Is Syria Anti-Muslims?

Based on recent reports in the international media, it appears that “Syria has forbidden the country’s students and teachers from wearing the niqab”.

The Syrian government, grounded in secularism, seems intent on keeping what it sees as “extremism” in check. Perhaps not so ironically, we have not heard much of an outcry against Syria from religious zealots and various misguided liberals, as we did when this issue in the French context first became widely publicised.

I am curious if the religious zealots and even pseudo-liberals will also jump on the case of the Syrian government and accuse it of being anti-Islamic. Perhaps the pseudo-liberals and religious extremists do believe that Syria, whose population is well over 85 percent Muslim, has a government that is anti-Muslim?

If I were a betting person, however, I would bet that we won’t find a hue and cry in the Islamic world about Syria’s recent action to ban the niqab and burka as we did when the topic happen to make the headlines in the case of France.

It is understandable that religious zealots would invariably have an issue with secular principles. However, it is deeply disappointing indeed when so-called liberals jump on the same bandwagon with religious bigots to condemn secular governments such as France when it seeks to elevate and preserve secularism.

It seems that pseudo-liberals have a problem when a secular country such as France seeks to preserve its identity as a secular nation, but become tongue-tied when predominantly Muslim countries such as Syria or Turkey act in a similar vein to affirm their commitment to secularism.

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