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In 1994 I spent time in Gaza trying to understand the life of the first Palestinian suicide bomber after the signing of the Oslo agreements. Yes the young man, who crashed a bike into an Israeli checkpoint and blew himself up, was a member of Islamic Jihad. He did spend a lot of the last month of his life in a mosque. But he did not die for Islam.
As a self-proclaimed secularist, I oppose all impositions of religious-institutions. But I also resent the attitude of superiority that many Western, and even some
Arab, secular liberals have adopted towards conservative Muslims.
Hijab is not the litmus test for liberalism – let alone democracy.
Social and religious imposition of hijab on women is a violation of their personal choice and liberty. But banning hijab, even if women wear it by choice, is another form of violation and repression.
It is especially abhorrent when some Western and Arab liberals raise hell about the hijab while spontaneously endorsing repression and human rights violations of so-called secular governments.
It is ironic that some Turks do not question the way the Kurds have been treated and the questionable role of the domination of the military in a democratic society, while they fiercely protesting the lifting of the ban on the hijab.
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