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The veil on Israel and why Neelofa is my heroine

A week ago, Malaysian icon Neelofa posted this picture to her Instagram account.

ONLINE CUSTOMER from Israel. ???? Thank you, Alhamdulillah. ???? @naelofarhijab #ilovenaelofarhijab

A photo posted by Noor Neelofa Mohd Noor (@neelofa) on

Predictably, (some) Malaysians went bonkers. We’re quite a touchy bunch where Israel is concerned; in fact, our curriculum vitae of disproportionate reactions to all things Israel is quite impressive.

Malaysia has banned Israeli debaters, table tennis players and windsurfers from our editions of the World Championships in those arenas.

Malaysians have attacked Muslim workers in McDonald’s to protest Israel’s actions in the Israel-Arab conflict, despite the fact that behind the facade of rejecting all diplomatic relations with Israel, we’re their 15th largest trading partner.

In secondary school, I was told by a teacher that it was the duty of every Muslim to declare jihad against any and all Jews, wherever they might be.

A tried and tested tactic favoured by right-wing hardliners in Malaysia is simply to accuse political opponents of being Zionist.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad once claimed that Jews ruled the world by proxy. And God forbid you ever make the argument that maybe, just maybe, the average Jew or Israeli may not condone the violence we’ve seen exercised by their government.

We’ve had our moments of redeeming grace, but on the whole, it’s a little excessive, don’t you think?

I’m not going to launch into a tirade on Israeli foreign policy, or on Hamas, or Fatah, or Benjamin Netanyahu, Yahweh bless his cotton socks.

Neither am I going to lambast Malaysia for their stance on Israel. In fact, my general policy is to refrain from commenting on this sort of matter.

For one, I don’t have the capital to do so. Secondly, this is by no means a clear-cut issue.

I also don’t have quite as good a grasp of all the facts as someone seeking to provide insight on such an intricate relationship should.

However, this issue with Neelofa, it gnaws at me.

Here’s a brief summary of what occurred:

Neelofa is a Malaysian fashionista, actress, TV host, model - the classic media polymath darling-cum-icon. She has her own line of hijabs, Naelofar Hijab.

Her business does a roaring trade, so much so that she gets customers from countries like Norway and Israel putting in requests to ship hijabs to them.

This is fantastic, right? A Malaysian entrepreneur, proudly flying the Jalur Gemilang on an international stage!

Think again. When Neelofa posted a picture of her shipment to a customer in Israel, a group of the ‘Insta-razzi’ blew up.

These were some of the comments she received on her photo, translated and with grammar corrected:

  • “How can you trade with Israel? You are killing Palestinians!”
  • “It is wrong to trade with Israel when we don’t have diplomatic relations with them. Our government has ruled so.”
  • “You should only think of killing Israelis.”
  • “You are not a true Muslim.”
  • “Sorry Neelofa, there is no Israel. Only Palestine. PALESTINE!”

And my personal favourite...

  • “You should use your money to help wipe Israel off the map.”

You cannot be serious.

I was, at this point, slightly irked, as I always am by public displays of intolerance. However, I still didn’t have any intention of writing this; my patience can withstand much before giving way to voice, a result of altschmerz caused by years of facing down comments of the sort.

Then I witnessed a significant number of my friends comment on the issue in a manner than wasn’t too encouraging.

I also had a number of Facebook acquaintances share articles by The Malay Mail, and the bastion of truth and rationality in the media, Utusan Malaysia, which they were able to interpret in a manner that quite harshly panned Neelofa.

I don’t blame the news portals; they were merely reporting rather than taking a side.

But by this point, my embers had been fanned, and I desperately wanted to read a piece that firmly exonerated Neelofa, so I thought: “What the hell. I’ll write it myself.”

1. Neelofa is selling to Muslims in Israel.

Literally, people we’d call our brothers and sisters. People our media defends against Israeli doctrine.

I was surprised to learn that this logic was not accessible a priori to critics of Neelofa; it is, after all, quite reasonable to make the link between purchasing a hijab and being Muslim.

I guess some people just jumped on the all-Israelis-are-evil bandwagon and decided it would be fun to level abuse at someone selling quality clothing that would enable Muslims in a turbulent region to practice their religion.

