Following on from the imams as lifesavers and imams as firefighters call, comes a new call from south west Sydney for Muslim women — specifically “hijab-wearing women between the ages of 17 and 26″ — to enlist in the army in order to “prove” they are part of the national security solution. The suggestion comes, this time, from the president of some sporting club in Lakemba. The Australian reports:
YOUNG Australian Muslim women will be targeted to join the Army Reserve and prove they are part of the national security “solution”.
The plan by Sydney Muslim leader Jamal Rifi – which has been welcomed by the Australian Defence Force – is designed to break down barriers between Islam and mainstream Australia. It also aims to revive an element of Islamic culture that saw men and women fighting “side by side” during the days of the prophet Mohammed.
Dr Rifi, president of Lakemba Sports and Recreation Club in Sydney’s southwest, said he wanted “hijab-wearing” women between the ages of 17 and 26 to become reservists and would soon begin promoting the idea to Muslim parents on Arabic and Islamic radio networks to urge them to let their kids join.
5 comments ↓
Why do Muslim women have to prove anything? This is such a stupid and pointless suggestion.
I agree. The fact that they are being called to prove their commitment to the “national security solution” is what I find disagreeable moreso than the fact they are being asked to join the army reserve (regardless of the emotional polemics of at least one community figure who characterised the campaign as being an attempt to enlist Muslim women to murder other Muslims!)
Implicit in such a call is that there is some sort of deficit — real or imagined — that needs to be addressed by Muslim women making a public display of ‘commitment’ that is not demanded nor expected, it seems, of the women of other faith communities. It would be equally silly for someone to call on Muslim women to become postal workers to prove their commitment to the national postal system or learn aboriginal languages to ‘prove’ their commitment to reconciliation.
I hear that in western armies rape is a common phenomena!
I don’t think it’s common.
Only if our good hopes (or thoughts) were the truth!
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