A male suspect in a major anti-terrorist investigation in Britain escaped capture by allegedly disguising himself as a Muslim woman dressed in a burka, The Times can reveal.
The man, who was wanted in connection with serious terrorist offences, evaded arrest for several days as police searched for him across the country.
Details of the man’s true identity were circulated to ports and airports to try to prevent him leaving the country.
He was eventually caught and is now one of more than 90 suspects in British prisons awaiting trial on terror charges.
It is the first time that a male suspect has allegedly disguised himself as a Muslim woman in Britain. However, the tactic has been used frequently by Islamist fighters — including suicide bombers — in Iraq and Afghanistan. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, often dressed in a burka to evade American forces hunting him.
The issue of people hiding their faces under the burka, which covers the whole face, or behind the niqab, which exposes only the eyes, has also posed difficulties for banks, immigration authorities and benefit offices. But questions of security have tended to be overruled by the need to maintain good community relations.
Shahid Malik, Labour MP for Dewsbury, expressed concern that the issue could create unnecessary tension. “If this is true, then it is the first case of its kind in Britain and an isolated incident. We must not get hysterical about it. There have been many hundreds of cases where robberies have been committed by men wearing women’s stockings on their heads — but no one is talking about banning stockings.
Sounds like another good case for identity cards, eh?
Religious freedom or not… Someone who wears a burqa shows no real will of adapting to a life in West, and would fit better in a Taliban controlled territory in Afghanistan (or Pakistan alternatively northern India). This would make it harder for someone to dress up as a Muslim woman in West.
As Jack Straw recently said(and caused the usual landslide of rebuke by Muslims and their apologists), a Muslim woman wearing the burQa or niqab is entitled to do so, but when a Muslim woman comes into his office to speak to him, he politly asks them to lift it, so he can see their face. He explained that in the western world, we like to see who we are dealing with. He’s against laws banning it, but feels that Muslim woman who wear them are saying….*stay away, I don’t want to be part of your world*…..and he’s right.
The Quran doen’t require it. It’s a cultural thing by Muslims in certain societies. The fundlementalists say all woman of a certain age must wear them or they are sinful etc., etc……but all it is , is a way to make woman second class, maybe third class citizens.
#1. Women in at least one other faith cover their hair and have been members of western society for centuries. Why in the world should we judge willingness to be members of our society by what clothing they choose to wear? I live in a fairly diverse neighborhood and I see women in saris and in burqas and I am pleased that I live in a country where people can reflect their religion and background without fear of intimidation. Unlike, say, Christians in Saudi Arabia.
#2. So, does Mr. Straw have a videophone? Every day we deal with people whose faces we do not see.
Government officials have no place telling private citizens what to wear or not wear. Period. Every Muslim woman in a western country has the right to decide for herself whether to head scarf or veil.
Some conservative Muslims will argue that any anti-hijab effort is anti-Muslim. Don’t buy it.
Lots and lots (a large marjority, in my observation) of perfectly devout Muslim women DO NOT wear any sort of face covering. And they don’t percieve a religious duty to do.
Some Muslims — like in Turkey and Egypt — view the veil in the same way that westerners often do — as a symbol of fundamentalism with a strong political component.
So, it’s not nearly as black-and-white as veil advocates want you to believe.
I should add that I’m a traditional values American — I’m for total religious freedom.
I say let ’em wear a veil if they want to. But these women should do so realizing that it takes them out of the mainstream of American society and many of the benefits of that. They can’t have it both ways.
Driving, for instance. Driving with a full veil is insanely dangerous and should not be allowed. Also, veils should not be allowed in situations where photo IDs are required (like airports), since veils render photo IDs useless.
Besides, in “purda culture” veiled women shouldn’t be working with men; traveling alone in cars; out of the home without a male relative; attending coed schools; etc. anyway. So if veiled women want to break those other purda rules, it seriously brings into question their motivations for wearing a veil.
But, if a woman — out of her own free will — (that’s an important point) wants to wear a veil and live in purda, then it should be legal and without harassment.
I’d even support reasonable accomodation — like, for instance, a small provacy screeen at airport check-points where female staff can check a womans face against her passport photo.
#3…Doug…..Straw isn’t against muslim woman wearing the veil or the burqa….thats their choice. He was just expressing his opinon on the subject. As I was.
Many, if not the majority of Muslim woman wear only a head scarf. It’s not part of the religion, it’s strictly cultural and political.
We don’t see the kind of stuff that the Muslims in Europe are doing. Unless it makes International news, most Americans have no idea how bad it is in Europe with the Muslims. You have Mullahs preaching hate and violence in most major cities, you have people who riot and threaten with violence, death, anyone who disagrees with anything they do. They constantly make an issue of how they are not part of western society, and abhor it and revile it and tell the Europeans that Islam will overcome them and kill all the non-believers. But, where are they living, working or collecting benifits?? Not in Syria, or Egypt or even Saudi Arabia, but in those hated western societies. I know this sounds like the old….if you don’t like it here go somewhere elde…..but millions of Europeans are finally getting to that point. If the west is so bad, so unfair, so anti-Muslim, then why do they stay, and continue to move into the western nations. Wouldn’t they be happier in an Arab or Islamic country?
Did he sound like Terry Jones when he plays a woman in the Monty Python skits?
#3 – Burqa’s and veil’s are not endorsed by the Quran.
The burqa is an extreme just as nyc women are in the summer streets with their low rider pants and tank top combination that show about 8 inches of bare skin below the navel. Then there’s the cleavage…
Bottom line, men in the Middle East do not respect women; WOMEN in America do not respect men.
If he’s innocent, then more power to him, and pity he got caught. Because he’s never seeing daylight again. Being brown and related to a “person of interest” by whatever rumor is enough to make you an unperson in the U.S. and U.K. You lose your life, your family, your money, your liberty, and IF they decide, after the Syrians razor blade your privates for a year, that you aren’t anything they care about, they threaten you and your family with retaliation should you say anything ever again, and then dump you in your “home” country without a dime.
9: American women wear what they like, and you don’t get to say diddly about it. It’s not about respecting you. It’s that we don’t care about you. Or your insane opinions. At all.
#11. catbeller, you don’t understand. Women KNOW the flesh is man’s weakest point, why abuse their power? Abuse of power is a sign of weakness and DISRESPECT. Have you ever considered the lonely men in the streets who never get a piece of that flesh but have to endure beautiful babes flaunting it BUT NOT OFFERING IT. Dude, that’s like contemptuously drinking an ice-cold Bud in the desert with a man who is dying with thirst looking on. Women don’t respect men when they dress to tease but not to please. In reality they disrespect themselves more because they offer a look at their bodies because they have nothing to offer in the cranium except for loose noodles. And P.S., stop masturbating thinking about me, YOU PERVERT!