Church minister to tweet Holy Communion to the faithful - Telegraph

Can the solidarity symbolised by Holy Communion
be virtual...mediated through a PC screen? In what
the sociologist Grace Davie calls a 'believing not
belonging' society might a 'Twitter Lords Supper'
be a culturally appropriate medium of grace for
those attracted to the person of Jesus but switched
off the church? Alternatively is a Tweeted Holy
Communion little more than a retreat from community?
Is this a fresh expression or just a desperate attempt
to look cool and 'down with the IT Crowd'? The Daily
Telegraph newspaper reports the story...What do you
think?



Church minister to tweet Holy Communion to the faithful - Telegraph

MORE REFLECTIONS ON THE VEIL, FAITH & IDENTITY

http://www.salmayaqoob.com/2010/07/government-reject-calls-to-ban-niqab.html

Monday, 19 July 2010

Salma Yaqoob, the Leader of 'Respect' writes....

Government reject calls to ban niqab
Immigration Minister Damien Green is to be congratulated for dismissing calls for a ban on the niqab. In response, Philipe Hollobone, the attention seeking MP behind the bill calling for a ban, has said he will not meet any constituent who wears a face veil. In acting in such an intolerant manner Hollobone undermines one of the fundamental principles of the 'British way of life' he claims he wants to protect: the right of every citizen to expect equal representation from their MP. Having crossed swords with Hollobone a lot over the last week in the media I can safely predict that the irony of his stance will be lost on him.

Like many Muslims I find this all depressing. But it also provokes feelings of bemusement. One European government after another apparently feels compelled to proscribe the clothing choice of a tiny percentage of their population. It would be funny if it was not so sinister. In Belgium, it is said that only 30 women in the entire country wear the niqab. In France, it is less than 2,000 out of a population of 64 million. With Europe in the middle of its greatest economic crisis in over half a century you might be forgiven for thinking there are more serious issues to address.

I am against the imposition of dress codes on women, whether they live in Saudi Arabia or Southampton. It is a woman’s right to choose how to dress and nobody else’s. It certainly is not the right of any religious authority, father, husband, brother or politician to impose a dress code. Everybody should have the right to freedom of expression as long as in so doing they do not infringe on the rights of others. It is a simple principle that does not mean we have to agree with each other. Incidentally, that is a principle that some Muslims should think about more deeply. We rightly demand that our rights to practice our faith are upheld. We rightly insist that we are treated equally and with the same respect as all other citizens. It seems to me that it is hypocritical to demand these rights for ourselves, but to object when gay people, for example, demand the same equality as citizens. It is a basic principle of pluralism and civility that we don't only defend the freedoms of people whose choices we happen to like. Indeed the real test of tolerance and freedom is defending the rights of people whose choices we may actually dislike or disagree with - as long of course they do not harm or infringe the rights of others.


Those who support calls for a ban claim we need one on the interests of security. But there are already powers which allow authorities to request women show their face on entering buses, banks, airports etc. The wearing of the niqab is not a threat of security. Nor is it a threat to community cohesion. There is nothing which prohibits anyone from approaching and speaking to niqab wearing woman. And in my experience the women themselves adopt a practical approach by removing the niqab if it is required or if they feel it necessary. The biggest threat to community cohesion we face is not a piece of cloth the covers the faces of a minority within a minority, it is the climate of intolerance and racism this debate invariably brings with it.

As this government unleashes an austerity package much more extreme than anything Margaret Thatcher attempted, which could well result in riots on our streets, this focus on the extremely marginal actions of a handful of people is a divisive distraction. While Phillip Hollobone claims to be inspired by wanting to defend women’s rights, even invoking Emily Pankhurst in the process, he is noticeably quiet on government plans to slash benefits which will impact heaviest on women and single parent families.

There is an ugly tide of Islamophobia spreading across Europe and it is lapping on our shores. Almost every day there is some negative story about Muslims in the media. Almost every weekend gangs of racist thugs in the English Defence League target Muslim communities seeking to provoke street violence. Just yesterday they were down the road engaging in violence on the streets of Dudley. Whether those who call for a ban on the niqab are aware of it or not, this demand is stoking the fires of intolerance prejudice and racism. Muslim communities today across Europe are being subject to a kind of demonisation that has ugly echoes with the hysteria Jewish communities endured about their culture, lifestyle, and the politics of fringe elements among their ranks, during the 1920’s and 30’s. The political beneficiaries of this climate of hysteria in this country will be the fascist thugs marauding our streets in the English Defence League, and the ones wearing the suits in the BNP.

CONNECTING COMMUNITIES

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
from July-October 2010...Focusing
on the part played in the struggle
agaisnt Nazism by Muslim communities
in the UK...






Exhibitions and Events - Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

Who Decides What's Normal?

Who gets to decide that's normal?
Who gets to decide what faith means?
Who gets to decide who we are?

In recent months debate has raged in the
French political class about the small
number of Muslim women who wear the niqab
or the burkha. The lower house of the French
parliament has voted for a ban on the burkha.
Is this Islamophobia or extreme secularism,
or a bit of both? The debate, which is also
seen in the UK tabloid media, actually relates
to around about 2-3,000 French Muslim women. In
the UK vurtually no Muslim women wear the niqab
or the burkha. So what's this really about?

Over 30 years ago the postcolonial critic
Edward Said wrote a book called 'Orientalism'
in which he suggested that so called western
and oriental ways of thinking and being have
been pitted agaisnt one-another as irreconcilible
opposites...a legacy of the not-so glorious
colonial era. When we think in blocks, in camps
we forget that real people are a whole mix of
different ideas and cultures....Life in urban
Europe is more complicated than French
politicians, tabloid journalists in the UK or
some Salafi Muslims would have us believe....

We are not one thing or another but a whole heap
of things at the same time...Let's say 'No' to
fixed notions of identity that assume one image
is OK but another is inherently a 'threat'. No
to binary imaging of fluid identities.

Faith in urban Europe is critically important
but it cannot reasonably be reduced to tabloid
headlines or notions of believing that have not
shifted for a century....

Who am I? What is a European? How does my faith
relate to that of my neighbours? And most important
of all...How might people of faith and no-faith
build a movement aimed at fashioning social justice?

The Burkha is a side issue, so is the crucifix which
the French courts [and British Airways] tried to ban
too....What matters is the place of faith in societies
where those with power simply don't seem to get the
fluid realities on the ground...Faith in the public
square can either foster social justice and equality
or social exclusion and intolerance...I know which I
prefer.