Welcome to Scotland

Scotland's airports have been fitted out with new posters welcoming people to the country.

With the slogan "Welcome to Scotland" are different iconic images dependent on which city it is. At Glasgow Airport, this picture is plastered up of a Muslim boy from the demonstration I helped organise a week after the airport attack in June.

It's a great move. The location and the image neatly sum up how Scotland reacted to the outrage - by coming together and uniting against those that want to kill and maim.

Incidentally, does anyone know who this young man is? From what I gather, he's not been able to milk his fame properly.

While one photographer was looking for a picture like this, another took this one below:

What is this obsession with veiled Muslim women? If photographers can't find one, they ask one to cover up. I actually saw this picture being taken, and the photographer asked her to pose like this.

Comments

[Asma Arif]

I flew into Scotland a month after the attack on Glasgow airport and found the whole experience to be strange. Strange in the respect that when I went to London a few weeks after the 7/7 attacks everyone stared at this hijaabi sister (some with dread; others with confusion as to why I was there). However, when in Glasgow everyone was really nice and I had the best of conversations with the taxi driver as we chatted about Billy Connelly and the Scottish flag. Seriously this initiative is something England should copy. Masha'Allah.

[joe90]

Two Irish Smeato's have a go and...
..get arrested!
- but not the terrorists caught using Shannon Airport as part of their international terrorist network!
Police arrest possible torture flight observers at Shannon Airport
posted by Miriam Cotton of http://www.politics.ie/>Politics.ie
on the Media Lens messege board
01 Dec 2007

all the best!

ps
john hilley on Aamer Anwar -
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1196451665.html>Defending Glasgow lawyer Aamer Anwar
30 Nov 2007

[Sulayman]

Glasgow airport is certainly friendly, and I didn't notice anything overt when I went shortly after the attack.

One thing I should point out is that I found it quite iffy to wear the Scottish flag as a Muslim (it's a St. Andrew's cross). Is that considered a controversy in the Muslim community or do Scottish muslims all go wearing the alternative Lion flag?

[Osama]

I've only ever heard one Muslim say that, who was one of these harsh types that see fault in everything and everyone. I can't understand why there should be any controversy. No worship is involved, at its root it's simply a representation of the cross on which St Andrew died.

[Abu Sinan]

I dont see the problem with the Cross of St Andrew. If one is going to get that strict they would have a problem with the animal image on the other Scottish flag as well. Some extremists will tell you any representation of life by man in artistic form is haram.

As to veiled ladies, I think it is about the exotic. I dont know where the lady comes from, but chances are she comes from an area of the world where the "niqab" (garment covering the face except for the eyes) is not that common.

The veiled, hidden sexuality of Muslims has been a constant part of Orientalism for the last 200 plus years.

Multiple marriage, marriage life of the Prophet, harems, all made for interesting reading to sexually deprived Europeans during Orientalism's peak.

Some of this still exists. Besides, I think it is just more than us convert Muslim men who find women from Muslim countries attractive. }:>)

[FRANK J DOUGAN]

It's a pity the poster does not say NO TO MUSLIM TERRORISTS and murders of innocent women and children in the Islamic hate filled barbarian Sharia states, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria etc, by Islamics

[Shavez]

Don't think that's very catchy Frank.

[Abu Sinan]

By "Islamics"? The only people I see use this term, which is incorrect usage of English, are either Islamophobes are those almost terminally ignorant.

None of the countries mentions follows Shari'a law. Some of them follow a warped version of Islamic law mixed in with harsh pagan based tribal law. A good example of this would be Saudi Arabia.

It is the culture to blame for the harshness of the societies, not the religion. Look at places like Congo in Africa. Barely a Muslim to be seen but almost everything that "Frank" atributes to Islam can be found there.