Islam is the fastest spreading religion in west these days; people are understanding and accepting Islam more than ever. Unfortunately there are some steps which are causing problems for Muslims to live in west; well it's true that they are free to go to their mosques and Islamic centers getting Islamic education and performing their Islamic practices. The controversial issue is the ban on the Hijab, Veil, Niqab, Burqa. Is the west afraid of the veil or is it another step to underestimate Muslim women.
Muslims are everywhere in the world, certainly it's a success that wherever they live despite of the enormous cultural differences they achieved their target of protecting their own Islamic tradition and values. There are many families who might have mixed up in the western civilization but still in a large number who are still resisting the change and feel proud on their Islamic morals.
After the law passed in the French parliament about the veil and Nicolas Sarkozy's regretting remarks about the Niqab, the veil of a normal woman in France is in danger; she will be punished for wearing Niqab, she had to pay a penalty for her act!
There are some arguments made by the western authorities, well I like to list some of them and try to give proper answers according to my knowledge and understanding of ethics. Some argue that it's not our culture, well, if this is the point, then why the Jews are allowed to wear their cultural dresses in public, if you have to put a ban on Muslim Niqab then you should also put a ban on Jewish veil. Without doubt this is a very weak argument, because Government can not pressurize the citizens to follow any specific culture. Can they ban the Chinese restaurants just because it is not their culture and forcing people to eat English food? Indeed not!
This is also argued that the veil promotes racism, first of all Niqab is not a racist element, it's a religious matter. Secondly, Muslims women from all over the world irrespective of race, country, language, color, and ethnicity wear Niqab and cover themselves. Well, the biggest racist element a person wear on himself is his face, you can not force a person to change his face and be all alike.
While some say that it's a security risk but the fact that this is only because they are targeting a specific religion. Banning the Niqab will bring more hatred and this step will give rise to more terrorism. The policy of "live and let live" should be adopted or else this will start a hate war and wars with no reason have no ending.
At the end, why interfere with my principles if I'm not interfering with yours. Despite the ban, the girls are widely adopting the Hijab, they are covering their faces in public, in schools, in universities and they still feel proud. They are happy to show their identity as a Muslim. They are doing this and still getting education performing well in job and prospering. They are doing Hijab on their own, despite some parents stop them after the ban but still they wear Hijab and fully support their step and resist the ban.
The western authorities should seriously think what they are doing, and what will be the outcome they will be facing, the minimum will be a worldwide campaign in the support of Hijab.
