Driving While Veiled: Georgia Aims to Ban Muslim Women off The Roads
11.16.2016
GEORGIA – State legislators are aiming to ban Muslim women from wearing a Burqa and other head coverings that might disguise their face when they are driving.
House Bill 3, filed by state Rep. Jason Spencer, R-Woodbine, would subject female Muslim garb under the state’s anti-masking statute — which originally was aimed at the Ku Klux Klan.
Bert Brantley, the commissioner of the state Department of Driver Services, said wearing burqas in state license photographs is already prohibited.
“We have agency rules against any kind of facial covering,” Brantley told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We have to be able to see from below the chin to above the eyebrows.”
However, the loose interpretation of the new bill not only means that women wearing a Burqa could be prohibited from driving. Muslim women who simply wear a hijab could also be at risk of losing their license.
State Rep. Spencer said his legislation is intended to apply to women operating motor vehicles on public roadways, but the wording also suggests the restriction might apply to any kind of public property.
When asked whether his bill was designed to ban burqas on all public property, Spencer said, “No.”
But he declined to elaborate on the need for the bill or why women should not be allowed to wear burqas while driving.
He later told a local affiliate that his bill “is simply a response to constituents that do have concerns of the rise of Islamic terrorism, and we in the state of Georgia do not want our laws used against us and to take advantage of us.”
The proposal is likely to become entangled with the broader debate over “religious liberty” legislation likely to be reintroduced in the General Assembly session that begins Jan. 9. A key proponent of past “religious liberty” bills, state Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, on Wednesday said he opposes Spencer’s bill.
Spencer’s bill has spurred bipartisan opposition. House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, called the measure “bigoted” and a “direct result of the rhetoric we heard during Donald Trump’s campaign run.
The head of the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said very few Muslim women disguise their face, but those that do have a constitutional right to do so.
“The bill is a bad solution to a nonexistent problem,” Edward Ahmed Mitchell, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Georgia, told The Huffington Post. “[These Muslim women] are not endangering themselves or anyone else. We have a new president, but not a new Constitution. The bill is unnecessary and unconstitutional, and we intend to oppose it if it goes forward.”
——–
Muslim girl’s hijab ripped off in front of students in US
November 16, 2016
Chicago, Nov 16 : A Muslim student’s hijab was allegedly ripped off and her hair pulled down by a classmate at a school in Minnesota, the latest in a series of assaults and threats reported against headscarf-wearing women in the US following Donald Trump’s win. The incident took place at Northdale Middle School in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, prompting Anoka-Hennepin School District to launch an investigation into what Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling an assault. CAIR’s Minnesota chapter released a statement yesterday expressing concern over the school district?s response to the incident that took place on Friday.
The family of the student reported to CAIR that a classmate came up behind the student, removed her hijab and threw it on the ground, then pulled her hair down in front of other students. CAIR alleged the school district did not respond to the incident until yesterday, the Star Tribune reported. “School officials must take immediate actions to ensure that all students, regardless of their faith or ethnicity, are provided a safe learning environment,” CAIR-MN Executive Director Jaylani Hussein said in a statement. “It should not take days to respond to an apparently bias-motivated assault on a student,” Hussein said.
Hussein added that the aggressor was also targeting other Muslim female students. The district confirmed the incident and is working to find out where the breakdown of communication between the parent and the school took place, district spokesman Jim Skelly was quoted as saying. District officials have reached out to CAIR, Skelly said. The district released a statement stating that CAIR?s description of the incident “is inconsistent with the district’s understanding.” “The preliminary findings of the investigation indicate that this was isolated and not motivated by bias,” the statement said. “However, the concerns of the family reflect similar concerns around the metro and align with the need in our communities to find ways to talk about race and culture constructively and respectfully,” it said. The Northdale incident is one of several cases of harassment reported at Minnesota schools following the election.
Racist graffiti mentioning President-elect Trump by name was reported last week at Maple Grove high school. Also a slew of incidents of intimidation and assaults have been reported across the country against hijab-clad women post election. A Muslim student of Michigan University last week was approached by an unidentified man who yelled at her and threatened to set her on fire if she did not remove her hijab, prompting police to probe the hate crime incident. The woman, who was not named, complied and left the area. Also last week, a Muslim high-school teacher in Georgia was told to hang herself with her headscarf in a handwritten anonymous note she received in her classroom. The CA
http://www.india.com/news/world/muslim-girls-hijab-ripped-off-in-front-of-students-in-us-1649861/
——–
Categories: The Muslim Times