When a ‘Muslim’ Journalist Ridicules Islam
First Published: 2010-05-11
Even though I have never thought the Borqa or the Niqab is a good idea, and I am against it but I never declared my views because I do respect other people’s choices, says Iqbal Tamimi.
Actor/ presenter Robert Llewellyn interviewed Yasmin Alibhai-Brown for his ‘Carpool’ show that he uploads online. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown came to the United Kingdom in 1972 from Uganda. She is a journalist who has written for various newspapers and she is a regular columnist on The Independent and London’s Evening Standard.
Llewellyn’s interview seems to go nowhere; exactly as his long interview with Yasmin that was recorded on video while driving aimlessly in London’s streets, without knowing where they were going. As far as I can see, this very long interview contributed to nothing but to their carbon foot prints, unless making fun of Islam and ridiculing Muslims while giggling is considered a contribution to journalism.
Llewellyn introduced Yasmin as ‘A writer, a broadcaster, commentator and an incredibly argumentative, incredibly stimulating person to meet, practicing Muslim woman’.
I must congratulate The Allamah scholar of Islam Sheikh Llewellyn for being able to define what a ‘ practicing Muslim’ look like, since I do not think any other Shaikh dared to reach that point of certainty or courage of claiming that they know for sure who can be called a practicing Muslim. For those who do not know much about Islam .only God knows who is a practicing Muslim and who is not.
Llewellyn started his interview by stuttering few silly unconnected words: ‘Yesterday, I thought… I saw… and.. I thought of you … a woman in fact…walking here up the road, pushing the pram with two kids, she was completely covered, …you wrote about it’.
Here Yasmin jumped to his rescue by translating what he was talking about by linking the dotted lines to make some sense of what he was trying to say: ‘Borqa or niqab’ she said and she added.. ‘and I hate it’.
It was obvious from the very beginning that the interview was about what Yasmine hates. They both sounded in total agreement to shred Islam and Muslims beyond recognition; they could have started the show in a subtle way by an introduction about the other Muslims that Mrs. Brown does not ‘hate’ if there are any, but they did not.
Brown who claims she believes in freedoms was babbling from beginning to end about what ‘she’ hates and what she dislikes with all the might of her body language to support her hate speech, and since she does not like those kind of Muslims, she made up her mind to smear all Muslims in most of her comments. She described the Borqa ‘as an ‘epidemic’, and the girls who wear it of ‘beginning their journey to darkness’ and of ‘Muslim self imprisonment’ and she finished her statement by saying: ‘I can’t accept it’. Even though I have never thought the Borqa or the Niqab is a good idea, and I am against it but I never declared my views because I do respect other people’s choices, but on this account I am not sure if Mrs Brown’s point of view counts.
Mrs Brown must be delusional that those who take choices are seeking her approval; I wonder why she never criticised the women who are wearing 10 layers of make up that hides their real identities like a blaster on a cracked wall to a point if one of them took the risk of smiling her face will crack. Those women are hiding their real identities exactly like the women who are wearing Niqab.
She mentioned her mini skirt that she came to Britain wearing it and described it as the ‘miniest of mini skirts, and chosen to describe her ‘modern’ family female members as ‘enlightened’. Yet, she criticised the women who practiced their freedom of choice by covering themselves and chosen to accuse them of ‘beginning their journey to darkness’.
It seems that Yasmin has freedoms and privileges other women don’t. Her choice of wearing a mini skirt is an enlightened decision, but a woman’s choice to cover her face is a trip into darkness. She is free to uncover what she wants, but other women can’t cover what they want. For that legitimate reason she gives herself the right to insult those women who dared to choose something she ‘hates’ by describing them as ‘idiotic sisters’ and ‘ignorant’, and declaring them as ‘women becoming their own worst enemies’. Is that what journalism is all about? Is this the way a British Muslim journalist can empower women? Is this the way a message can be conveyed?
Brown kept generalising about Muslim men and Muslim women even when she claimed that Muslim men told her that they are not responsible for sex mutilations and that they enjoy sex better with women who are not sexually mutilated. I do not know how many Muslim men talked to Mrs Brown about their intimate and deep sexual preferences and from what backgrounds they were. Muslims are almost 2 Billion people, if Brown managed to meet in every second of her life with Muslim men and asked them about their views on this topic until this date, her findings would not have been considered valid.
When Brown insults ‘converts’ Llewellyn burst laughing hysterically demanding that she says ‘more…more…I love it’. Is this what journalism is all about? Insulting people and ridiculing them? It is interesting how Llewellyn describes an ultra conservative as ‘ Posh’ while ultra conservative Muslims were described by Brown as ‘Bedouins camping in Europe’.
Yasmin darling, what do you have against Bedouins? Since you claim to be a practicing Muslim, has it occurred to you that your own prophet is a Bedouin?
I will not be surprised if one of the ‘Bedouins’ acquired the newspaper you are working in and became your boss and ran your media establishment exactly as other Bedouins acquired most of the British Sports teams and venues.
