It seems nothing can burn up people and get their tempers flaring faster than the words....I don't believe in hijab. Thats akin to saying you dont believe in the prophet or Islam and boy do people take it oh so personal when you claim such a belief. All the ayats in the Quran point to a personal relationship with God. We have religious authority in Islam...no pope or similar that sends down religious orders from on high that all devout followers must obey in order to be seen as good and worthy of eternal happiness. We do have scholars...thats for sure...more than we know what to do with it seems. Anyone can be a scholar these days....memorize a few hadith and presto! Scholar extrodinaire. If someone has the name Imam or Mufti or even Dr in a front of their name then apparently everything that comes out of their mouths should be viewed as holy and Godlike....anyone who professes disbelief in what some scholar has said is once again committing apparent blasphemy...of course that comes with an exception(everything in Islam seems to these days). A scholar is only a scholar if his(always a him) opinion agrees with all the million or so scholars that came before him. In other words, if your scholar holds a differing opinion than the Holy Consensus then your scholar has no doubt been influenced by the Devil West and is not worthy of passing ijtihad or even one tiny fatwa.

I find it curious that God exhorts us time and again to use our brains...think and reason for ourselves...and most especially to not follow leaders blindly without checking first if they deserve our obedience....and yet the majority of Muslims out there will solemnly declare that to not follow a scholars opinions...no matter how inane or unIslamic it is, is, once again that magic word...Blasphemous! Practically shirk for Gods sake! These men are men of God....spent their whole lives bent over a hadith book until their backs were twisted...burning the midnight oil and cruising the superhighway of hadith literature to find every single instance in which the prophet supposedly declared something halal, haram, or possibly neither...so allowed but maybe not really halal...oooh better to avoid it...maybe its from the West and so bida....God save us from the Devil West and all its kafir technology and evil thoughts....I'd do the cross sign now but might get zapped by lightening...you never know how God is feeling at any particular moment.

Anyhow, I digress....hijab. Now quite a few Muslims out there believe with all their hearts and minds and religious fevour that God did not order women to wear hijab....its not mentioned in the Quran and the few hadith that mention(very few) are weak....not to mention the plain fact that our prophet had no authority to deem something haram that God Himself did not make so. i find it ironic really that there really is very little mentioned in the Quran in terms of modest dress and whats required....and all the hadith that mention womens dress are weak and unsatisfactory and just not all that Islamic sounding...and yet the magic little piece of cloth that prevents unwanted looks, grasping fingers and shoulder bumps in crowds....not to mention softens the words of mens and takes over their sexual thoughts until they are tamed...preventing rape you know(or maybe you didnt know that....its true ask any muslim...hijab prevents rape...better than a can of mace)....and causes the man to treat you with respect whether he wants to or not. he has no choice...you wear hijab....he automatically has to treat you with respect...its in the Muslim code of honour...of which many many Muslim men have not taken the time to ready I might add. Please please someone do a survey on how many women who do wear hijab have actually been molested or harassed or God forbid, raped despite not showing a single hair and lowering her gaze at all times? Any hands? Well, mine is waving frantically in the air as I was repeatedly treated disrespectfully by these so called Muslim men while I had my hair securely hidden and minded my own business. Hijab has taken on the burden of being the "6th pillar of Islam". Or should i say that women have taken on the burden of being the spokespeople for Muslims the world over....see our pious Muslims sisters that dont walk around half naked for non muslims to lust after and molest....that our job thank you very much and we intend to keep it that way. The magical qualities of hijab...books could be written on the subject....oops I forgot...they have been.....more on that later....Nuff said for now.