Muslims shouldn’t be viewed differently

Symbols and how they are interpreted tell us a great deal about prejudices, says Shelina Zahra Janmohamed.

One of the "Bearded Villains" in Sweden. (YouTube)

When is a hijab not a hijab? This week, a photo shoot being carried out by an Australian clothing brand in Sydney was raided by the police. The Muslim fashion label Hijab House was investigated because it was believed its outfits with matching headscarves were “Islamic flags”.

When the owner asked the five policemen who interrupted the shoot why they were doing so, he was allegedly told it was because of “things happening overseas”.

Colourful clothing modelled in fashionable poses when partnered with a cloth over the hair and aimed at Muslims is being interpreted as terrorist danger. It’s farcical and terrifying in equal measure.

This innocent piece of cloth far too often carries the weight of people’s prejudices and is used as a cover (pun intended) for barely hidden anti-Muslim hatred. It is accused of being a threat to “our way of life”, of oppressing women, of obliterating women’s minds so that they can’t think for themselves.

Despite Muslim women insisting it is worn by choice in one place, they are accused of betraying women who are – and shouldn’t be – forced to wear it in another place. Somehow, this simple cloth is accused of carrying the responsibility of the survival of civilisation. If you wear it then you are an existential threat to society.

When practised by Muslims, even fashion is a danger.

Which leads me to ask: when is a beard not a beard? Last month, a club of bearded men, who call themselves the “Bearded Villains” were found sporting their facial hair in the Swedish countryside. The hipster beard is a recent fashion phenomenon. During their gathering, they posed for a photograph with their black flag. Two police officers turned up saying that a motorist had reported a gathering of terrorists.

Unlike the fashion shoot story, interrupted because Muslims were looking dangerous, the bearded hipsters “had a good laugh” with the police officers who came to investigate them. Ha, ha! Isn’t it hilarious that if you’re Muslim you can be interrogated when all you’re trying to do is strike a pose?

The Muslim fashionistas were accused but the bearded men were waved off the police “with smiles on their faces”.

Symbols and how they are interpreted tell us a great deal about prejudices. When Muslims wear scarves and beards they are perceived as terrorists, lumped together by something distant and far away. When it’s a local, non-Islam-related meaning, it is reinterpreted as friendly and given a meaning that is safe and cuddly.

This is toxic: a knee -jerk reaction built on the deepest, most hateful of prejudices against human beings based on nothing other than being different. This is not just racism, it’s anti­-Muslim hatred.

Last month in the UK, a YouTube video went viral showing a black woman on a bus threatening to kick a pregnant Muslim woman in the stomach, calling her an ISIL “b****”.

It seems that whatever Muslims do or don’t do is interpreted as hateful. If Muslims don’t wear fashion that is mainstream, they are segregating themselves. If they wear ordinary fashion, they are a potential terrorist threat.

None of this is Muslims imagining things. It’s not Muslims acting as apologists for terrorism. It’s not Muslims playing the victim card. It’s making the people we live with and their choices into the “other”. We need to call it out.

Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of Love in a Headscarf and blogs at www. spirit21.co.uk