Wass?
Di Kosovo jilbab dilarang disekolah negeri?
Kapan orang Islam Indonesia akan ikut-ikut protes?
--
Headscarf ban upsets devout Muslims in Kosovo
Kosovo Muslim women take part in a protest against the government's decision to
ban pupils from wearing Muslim headscarves in public schools in Pristina June
18, 2010. Around 90 percent of Kosovo's population are Muslims though it
remains a largely secular country. REUTERS/Hazir Reka
Kosovo Muslim women take part in a protest against the government's decision to
ban pupils from wearing Muslim headscarves in public schools in Pristina June
18, 2010. Around 90 percent of Kosovo's population are Muslims though it
remains a largely secular country.
Credit: Reuters/Hazir Reka
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Thu Jun 24, 2010 7:42pm IST
By Fatos Bytyci
PRISTINA (Reuters) - The leader of a protest against Kosovo's ban on
headscarves in public schools says devout Muslims could resort to violence to
get their way, though Islam is not central to the lives of most Kosovo
Albanians.
The June 18 rally in the capital Pristina by 5,000 women in headscarves,
supported by some bearded men, was held after a few headscarf-clad girls were
prevented from entering their schools.
It was an extraordinary sight in Kosovo, whose 2 million population is 90
percent Muslim but mostly secular in lifestyle.
The protest leader was Halil Kastrati, who obtained an Islamic studies degree
in Damascus and now heads the Orphans charity in Pristina, which he says gets
no Islamic funding. He wears normal Western clothes and says he admires the
West.
"We will use all peaceful means to reach our goal unless they force us to act
in a different way," said Kastrati, who married a Christian woman who later
converted to Islam.
"If there is no solution, we may organise violent protests and even block
roads," Kastrati, 35, who wears normal Western attire, told Reuters in his
office decorated with flags of the United States, Britain and NATO.
The Kosovo education ministry banned religious garb in primary and high schools
late last year, prompting heated debate about religious liberties in the
country, a former province of Serbia that declared independence two years ago.
"This decision is in line with the country's constitution," said Education
Minister Enver Hoxhaj, referring to a clause stipulating that Kosovo "is a
secular state and is neutral in matters of religious beliefs".
Hoxhaj added: "If there are citizens who think our decision is not in line with
the constitution, then they have to ask the constitutional court and we will
respect the court's decision."
While few countries ban headscarves in schools, analysts say Kosovo did so to
ensure respect for the secular constitution in a small, fragile young country
and underline that it belongs to the West and aspires to join the EU and NATO
eventually.
DEBATE OVER IDENTITY
Jahja Drancolli, a religion professor at Pristina University, said that
permitting headscarves would undermine the identity of Kosovo where around 70
percent of Muslims do not practice their religion.
"They can wear the uniforms at their homes or religious sites but not in
schools or universities," Drancolli said. "These people are misused by
different organizations and countries with different interests."
"Based on religious tolerance in Kosovo..., I don't see how this society would
turn violent in the future," he added.
Asked for comment, the European Union representative office in Pristina said
the issue was a matter for local authorities.
OTTOMAN EMPIRE BROUGHT ISLAM TO BALKANS
Most ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, as elsewhere in the Balkans, turned to Islam
under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, which promoted conversion by imposing
high taxes on non-Muslims.
Many of them, however, continued to practice Christianity at home and were
dubbed "Catholics in hiding". Today, most Kosovo Muslims do not consider
religion a vital part of their identity.
But some, such as Adelina Berisha, a 19-year-old sociology student at Pristina
University, where headscarves are allowed, insist on preserving their
religiosity in public.
"We are four girls in our class wearing headscarves and we don't have problems
with other students," said Berisha, whose long dress covers all body parts
except for her face and hands.
"But we are not happy because our sisters in primary and secondary schools are
not allowed."
In neighbouring Albania, where 70 percent of the people are Muslim, headscarves
are also banned in primary and high schools but allowed in universities. Those
who want to wear headscarves must go to private schools.
In Bosnia, where Bosnian Muslims represent the largest ethnic group,
headscarves are allowed both in schools and universities. The freedom to wear
them attracted many female students from Turkey and other countries to study at
Turkish-funded universities in the capital Sarajevo.
Kosovo authorities allowed the Roman Catholic Church to build a huge cathedral
in Pristina for the 4 percent of Kosovo Albanians who are Catholics, in what
analysts termed a sign of gratitude to the West for expelling Serbian forces
from Kosovo and backing its independence from Serbia in 2008.
Kosovo Muslims do not oppose the cathedral but some, such as Kastrati, think
the authorities should allow them to build a big mosque and an Islamic centre
in the capital.
Kosovo has so far been recognised by 69 countries, mainly in Western Europe,
the United States and a few Muslim states.
(Additional reporting by Benet Koleka in Tirana and Daria Sito-Sucic in
Sarajevo; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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