hijab is fard?

In the panel discussion at Georgetown, during the question and answer portion of the program, an older turkish lady came to the mic and stated her opinion about how surprised she was with American religiousness when she first arrived in this country from her own secular Turkey. Then she went on to express her views about islam. She mentioned that she had read everywhere in the Quran and did not find that the hijab was required, and also feared the rise of the extremists who advocate the hijab.

One of the panelists was the first female president of MSA. She chose to reply to this older turkish woman by mentioning how much she respected women with other opinions and was not out to force anyone to do anything, unlike the Turkish government. Which is pushing its anti-hijab policy on students who cover. Of course, she said this very passionately, and drew applause from the audience. The old turkish lady tryed to say something in return but never got a chance, the young activist went on with her comments about rights, freedom, and tolerance.

During the next question, the old lady decided to leave the hall. She looked like someone who no longer felt comfortable in the gathering. I wish the young activist had shown more understanding towards this lady. The view she expressed is held by many people. Yes, while this young activist may have learned to respect those who read the Quran and find that hijab is not required, this is not the case with many of the religious zealots. They view the non-wearing of the hijab as a sin. They do not tolerate another opinion on the subject.

A good example is a guy I met that night at my friends house. We endedup having a long conversation about this subject. He was not willing to acknowledge any other opinion then the wearing of hijab as a fundamental part of religion. It led to a very interesting conversation.

I said that it could be possible to hold another opinion.
He said no, that hijab is a matter of consensus.
I asked him who he was talking about.
I mentioned that nothing in Islam has ever had consensus,
of course, I had to clarify this... "other then the very basic of things like the fact that Muslims must pray, and fast, and give charity." On every other subject, muslims have disagreed. They even disagreed on what it meant to have consensus. So I asked him what sholars is he refering to? Because if he is stating that something is fundamental requirement of the religion, a FARD, the burden is on him to prove it. To say something is fard is very serious.

I mentioned the fact that the same scholars he was refering to (but could not name) divided the issues into matters of Usul and matters of Furu. The fundamentals of the religion and the details of the religion. And they even differed with each other on the meaning of these categories, nevermind the disagreements on what the categories contained. Does Usul refer to the principle beliefs (aqida) and Furu refer to the religious laws (fiqh); is Usul about methodology, or maybe its about the general law and Furu refer to the technicalities of that general law. Anyways, I brought this up to him to demonstrate the fact that he should NOT just dismiss my claims with a statement like "but there is consensus." He should know what he is talking about.

The Turkish lady should have been shown more respect. As young activists we grew up unaware of what the caliphate had degenerated into and what it must have taken to create a new nation out of the ashes of the first World War. And while we can condemn the zealot secularist, we should not forget to acknowledge the existence of zealot revivalists. We must advocate for understanding, and tolerance on all sides.