Activist: Islamophobic agenda at play in ECHR swimming rule

A ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that Muslim girls must take part in mixed school swimming classes has raised a lot of controversy. The ECHR accepted that the refusal by Swiss authorities to excuse children from compulsory swimming lessons interfered with their religious beliefs, but still ruled that it was justifiable on the basis of protecting children from social exclusion. This came after a Turkish-Swiss couple requested that their daughters be exempted from such activities.

Hawzah News Agency (Luxembourg) - An activist and Islamic scholar believes that there is an “Islamophobic agenda” at play in this European court ruling which is designed to make Muslims break all the underlined principles of Islam.

“This is not the first time that a court in Switzerland has done something as ludicrous as this, turning around and saying somehow social cohesion is more important than a person’s right to follow their own belief or their religion,” Shabbir Hassanali told Iranian news channel, Press TV in an interview on Wednesday, January ۱۱.

“There is a very easy solution that does not require this Islamohobic taste to it,” he said, suggesting that separate swimming classes be offered for girls and boys. “But that would be far too intelligent and far too socially cohesive for these bureaucrats in Switzerland to understand.”

“The Islamophobic agenda is designed not to make Muslims leave Islam. [Rather], they want Muslims to make their Islam conform in the same way that Christianity has been made to conform where all the underlying principles of that divine system have been broken and damaged,” he analyzed.

“If we go back to Scripture, there are all sorts of things that are completely prohibited but they are all prevalent in the society in the name of human rights,” Hassanali said.

He described Islamophobia as a “Zionist-backed project" and a "Zionist-cultivated industry" - worth millions every year - which has been expanding since the 9/11 attacks in an attempt to push Muslims into a corner.

He went on to say after the Cold War, the neocons needed an enemy and Muslims were the best enemy they could think of.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the activist said it is nice that the school has allowed the girls to wear burkinis during lessons, but noted that the families do not want their daughters to be in a swimming scenario with boys because that is not acceptable based on Islamic teachings.

He also noted that such decisions do not even conform to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and they only compound the problem.

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