PRESS RELEASE
The Muslim Council of Britain disagrees
strongly with Tuesday's ruling by the European Court of Human Rights,
Strasbourg, in the case of Leyla Sahin v Turkey. The international
court, whose decisions also have effect in the UK Courts, ruled that
the prohibition of the Islamic headscarf (hijab) by the Turkish
government in universities did not violate Article 9 of the European
Convention of Human Rights.
"It is worrying that the European Court of Human Rights has made the
surreptitious claim that a Muslim woman trying to follow the Qur'anic
injunction to dress modestly presents a public order problem in
Universities. It is further bewildering to consider the Court's denial
of a woman's freedom to dress as she chooses to be in pursuance of
gender equality," said Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary-General of the Muslim
Council of Britain.
While the military-guided Turkish political system is still struggling
with necessary democratic reforms, this ruling of the European Court
of Human Rights will have the effect of importing a restrictive and
draconian practice into our democratic and pluralist European
environment.
Indeed, the ECHR's ruling is all the more perplexing as it had
previously ruled that: "Freedom of thought, conscience and religion is
one of the foundations of a 'democratic society' within the meaning of
the Convention ... The pluralism indissociable from a democratic
society, which has been dearly won over the centuries, depends on it."
(Kokkinakis v. Greece (1993).
The Muslim Council of Britain calls on the Council of Europe to now
remove this serious lacuna in EU human rights law. Europe today needs
to pay more than lip service to our human rights and come out of its
past mentality where these rights existed only for a certain section
of Europeans.
[Ends]
Note for Editors:
The Muslim Council of Britain (www.mcb.org.uk) is the UK's
representative Muslim umbrella body with over 400 affiliated national,
regional and local organisations, mosques, charities and schools.
For further information please contact tel: 07708 065 150
For further information please contact the MCB:
The Muslim Council of Britain
Boardman House
64 Broadway
Stratford
London
E15 1NT
Tel: 020 8432 0585/6
Fax: 020 8432 0587
admin@mcb.org.uk
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