Veiled woman to give C4's speech

but......

.......... i never knew the Queen gave a christmas speech every year.

how backwards am i???

This event will no longer be taking place, Alhamdulillah.
sorry, i don't mean the queens speech, i meant the speech on channel 4, by the sister in veil.

I missed the 'speech' - anyone shed any light on what replaced the original choice?

articIe from the The DaiIy MaiI (Facist paper).

The woman replaced Khadija Ravat, a 33-year-old Islamic teacher who pulled out earlier this month following criticism from both inside and outside the Muslim community.

Yesterday a Channel 4 spokesman said the decision not to identify her during the six-minute broadcast was taken to enable viewers to focus on her "words rather than her identity".

The woman - named only as Khadijah - who converted to Islam around ten years ago and spoke with a southern accent, used her five-minute speech to condemn Commons leader Jack Straw for speaking out against the full veil, or niqab, earlier this year. She also told of her worry for a relative in the Army who is set to go to Afghanistan, and told viewers her great-grandmother was a suffragette. Mr Straw triggered a storm of controversy in October when he said he regarded full veils as a "visible statement of separation and difference" which harmed community relations.

Prime Minister Tony Blair went on to describe the veil as a "mark of separation".

Khadijah said: "Jack Straw's comments this year weren't particularly helpful to Muslims trying to live quite peacefully in this society.

"I wonder if Jack Straw would have the same difficulty communicating with a woman who wore revealing clothes as he clearly does with a woman who wears a veil."

Khadijah said she started wearing the niqab around two years after she converted and said she saw the garment as a symbol of liberation.

"To look at me you would never guess that my great-grandmother was actually a suffragette", she said.

"One of the great things about Britain is that it is very, very tolerant and I believe it's the best country to live in if you want to be able to freely practise your religion.

"We are seen as oppressed. "Since I've started covering I feel much more liberated, which I know a lot of people possibly won't be able to understand.

"I don't wear the niqab to separate myself from society. I want to be part of this society - this is where I choose to live. I hope that the society is more accepting of my personal choice. It's not about separation.

"It's like asking a person who's covered in facial pins 'are you doing this because you don't want to be part of society?'

"It's their personal choice and as a society we need to be more tolerant of people's personal choices."

Khadijah says she enjoys spending Christmas with her large, extended family and serves a traditional dinner with mince pies afterwards. Of her worries about her relative in the Army, she says: "I don't want anything to happen to him.

"I also don't want him to be killing any people either in Afghanistan, ie the Muslims in Afghanistan as well. "So it's a very difficult position to be in."

Khadijah was the name of the first wife of the Prophet Muhammad, and was the first convert to Islam.

Channel 4's alternative Christmas message is meant to offer a controversial alternative to the Queen's traditional Christmas Day address on the BBC and ITV and is transmitted in the same 3pm time slot.

The station's decision to have a veiled woman delivering this year's message was seen as provocative in the current climate.

Mrs Ravat, a part-time teacher at the Al-Aqsa Primary School in Leicester, had agreed to deliver the speech, but then stepped down, citing "personal reasons", after her identity was revealed.

Yesterday, a Channel 4 spokesman said it was just a coincidence that her replacement was also called Khadijah, albeit with a slightly different spelling.

The spokesman said: "This is a real voice from within the Muslim community. "We are not naming her because we want people to focus on her words rather than her identity. "After what happened with our original speaker, we don't want to put her under too much scrutiny."

He said Khadijah was the name she adopted when she converted to Islam.

astagfirulla, i have edited my post for saying, it was someone pretending to be a Muslim. May allah swt forgive this sinner for accusing a Muslim of being a non-muslim.

And on Christmas Day the veiled woman described only as "Khadijah" was given a national televison platform for propagating her views in an "alternative Christmas message" designed to rival the Queen's.

She told viewers Jack Straw was wrong to criticise the veil, claiming concealing facial features "liberated" women.

But the Daily Mail can now unveil "Khadijah" - and reveal that she is in fact Elaine Atkinson, an English convert to Islam who travels the country working for a radical muslim group trying to take political control of Pakistan.

