Esraa is correct

Submitted by Ted (United States), Jul 26, 2010 at 23:17

Dear Dr. Pipes: Reader Esraa states that Mary also wore a scarf and so Islam did not come up with anything new. Mr Esraa is right on the dot. This is exactly the point that we non-Islamists want to make. Islam not only did not come up with Hijab as a new concept, there is not much else new that it come up with. Much of what is good and bad in the Islamic code, can also be found elsewhere also. What is unique to Islam is its ethnocentreism, stubbornness and force. Nothing wrong in a veil if someone every now and then wears it on special occasions, if it does not converts a woman's clothing into an airtight tent, and if it does not make public identification impossible. The problem is that Islam eliminates all these exclusions and makes veils compulsory (in many societies).

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