Wherever you go in public, like restaurants, shopping malls, schools and even places of worship, you will find that people openly show their religious beliefs. Hijabs (head scarfs) in Islam, kippots (skull caps) in Judaism, jewelry with symbols of Christianity (the cross, with or without J.C.), the tilaka (the dot at the eye-brow junction) in Hinduism and many more fill the places you find yourself day after day. Now could it be that some people see this as fundamentalism? I think France does. Could America too? What about American schools?About two months ago, France’s Chief Rabbi Yosef Sitruck said “I request that Jewish youth refrain from wearing kippot in public,” because of the rise in anti-Semitic attacks across the country. The Rabbi goes on to say that Jews should suffice with caps such as baseball hats so as they will not make themselves targets. This statement followed an attack of arson against a Jewish school in Paris just five days before and, more recently, a bullet being mailed to the offices of the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism with a message saying “Jews, get out of here. The next bullet is aimed for you.” I am not exactly pointing fingers but I would agree that this has a relation to the very large Muslim population in France, around five million. America has a population about the same size too.
I make this correlation because of the already rampant anti-Semitic views in France and now France’s attempt to ban hijabs in public schools. For my two cents, it’s an attempt to keep Muslim fundamentalism under some sort of control, or more like a pseudo control. For example, two days after the protests of this law someone detonated a car bomb and destroyed the newly named Prefect Aissa Dermouche’s car, a Muslim himself who is the regional administrator in eastern France. Because of the large unemployment rate of Muslims in France, deputy mayor Bayrem Braiki, who is a practicing Muslim, said Muslim activists “have been stuffing the brains of our youth…explaining that the only way out [of poverty] is religion.” Well you know the old saying about how today’s youth’s are the future of tomorrow.
After Sept. 11, once we discovered who was behind the attacks, U.S. officials held many press conferences and were quick to declare how any type of “revenge” taken upon American Muslims would be looked at as a hate crime and those responsible would be persecuted by law. Well that didnøt stop a few people. Do you think with all that American bureaucrats do in keeping terrorists out that they don’t get headaches thinking about those that are already living in our borders? Yesterday was a blue day, the day before was a yellow day, today is a yellow day, tomorrow might be an orange day; it seems like some of our higher up officials might be a little edgy sometimes.
What I am saying is be wary of what goes on around the world and the similarities it has with us. The world is continually sending more and more of their students overseas to U.S. schools and universities.
Take a look at the social and religious activism of many groups on our campus and campuses around the nation. The larger and larger these groups become with students from the “melting pot” of our population, the louder their voices will become and the harder their fists will become. And if somehow our lawmakers see this as a threat, they will react accordingly to this threat as they deem necessary.
Without a doubt I think people have a right to wear what they want as long as it’s not some middle school girl dressing like Britney “I like to get drunk and married” Spears or other such inappropriate attire. Freedom of speech and freedom of religion are what our country is based on. We have seen the stir created when the government banned group prayer in public schools. I have no idea what the future holds for U.S. schools, private and public, which is why I will be keeping an eye out. But remember two things: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (top al Qaeda operative who is thought to be the master mind behind the WTC attack who was caught in Pakistan even though he had altered his features) studied engineering at North Carolina A&T. At the same time, Mazen Al-Najjar, who is also the brother-in-law of indicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist fundraiser Sami Al-Arian, was a professor of computer science and taught at the University of South Florida.