Religion: It's Not a Fashion Statement


It is turning out to be a trying month for Muslim female students across the globe, according to reports on the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) website: www.cair-net.org

In Louisiana, a 17-year old student at West Jefferson High School in Harvey, La. allegedly had her head scarf, or hijab, pulled from her head by a teacher who then proceeded to make offensive remarks about her religious beliefs.

The student, who is of Iraqi descent, told CAIR that this teacher had previously made offensive remarks about other students' ethnic and religious backgrounds.

West Jefferson's principal has told CAIR that the teacher has since been removed from the school. He added further that this type of behavior will not be tolerated at West Jefferson and that the school strives for an environment that respects students of all cultures.

And in Washington DC, representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) met with the French Ambassador to deliver a letter to French President, Jacques Chirac, imploring him to reconsider his call to ban hijabs in French public schools.

CAIR's letter read in part:

"Unlike a cross, which is not an obligation for Christians to wear, hijabs, yarmulkes, and turbans are not 'symbols' that can be removed without abandoning religious responsibilities. Rather, hijab is a religious obligation and for many French women, any ban on a woman's right to freely exercise her faith by wearing hijab may be seen as an indirect prohibition on Islam in France."

The meeting also included a representative from the Muslim Student Association of the United States and Canada (MSA).

To learn more about CAIR, please visit the Council on American-Islamic Relations website .

To learn more about the MSA, please visit the Muslim Student Association of the United States and Canada website .

Catholic Connections

"There is a growing awareness of the sublime dignity of human persons, who stand above all things and whose rights and duties are universal and inviolable. They ought, therefore, to have ready access to all that is necessary for living a genuinely human life: for example, food, clothing, housing, the right freely to choose their state of life and set up a family, the right to education, work, to their good name, to respect, to proper knowledge, the right to act according to the dictates of conscience and to safeguard their privacy, and rightful freedom, including freedom of religion."
Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Second Vatican Council, 1965

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