Clearly still with time on her hands waiting for that long-due tax bill to arrive, tedious self-promotion specialist and TalkRADIO host Julia Hartley Brewer has decided to go after High Street establishment Marks and Spencer for the heinous sin of offering products which its target clientele might want to buy. But from this has come a most unfortunate problem - one that is entirely of her own making.
We know who you are, thanks
Ms Hartley Dooda had been reading the Murdoch Sun - never a good means of expanding one’s intellectual horizons - and in particular an article which told “[Marks and Spencer’s] social media pages have been flooded with messages regarding the black headscarf, which is on sale for just £6 in their 'School Essentials' section … M&S say they are selling the hijab after a 'number of schools requested the option’”.
TalkRADIO’s morning motormouth was aghast. “Marks & Spencer sells school uniform hijabs for girls as young as 6. This is an abomination. This is extremist Islamism and NOT a Koranic requirement for young Muslim girls at primary school. No, no, no, no... NO!” School uniform is “extremist Islam”? But there was more.
Ms Hartley Dooda then went live on air with her petty and uninformed bigotry, after she had found an unfortunate guest to shout down. “‘This is a medieval, nasty ideology.’ Watch Julia's full debate with Ishmael Lee South on the new M&S hijab uniform for primary-school girls”. Another right-wing loudmouth calling Islam an “ideology”.
Confirming that her guest was not in the studio - so much easier to be brave and cut them off - we then read “Watch Julia's remarkable debate with Salaam Project's Ishmael Lee South over M&S's new primary-school hijab range. At what age should little Muslim girls protect their 'modesty' from men?” It’s a school uniform, for Christ’s sake.
Reverend and the Makers concluded from all of this that Ms Hartley Dooda was a racist. After they had expressed their opinion directly, she responded “This is the level of debate we now have in this country. I object to a high street store endorsing little girls being indoctrinated into religious extremism & forced to cover up to avoid sexual assault and that makes me a “racist”. Okaaaaaaaaaay”. It wasn’t just “objection”, though, was it?
But then she decided to become yet braver - especially with the prospect of that tax bill coming down the track - and asked “Does anyone know is this band are successful or not? Are they worth me suing them for libel?” Like she ever would.
Meanwhile, Reverend and the Makers changed their opinion to merely calling her an Islamophobe. She wasn’t having that, either. “If I’m an Islamophobe for thinking little girls shouldn’t be forced to wear hijabs, then so is this woman”. But here a problem entered.
Ms Hartley Dooda wasn’t so reticent about the idea of calling “racist” on others, and especially not Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. This is what she told Mike Cushman during a discussion recently: “I believe Jeremy Corbyn is anti-Semitic and racist, he can sue, we have libel courts, he can sue me, he can take me every single penny he wants, he just have [sic] to call his libel lawyer”. That was OK, but her getting called it is not. Er, no.
Hypocrisy bundled up with ignorance, prejudice and bigotry. No change there, then.
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5 comments:
"It's a school uniform, for Christ's sake."
Very droll, Tim, very droll.
Woman who bangs on about snowflakes and free speech threatening libel to silence someone who criticised her.
Utter moron
She'll be on about those crucifixes for sale to Christian faith schools next.
Or perhaps not.
At the age of 8, I was made to attend Catholic services in Latin, partake of Communion and attend Confession where I invented "sins" because it just didn't seem right to disappoint the resident priest.
What would Hartley-Brewer make of that?
But of course, bigots only see what they want to see and hypocrisy is a way of life. Shame on her and her ilk.
M&S sells it as an online item in their 'school essentials' category. There is no mention of age suitability. If you select any of the age boxes on the left of the screen, the hijab is not displayed.
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