head scarves.

"These results disprove the belief that sexual harassment is linked to the way women dress," the report states. "This confirms that the stereotypical ideas of a patriarchal culture that blames women even if they are victims, is opposite to reality."

But Alia Hogben of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women sees things differently: Atangana's opinions are not as much to do with Islam as much as they reflect a general patriarchal desire among some men to control women.

"There is absolutely no connection between how women dress and being sexually assaulted," Hogben said, adding that other religions from Judaism to Christianity have traditional dress codes of their own. She did agree, however, that "good, pious" Muslim women are sexually harassed, despite wearing modest and traditional clothing.

"If (Atangana) thinks good, pious Muslim women are not sexually assaulted, he's wrong. If he thinks this is not happening in India or Egypt ... it is not true."

As for Atangana, who converted to Islam in 1998 after finding the Trinity of Christianity the belief in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit too "confusing," he remains steadfast in his views.

"Women here should have a dress code," he says. "That would prevent sexual assault."

terry.davidson@sunmedia.ca

[mindyrbusiness]

Where are the organizers of the "slut walks?"

[WestViking]

Why is this in our 'news'? He is just another nut-bar to ignore.

[RedDog]

There is a trend though. How many current news items involve badly chosen immigrants or their anchor babies and the calamity they're creating in this country?

[Ogopogo]

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/201 ... um=twitter

A guy on the street told me I’m going to hell. Would the Sun like the scoop?

Matt Gurney Jul 16, 2012 – 3:29 PM ET | Last Updated: Jul 16, 2012 6:03 PM ET

Newseum.org

Part of living and working in a big city is occasionally having odd encounters with your fellow citizens. Most can be dealt with by keeping your eyes staring straight ahead and plowing forward. Sometimes, though, you’re just plain trapped.

A few weeks ago, one of my closest friends found himself in one of those awkward situations. He had ridden the subway home from his downtown Toronto law firm and upon coming up out onto the street, found himself face to face with a Muslim street preacher, who was yelling at passing women that they needed to cover their bodies. “Have some respect!” he was yelling. “Be modest! Cover yourselves! Be decent!” But when my young, professionally attired (and, I must point out, Jewish) friend came face to face with the preacher, the preacher reacted as if faced with a miracle. “You!” he said in awe. “You’re a saint, man. Get a robe!”

At the time, it was just a funny story we had a laugh about — one more weird incident during life in the Big City. How could we have known that one of Toronto’s big daily newspapers would actually consider that to be front-page news?

Monday’s Toronto Sun‘s entire front page is given over to a story banner-headlined “DRESS CODE” and the blurb, “Muslim street cleric wants law making it illegal for women to dress provocatively.” When readers turn to pages four and five, they are confronted with a two-page spread story explaining how Al-Haashim Kamena Atangana, 33, believes that Toronto could eliminate sexual assault if it made it mandatory for women to dress moderately. It notes that he is connected with the Muslim Support Network, but provides no information about the network, what it does or what Atangana’s role is in the organization. And it reports that Atangana will begin distributing his views on paper in the coming weeks.

Let’s take a quick pause here and recap: Guy holds crazy view on complex social issue and plans to put it on paper. And … that’s it.

I can just see the news editors hunched around the conference room table, licking their lips with excitement at having landed such a scoop. Obviously we’ll give it page one, they instantly agree. Is page four going to be enough? No, no … better give it four and five.

News gets slow in the summer. Everyone who works in this business knows that. But that doesn’t mean our jobs get easier, since there are fewer of us chasing more obscure stories. But I am still perplexed why this is news. Anyone could wander around Toronto for a few hours and end up with a similarly hot scoop.

Just over the last few months, I’ve had to dodge Holocaust deniers, anti-abortion activists, marijuana reform activists, new age hippies of some variety, Muslim street preachers and a Christian literally thumping a Bible into his hand while warning that the end of the world was, and I quote, “Really f–king nigh.” While waiting for the light to go green so I could cross, this charming young man told me that God hated the way I was living my life and would punish me in this life and the next. I actually couldn’t disagree with him on that one. I also encountered one older guy demanding nuclear disarmament, which I appreciated. I’d been missing the Eighties.

Dealing with Canada’s, and specifically Toronto’s, immigrant communities, requires careful balancing and thoughtful reporting. News organizations in this country are often tasked with covering extremely controversial issues touching on Canada’s Muslim population, including support for terror groups abroad and here at home, women’s rights and honour killings. Cries of Islamophobia are common, but usually misplaced. With every issue listed above, the public has a right to be informed through accurate and impartial reporting. Editorial judgment is also called for.

And seems strangely absent in the Sun‘s Monday front page lead. If a Christian — say, for example, the one who randomly (if accurately) called me out for my sinful ways in public — were to be urging the same thing as Atangana, it’s hard to imagine the Sun or any other news organization taking it seriously. That was the right response here. One man with offensive suggestions who might, eventually, get around to writing them down should not a page-one story make, and treating this non-event as something worth covering will only harm the Sun’s credibility for the next time it has to take on a controversial, but news worthy, issue that may ruffle feathers in Canada’s Muslim community.

National Post
mgurney@nationalpost.com

[Blaze Pascal]

Where are the organizers of the "slut walks?"

Good question mindyrbusiness. I will definitely be getting in touch with them and asking them.

No doubt they will want to do a blog entry on this incident.

http://www.slutwalktoronto.com/category/blog

[Blaze Pascal]

Dear Slutwalk, I really love your project! I am someone who strongly believes in the freedom of the individual.

I came across this article and wonder if you would like to feature it it on your site, maybe a blog post. Please let me know what you think,

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/07/16/mu ... o-cover-up

Emilie Hollar

I'll let you know what they come back with.

[WestViking]

"Muslim street cleric wants to subjugate Canadian women"

[Blaze Pascal]

Just over the last few months, I’ve had to dodge Holocaust deniers, anti-abortion activists, marijuana reform activists, new age hippies of some variety, Muslim street preachers and a Christian literally thumping a Bible into his hand while warning that the end of the world was, and I quote, “Really f–king nigh.” While waiting for the light to go green so I could cross, this charming young man told me that God hated the way I was living my life and would punish me in this life and the next. I actually couldn’t disagree with him on that one. I also encountered one older guy demanding nuclear disarmament, which I appreciated. I’d been missing the Eighties.

Please Matt, you're getting hysterical. Tell us a story we can believe.

Dealing with Canada’s, and specifically Toronto’s, immigrant communities, requires careful balancing and thoughtful reporting.

Interesting NewSpeak. Yes, let's just keep quiet on this one.

[LAR]

Canadian laws should be changed to require women to "cover themselves" to prevent sexual assaults, says an Islamic street preacher in Toronto.

I agree but only if we get our choice of toppings.