I’m going to take this one step further: Even if the person who purchased the hijab was not a Muslim, I see no problem with a person wanting to wear / own a hijab because they identify with Muslim-Malaysian culture and clothing.

In fact, in the name of spreading peace and faith, one might imagine that an increased level of exposure to Malaysia and hopefully by extension, powerful Malaysian icons who are very much for a peaceful solution to the Israel-Arab conflict, would be a good thing.

But assuming that the customer highlighted on her Instagram was Muslim, you sir, just called on Neelofa to stop selling a garment of modesty which is a symbol of your faith to a follower of your faith.

A quick Google search will reveal that a significant minority of Israelis identify as Muslims. Ergo, this is not the consumer base you should want Neelofa to ignore.

2. Jewish? evil. Israeli? evil.

Let’s take it further and suppose that Neelofa did a roaring trade with Israel. So what?

I see no clear reason why we cannot separate one’s business from one’s personal faith, and further than that, why we cannot separate ideology from government from people.

Neelofa has rigorously mounted a defense of herself on this issue, citing, among other things, this separation I refer to. Rightly so.

You may not believe in Zionism - this is a perfectly sound position. You may believe that the Israel as a country has been disproportionate in its response to Palestine - you may be right.

It is also not wrong to say that, while simultaneously acknowledging that Palestine hasn’t been perfect either.

Most importantly, why should a rejection of Israeli foreign policy mean a total and absolute rejection of the Israeli people, coupled with a desire for their annihilation?

It amused me to see people calling for the wiping of Israel as it currently stands off the map, on Neelofa’s post.

Jerusalem happens to be in Israel. If you wipe Israel off the map, you wipe Jerusalem off the map. Jerusalem, incidentally, is home to the al-Aqsa mosque, and is the third holiest city in Islam.

It is logical to therefore conclude that if you are Muslim, you really shouldn’t be calling for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Even if Jerusalem wasn’t there and it meant nothing to you, surely a bit of tolerance is merited?

In the golden age of Muhammad’s reign, he wrote the constitution of Medina in a manner that welcomed the Jewish people. They were included as part of the ummah.

Personally, I’ve always found the concept of the ‘ummah’ to be a beautiful one, much like the idea of ‘muhibbah’ that Malaysia aspires to.

I will therefore make the controversial argument that Muhammad’s moral and political position of acceptance and tolerance is much more desirable compared to the classic litany of “Semua Yahudi patut mati” (All Jews must die).

3. Neelofa is not contributing to the rise of the Israeli Defence Force.

I don’t know how to explain this, except to state the facts. Neelofa is not buying Israeli products. An Israeli has bought a Malaysian item. Money comes to us. Product goes to them.

I suppose there’s always the chance that Neelofa’s hijabs are of such good quality that Israeli soldiers will use them as headgear, but barring that, the argument that she’s channeling funds to Israel holds no water.

“But we should boycott Israel on principle”, you cry, “Any trade with Israel strengthens their army!”

Cool. Get back to me once you’ve personally boycotted Facebook, Levis, Calvin Klein, Dell, McDonald’s, Microsoft, movies by Steven Spielberg, movies starring Daniel Radcliffe, science textbooks containing theories of Einstein or Bohr, et cetera ad infinitum.

This sort of message, which attacks an entire race on the basis of a war which many of them play no part in, does damage to the image of moderate Islam that Malaysia should seek to portray.

We cry foul when Muslims are tied to IS propaganda. It’s shameful, no? So is this.

4. In conclusion...

Neelofa is a heroine in my eyes. Malaysia has gone through a turbulent time over the past year or so.

My heart lifted recently when I heard of the Johor sultan attending Thaipusam prayers at a Hindu temple in Johor, thus demonstrating that the Muslim faith is not fickle and shallow.

She’s done the same for me here. My pride in the Malaysian identity, and conviction that Islam is as my friends say it is - a peaceful, loving religion - has been bolstered by you, Neelofa.

Keep doing this.

Keep demonstrating that faith is supranational, and bows to no man or bigot.

Keep lifting our veil on Israel.


THEVESH THEVA is a Malaysiakini reader.

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