May scolds Johnson for burqa remark

Prime Minister Theresa May has scolded her former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, for saying that Muslim women who wear burqas look like letter boxes or bank robbers. Johnson, who resigned last month over the way May is negotiating Brexit, wrote in The Daily Telegraph this week that Denmark was wrong to ban the burqa, a […]

Are sales of the burqa and niqab on the rise?

A Daily Express article which suggested that burqa sales are on the rise in Blackburn contains some basic errors. The headline “Burka sales BOOM” can serve to reinforce the imagery of religiosity and violence. Imagery that has featured in counter-jihad circles since 2006. The Other Islamic Bomb => pic.twitter.com/RlcqQwal2i — Scott M (@EVdeals1) April 27, 2013 Describing a ‘sales boom’ is a journalistic cliche and not instrincially offensive. In this context, however, it lacks sensitivity. The central claim of the article weakens under scrutiny. Paul Baldwin, the Express journalist, only interviewed a single store owner. And Baldwin acknowledges that ‘exact figures are hard to establish because many burkas are sold door-to-door’. Nadeem Siddiqui has seen a rise in sales. His Hijab Centre in Blackburn went from selling ‘one or two burkas a month’ to ‘one or two in a week’. It’s a rise but it hardly meets the inflated claims of the headline. The Express also carried out a ‘snap survey’ in the town and ‘found around 30 per cent of muslim women completely covered their faces’. That figure sounds daunting when the journalist had just informed readers that Muslims make up 11 per cent of the local population. It [...]

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No, a dinner lady was not sacked for sharing burqa joke on Facebook

A campaign to re-instate a dinner lady sacked for gross misconduct is growing online. Nita O’Dell, 54, had worked at the Billesley Primary School in Birmingham for almost 21 years. On her Facebook, she had shared a meme that read “Guide dog for a Muslim woman. It’s called a Barka.” Variations of this meme have

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E-Bay Hosts ‘Halloween Burqa’ Costumes For Sale

You would think that mocking the clothing of people based on their religious beliefs is offensive and stereotypical, particularly if it plays to tropes that develop a sense of fear of the other, or when it seeks to dehumanize the wearer. However, who would have thought that E-Bay would decide to sell the following? The

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