And despite her presentation by Channel 4 as a moderate, in the past the 38-year-old has described non-believers as "rats in cages going round on a treadmill" of consumerism, and declares she would like to see Britain's pubs converted into mosques.

Since going through an islamic marriage ceremony with a British-born muslim of Pakistani origin, Miss Atkinson - a fromer radical feminist - has become known as Khadijah Iqbal.

But her rejection of her English roots caused a rift with her family, which has a long history of military and police service.

Her great-grandmother was a suffragette, and her brother is currently serving as a soldier in Afghanistan, she claimed.

Atkinson, a mother of one, was approached by Channel 4 to give the controversial alternative Christmas message after the original veiled woman chosen, Khadija Ravat, a 33-year-old islamic teacher, withdrew because of negative publicity.

Channel 4 said it would be veiling her true identity, along with her face, to enable viewers to focus on her words instead of her personality.

But the story of her rejection of her traditional English background, and her determination to embrace radical Islam, is a fascinating one.

She was born in the army barracks town of Tidworth in Wiltshire in 1968, to father Brian Atkinson, then a crane driver at a military depot, and mother Gillian.

At the time the family was living in police accommodation, because her paternal grandfather Francis was a police constable in the war department.

Atkinson led a normal English childhood, and after being schooled locally without any contact with muslims, left the countryside for London and became a social worker.

But in 1996 she suddenly became interested in the koran, and started attending the Regent's Park Mosque in the centre of the capital.

Atkinson said: "Much to the shock and horror of my family and friends I embraced Islam.

"My friends, family and colleagues were very keen to express their negative views.

"I had always been known as a radical Feminist and had dutifully continued the family tradition of following in the footsteps of my great-grandmother, who was a suffragette.

"Much to my greatgrandmother 's horror (if she were still here to express it) I was soon to discover that Feminism and Islam went together like oil and water.

"I realised Feminism promoted the very thing it protested against: oppression of women."

Atkinson went on, in an essay published on the Internet for fellow muslims: "When I see large numbers of non-believers I feel very sad for them as they remind me of rats or gerbils in cages going round and round on a treadmill, believing that they are fulfilling their sole purpose in life and reaching their true destiny (which is Argos).

"If only they could uncover their eyes and see the damage they cause themselves and to their children.

"I feel certain that if they were to have a tiny glimpse of what Islam could give them there would be Mosques on every corner instead of pubs."

Atkinson now lives with her husband Dr Zahid Iqbal, 38, who qualified as a doctor at Southampton in 1992, in a �350,000 three-bed house in Barking, east London. She abandoned her English name four years.

She works for the radical Minhaj ul Qur'an group from its UK base at a mosque in nearby Forest Gate - running a "sisters' group" for other female muslims, travelling the country making converts, and broadcasting on Asian local radio stations.

Minhaj ul Qur'an was established in Pakistan, but operates in 92 countries, and aims to convert the whole world in Islam.

In Pakistan the religious group has a political wing - the Pakistan People Movement - which boasts it is "actively working to establish an Islamic state in Pakistan" to ensure "muslims have an international voice and political power to relieve the ongoing oppression and subjugation of muslims around the world".

Atkinson - pictured in a rare unveiled moment when returning home from a shopping trip - last night refused to elaborate on her views.

Contrary to her claims of being moderate, at an Islamic conference in Sheffield this year Atkinson told fellow muslims it was morally wrong to listen to any sort of music, or to watch soap operas. She urged the conference to stop watching any television at all.

In a statement issued through Channel 4, Atkinson said last night: "Minhaj-ul-Quran is a spiritual movement which promotes peace and tolerance of other faiths. It is against all forms of extremism and radicalism whether religious or otherwise."

Atkinson's brother Howard Atkinson, 46, is a soldier. He was last night unvailable for comment - as were their parents, who have moved to Spain.

Atkinson last night insisted that she did enjoy listening to islamic music.

Contary to her claims of being moderate! Daily Mail-self made muftis!

good interpretation