[TimoDassss]

Canadian anchor appears on screen in full veil to mock niqab-only TV

Monday, 30 July 2012
By Al Arabiya

A Canadian TV anchor appeared in a full face-veil (known in Arabic as the niqab) to present his show on Canadian Sun News TV, ostensibly in a bid to poke fun at the newly-launched Egyptian channel, Maria TV, which features women clad only in the niqab, the Maan News Agency reported on Sunday.

Maria TV, which was launched on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan earlier in July, employs only women in niqab, even for behind-the-camera jobs.

Canadian anchor Michael Coren, dressed in black from head to toe, hosted a Muslim cleric from Toronto at the studio and discussed with him the idea of creating such a channel in Egypt.

Coren asked the cleric why Muslim women dressed “in that weird way?”

The Canadian anchor also asked the imam why Muslim men do not get dressed in black like women. The imam replied saying it is the same reason that persuades Christian nuns to wear their veil in church.

Earlier this month, Coren appeared on his show to talk about a nine-year-old Canadian girl who refused to remove her hijab during a soccer tournament. During his show he said girls in such situations had two choices: remove the hijab or not play soccer.

“It has already been established so many times that the burka, hijab are not religious requirements,” he said on his show, a video clip of which was posted on July 12. “The Quran only demands modesty. Even if it is a religious requirement, so what? We respect your right to wear it but it does not mean we have an obligation to allow you to wear it in a soccer league,” he said.

(To view the clip of Coren speaking on Maria TV visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii3QygrGXDM)

http://english.alarabiya.net/article...30/229283.html