It's Not Just the Veil

Technology and globalization have reinvented other traditional Muslim practices in some surprising ways.

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | MAY/JUNE 2011

Just Do It … Modestly

Traditional clothing for Muslim women -- think head coverings and long sleeves -- might not seem compatible with modern athletics, where body-hugging spandex is de rigueur. Bahraini sprinter Ruqaya Al Ghasara, who once raised eyebrows by sporting a headscarf emblazoned with a Nike swoosh, caused a stir at the 2004 Athens Olympics when she became the first woman to compete in a running event wearing a hijab. More recently, the "burqini," a modest bodysuit for swimming, has won fans from Dubai to Indonesia since its 2007 launch, though traditionalists complain that the suits are tantamount to "playing a game with Allah."

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARCELO CIPIS FOR FP

 SUBJECTS: CULTURE, ARAB WORLD
 

Joshua E. Keating is an associate editor at Foreign Policy.

FRED_J9

3:17 AM ET

April 25, 2011

have you read Quran ?

Replying to CITIZENXYZ, you must have never read Quran ? Muslims are very respectful and too tight to their religion islam, respect,loyality,etc, unlike us americans, i lastly saw a video on: : http://oujda-portail.net ; showing a woman and a guy making love in the church, do you think it's enough ...

 

AGRICOLA

9:15 AM ET

April 25, 2011

Troll

I call troll. A Pro-islamist self insulting American? Let me try to play your game.

Muslims are not respectful. You have merely to read the punishments for people of other faiths from the Quran, Crucifixtion, look at the Kabah as a stolen pagan altar, The dome on the rock as an example of the same insults islam perpetrated on the Greeks with the Hagia Sophia, or look at how the grass roots violence inherent in islam causes the slaughter of non muslims in Pakistan, india, Syria, Egypt, indonesia, Malaysia.... unlike us muslims, non muslims have hope since their principles are not derived from a book that openly supports slavery, racism, and death towards "non believers" of the dribbles of a arabian trader turned caravan raider. I saw a video on every major news network a month ago about a couple who was stoned to death for getting married without the islamic permission of the parents, do you think it's enough...

 

JKOLAK

8:48 AM ET

April 25, 2011

How are they doing with the

How are they doing with the tradition to slay the unbelievers wherever they find them?

 

AGRICOLA

9:16 AM ET

April 25, 2011

Struggling.

They are also struggling being the "religion of peace", even to their own believers.

 

SEPPOIN

12:56 PM ET

April 25, 2011

Selective Quoting

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Let's avoid picking one-sentence from a paragraph, and trying to fool the world. Please see below some selective quotes

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34)

“Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.” (Numbers 31:17-18)

“If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ .?.?. do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death.” Deuteronomy 13:6-9

 

ORMONDOTVOS

6:20 PM ET

April 29, 2011

I Agree.

Most religions poison human cooperation between cultures. Got that?

And we don't need a world religion instead. We need universal privacy in religion.

Let every child be taught to wait on religion, until they finish high school.

Make it a hate crime to brainwash children, since it destroys their intellectual and cultural autonomy.

 

COUNTCHOCULA1011

11:02 AM ET

April 25, 2011

You're gonna have every Christian thinking the Anti-Christ...

...is upon us with this article. Even though all it demonstrates is that businesses are catering to a growing Muslim middle class, this is most certainly gonna freak out the Evangies. God forbid businesses acknowledge that Muslims exist.

 

OMAR IBRAHIM

11:16 AM ET

April 25, 2011

More about Islam

A basic knowledge of Islam history and culture would certainly dispel some of the more prevalent misunderstandings and surprise some.
Note worthy, inter alia:
1- The legislative flexibility, adaptability, even of Koranic injunctions should a case of Force Majeure arise.
The ruling to cut off the hand of a thief, subject to many conditions, was suspended by Omar Ibn Al Khattab, the second Caliph, in the year of the FAMINE.
2-Sex separation was never a religious command ; women marched along with Moslem armies to fight if need be but mainly to nurse the wounded.
3-To strive to better one's family conditions by taking hardship assignments is a form of JIHAD
4-So is the quest for knowledge in alien lands
5-Co education of the sexes existed during the Prophet's lifetime; both sexes attended the discourses he used to hold in the Mecca Mosque.
6-Marriage in Islam is conditional on accepting the proposal to marry, that can come from either sex, subject to the presence of witnesses.
ETC ETC ETC

 

MYTHA

1:57 PM ET

April 26, 2011

interest rate

Usury is forbidden in Islam. However, the "Islamic" banks play a trick on
God and on the consumer. For instance, if one wants to buy a car he saw at a dealership, the bank buys the car, lets say for ten thousand dollars. The bank then sells the car to the customer for say thirteen thousand dollars. The recorded price of the car is thirteen thousand dollars.
One should note that the customer did not gain anything.....he paid three thousand dollars that show up on his monthly payments to the bank..

It is a feel good thing....

 

MYTHA

1:58 PM ET

April 26, 2011

interest rate

Usury is forbidden in Islam. However, the "Islamic" banks play a trick on
God and on the consumer. For instance, if one wants to buy a car he saw at a dealership, the bank buys the car, lets say for ten thousand dollars. The bank then sells the car to the customer for say thirteen thousand dollars. The recorded price of the car is thirteen thousand dollars.
One should note that the customer did not gain anything.....he paid three thousand dollars that show up on his monthly payments to the bank..

It is a feel good thing....

 

ORMONDOTVOS

6:34 PM ET

April 29, 2011

Who's the last to know?

The average Abdul in the street is always the last to know that allah is dead, was always dead. The elites take advantage of the devout, always have, always will.

After all, religion is merely an invented authority to keep the masses in line. Every story of rogue priestly classes tells us this, but it's, wa wa, sooooo haaaard! to lose faith.

Faith which should have been character, the strength to go on in the face of adversity. Any one can be tricked into fighting, but facing one's own death through age or disease is much harder.

Who would be a martyr if you just died and existed no more? Religion is the hashish of the masses.

 

WILDTHING

6:55 PM ET

May 9, 2011

Veils

We here in the west prefer to wear the veil of secrecy and with the CIA are masters at it...but secrecy has a problem, then no one can know anything and evertyone can imagine anything and be as right as any other... there is nothing you can trust with disinformation as a must...

 

ADAM GARDNER

10:13 AM ET

May 18, 2011

The dome on the rock as an

The dome on the rock as an example of the same insults Islam Adam Gardner perpetrated on the Greeks with the Hagia Sophia, or look at how the grass roots violence inherent in Islam causes the slaughter of non Muslims in Pakistan, India, Syria, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia

 

ADAM GARDNER

10:17 AM ET

May 18, 2011

The dome on the rock as an

The dome on the rock as an example of the same insults Islam Adam Gardner perpetrated on the Greeks with the Hagia Sophia, or look at how the grass roots violence inherent in Islam causes the slaughter of non Muslims in Pakistan, India, Syria, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia