I enjoyed the article but not many of the posts - except the one about breastfeeding - lots of good points made there.
I have a prejudice against women who wear the headscarf, I wish I didn't and I know my assumptions are ignorant - but I have to be honest, I feel distanced and alienated from women who wear it.
To me, as a fellow female, they symbolise the success all religions have had in making women feel ashamed of just being the way some God is supposed to have made them.
If men are supposedly driven wild with desire at just seeing me (though at almost fifty I chortle a bit at that as a genuine possibility) - my face, hair or ankle - how is that my responsibility? Surely it is theirs? Why should my natural shape and features be something I need to hide or cover? Why are they seen as "immodest"? What is so shameful about being a woman and looking like one? The passive acceptance of religious based shame is at the root of my prejudice against wearers of any kind of veil -including nuns. Mind you, I would not ban headscarfs or attempt to take one from anyone's head, but I do reserve the right to argue vigorously with the wearer about why female "modesty" is so important. And rape is no answer, there is just as much rape and sexual abuse in countries where women dress modestly as in countries like ours. It just isn't talked about so openly. Well, it wouldn't be, would it, if you risk being stoned to death or ostracised if raped.

Sometimes a head scarf is just a head scarf and keeps the wind from blowing hair all over the place. Sometimes a headscarf is a symbol of religious modesty before the eyes of God. And sometimes a head scarf is a social-sexual restraint imposed by one sex upon the other in the name of religion. I would think it would be up to the individual to determine the "why". Now if we're going to talk about burqas, total body covering, that's another story. To me that just shouts "Hide thee from my sight woman".

<< Muslim women are like their men - They speak with a forked tongue.

They are coached/trained to always reply to non-Muslims that - to cover up from head to toe is 'very liberating' because they 'stop being a sex symbol' when they don the hijab. A very effective argument to ward off criticism and leave you speechless.

On the other hand those not wearing a hijab, looking every bit modern and complete with lip-stick, will mock you - she is a living proof that you misunderstood what it means to be a Muslim woman.

Whatever you think of them, there is always one who can offer a contradicting argument that you are 'wrong'. Like Muslim men, they are as hypocritical as their twisted sense of logic gets. Their deceptiveness will leave you numb.

So I do not regard any Muslim woman as a lady. I do not wait for them to get out of a lift, I certainly do not open door for Muslim women. >>

GZ Tan: "So I do not regard any Muslim woman as a lady. I do not wait for them to get out of a lift, I certainly do not open door for Muslim women."

So who coached/trained you to be such a rude, offensive bigot?

Well said CJ.

GZ Tan - if indeed muslims were the nasty types you portray them as (and I don't believe they are) then you are no better than them for behaving that way. In fact, the behaviour you describe can just as effectively be applied to you for that nasty admission.

Why not lead by example?
Instead you behave in a gutteral manner that I would hope most people grow out of by puberty.

I bet if a muslim said that about women of other beliefs, you would be the first to condemn them (and that condemnation would be deserved).

But to hear you pretend it's okay for you to be nasty... what a hypocritical double standard.

CJ Morgan,

Try to ask any Muslim woman whether she is offended if I do not extend to her courtesy of the "western" kind.
Do you know, a Muslim woman is too modest to be offended like that?

TRTL,

Have you ever experienced life in an Islamic state?
I don't have to hear nastiness coming from Sheik Hilaly or any Muslim (including forked-tongued Muslim women) to make a judgement. Sure, Muslims appear to be nice, especially when they are a minority (like in Australia).

Are they nice Muslims who:
(a) chopped off the head of young school girls in Indonesia;
(b) lynched a teacher to death in Nigeria;
(c) plucked out eyes of a wife who refused sex (in France)?

Even if Muslims say nice things about women of other belief, my advice is - Do not trust them.
'Nice' Muslims are only the thin end of a wedge.

CJ Morgan,
Also ask your Muslim friends about atrocities I just mentioned. I think you are the type easily fooled by their forked tongues, that it is no fault of Islam/Muslims.

( Come to think of it... nasty people who honestly speak their minds are far better than deceptive forked-tongue creatures)