AN ANALYSIS OF SOME CONTEMPORARY ORIENTALISTS' OPINIONS ON THE ISLAMIC HIJAB (VEIL)
Abstract
Contemporary Orientalists are also a continuation of the ancient Orientalists, who have wielded their objections to various aspects of Islam. While they objected to the Qur'an, Hadiths, Seerah and History and Islamic Jurisprudence, they also expressed their negative views on Islamic Civilization and Culture and Islamic Values, and distorted the facts to create various doubts and misconceptions. Orientalists have played their part in creating a special atmosphere of Islamophobia in the West and keeping people away from understanding the true and correct image of Islam. The main purpose of their writings is to make people hate Islam. In particular, some contemporary Orientalists, in their writings, have, among other objections, criticized Islamic civilization and culture and raised unwarranted objections to it. There is also the issue of the Islamic and Sharia Veil and the Hijab and Niqab, which is a hot topic in the West. In the West, the hijab and the niqab are considered a symbol of inferiority and decline, and the hijab is considered a kind of imprisonment. However, the truth is completely opposite. Western writers and Orientalists have a big hand in keeping Western nations away from understanding the true picture of Islam. The wrong weapon that they have placed in the hands of their readers in the form of destructive literature has negative effects not only on the people of the West, but also on the modern educated class of Muslims in the East. Of these Western authors and Orientalists, Karen Armstrong and Lesley Hazelton are the two notable authors who have written books in their own particular way, contradicting the facts about Islam and the Prophet of Islam. Both of them also tried to spread many misconceptions about Islamic veil and hijab and niqab in their books. Therefore, this research article will attempt to take a scholarly and critical look at the thoughts and suspicions of Western writers, especially Karen Armstrong and Lesley Hazleton, about the veil and the hijab and the reality of the veil in Islamic law, and the importance of the Veil will be also discussed.
The history of the Orientalism is very old. It is an organized organization of non-Muslims writers, especially Western writers, which has been going on in various forms. Many people in the West have been studying Islamic sciences and civilization. The majority of the Orientalists oppose Islam and the Prophet of Islam; Muhammad (SAW) and make their readers to hate them. Orientalists can be divided into many periods. They, whether ancient or modern, have different styles of writing, but the purpose is the same and the same. They have also made Islamic beliefs and ideologies and civilization and history the subject of discussion and presented their self-made ideas and thoughts about it. An important aspect of Islamic civilization is the Veil and Hijab, the obligation of which is proved by the Qur'an and Sunnah and the interaction of the Muslim Ummah, but some Western writers, especially modern writers, have made it a subject of discussion , but they made many mistakes and blunders during their writings. In the following lines of this Research Paper, an attempt is made to review the works of some of the contemporary Western writers who have written about the Veil and the Hijab.
