Excerpt:
I was pleased to read the April 2 op-ed by Zainab Bint Younus in the National Post, "Don't speak for Muslim women. Speak to us," written in response to a preceding column by Jonathan Kay, in which he described his psychological discomfort with the niqab.
To clarify, I wasn't pleased to read Ms Younus' op ed because I approve of the niqab – on the contrary, I am on record (my readers might say I am like a "broken record," I've written on the subject so often) favouring proscription of the niqab in tax-funded institutions – but because I assume Ms Younus considers her arguments persuasive (and they are indeed as " good" as arguments for the niqab get). What pleases me, therefore, is that all of her arguments are so full of logical holes one could drive a Mack truck through them. To wit:
Ms Younus says the niqab is "primarily an act of worship to God." Either she has founded a new religion, or Ms Younus considers herself more an authority on Islam than innumerable Islamic scholars who one and all have declared that face cover is not inherent to Islam, but is rather a custom in some Islamic regions and not in others. Indeed, Egypt and Syria ban face cover on university campuses.