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By Daniel Pipes, www.DanielPipes.org

Glamorous Muslim Political Women

In “Hijabs on Western Political Women” (see pictorial that follows below), I displayed a brood of queens, princesses, first ladies, members of congress, foreign ministers, journalists, and even movie stars looking anywhere from faintly ridiculous to outlandishly bad as they wear some variant of a hijab.

It then occurred to me, what about Muslim political women – are they all in hijabs, chadors, jilbabs, niqabs, and burqas? A little research found that at least some of them not only avoid any Islamic apparel but fit a Western standard of beauty and glamor, making a sharp contrast to those Europeans and Americans in their tatty hijabs.

Beyond making this contrast, offering their pictures here suggests that, at least in the highest political circles, the Islamists will meet strenuous opposition from women. So, bring on the sequined gowns, jeans, jewelry, curling irons, and make-up.

Let’s start with Khadiga el-Gamal, wife of Gamal Mubarak, daughter-in-law of Husni Mubarak, and possible future first lady of Egypt.

Khadiga el-Gamal.

Queen Rania of Jordan:

Queen Rania of Jordan.

Sheikha Mawza, wife of Hamd bin Khalifa, ruler of Qatar

Sheikha Mawza of Qatar.

Mehriban Aliyeva, wife of the president of Azerbaijan:

Mehriban Aliyeva.

Asma Al Assad, wife of Bashar Al-Assad, ruler of Syria:

Asma Al Assad.

More Asma Al Assad.

Princess Consort Lalla Salma, wife of Muhammad VI, king of Morocco:

Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco.

Princess Haya, wife of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai:

Princess Haya of Dubai.

Aesha Qaddafi, daughter of Mu’ammar, ruler of Libya:

Aesha Qaddafi of Libya.

Princess Amira Al-Taweel, wife of Saudi prince Waleed bin Talal:

Princess Amira Al-Taweel of Saudi Arabia.

Farah Diba, former empress of Iran:

Farah Diba of Iran.

Benazir Bhutto, the late prime minister of Pakistan:

Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.

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Definitely not looking as glamorous, here are

Hijabs on Western Political Women

For fun, how about collecting those instances when female political leaders don the hijab (Islamic headscarf)?

Oriana Fallaci, interviewing Ayatollah Khomeini in September 1979 in Qum, Iran. The interview lasted six hours and at one point, an indignant Fallaci removed her chador and threw it at Khomeini.

Oriana Fallaci interviewing Ayatollah Khomeini, before she threw her chador at him.

Princess Diana during a 1996 visit to a cancer hospital in Pakistan. .

Princess Diana in hijab in a Pakistan hospital.

Hilary Clinton, when she was still wife of the U.S. president in 1997, traveled to Eritrea and put on a headscarf. Interestingly, her daughter Chelsea, seen in the background, did not.

Hillary Rodham Clinton traveling in Eritrea in 1997 with a headscarf on.

But on another occasion, Chelsea joined her in wearing a headscarf.

Mother and daughter, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, wearing headscarves.

Mona Sahlin, leader of Sweden’s Social Democratic Party, donned a headpiece when visiting a mosque on September 14, 2001.

Swedish Social Democratic Party leader Mona Sahlin (right) in headscarf, speaking with Mahmoud Aldebe, chairman of the Swedish Muslim Association, on visiting a mosque in Stockholm.

Prince Charles’s wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, got into complete Egyptian Muslim garb, including hijab, on a visit to Al-Azhar.

Camilla Parker Bowles with Prince Charles in Egypt.

Antje Vollmer, Green Party member and vice-president of the German Bundestag, visiting Riyadh as part of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s delegation in March 2005.

Antje Vollmer, Green Party member and vice-president of the German Bundestag, in Hijab.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visiting a mosque in Dushanbe, Tajikistan in October 2005, wearing a black cover on her hair.

Diane Sawyer of ABC’s “Good Morning America” television program interviewed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wearing a hijab in February 2007.

Diane Sawyer interviewing Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, donned a headscarf when she visited Damascus in April 2007.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, in Damascus.

Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, a former Danish minister of culture, wore a hijab near the parliament in April 2007. She is the only woman on this page wearing the scarf correctly, completely covering the hair.

Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, a former Danish minister of culture.

In June 2007, three senior Bush administration staffers wore makeshift hijabs as they listened to the president address an audience at Washington’s Islamic Center.

Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Fran Townsend (far left), NSC Senior Director for European Affairs Judy Ansley (left), and Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes (right) listen to President Bush.

On a trip to Saudi Arabia in October 2007, George W. Bush’s wife Laura wore a particularly severe-looking hijab.

Laura Bush in Saudi Arabia.

Actress Angelina Jolie also serves as a “Goodwill Ambassador” for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; in the latter capacity, she visited a earthquake-struck village in Pakistan in August 2007.

Angelina Jolie, UNHCR goodwill ambassador, in a Pakistani village in August 2007.

Switzerland’s Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey wore a full hijab in Tehran in March 2008 as she signed a natural gas deal with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (March 19, 2008)

Switzerland’s Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey meets with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom wore a headscarf while visiting the Green Mosque in Bursa, Turkey.

Queen Elizabeth in a Turkish mosque.

Norway’s Queen Sonja wore a headscarf as she visited the mosque of the Islamic Cultural Centre Norway in Oslo.

Norway’s Queen Sonja.

Hillary Clinton, now U.S. secretary of state, donned a hijab to tour the Sultan Hassan Mosque in Cairo along with Barack Obama.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Sultan Hassan Mosque in Cairo.

By Todd Baker, To The Jew First mission fund

Later in the evening of the same day my phone was taken, Pastor Ralph Conn gently took me aside and said he felt led of the Holy Spirit to pray with me that God heavily convict this woman, who took the phone, so that she would give the phone back or discard it so that it could be found and returned. Two hours later in an amazing answer to this bold prayer of faith, Tamar Keres, an old friend of mine for many years, called me at the hotel from Tel Aviv to say, “A miracle has happened.” She then explained that an Orthodox man found my old phone on the street called the last number on the phone log, which happened to be Tamar’s number. She informed me that since the man could only speak Hebrew, I should therefore arrange for the phone to be delivered to the hotel by taxi. The man told her that he found the phone lying on the sidewalk next to the bank some two blocks away from the tourist center where I left the phone. I was not at the bank location at anytime and obviously the hostile woman that I talked with at the tourist center must have taken the phone and threw it there. God used this spiteful act from someone having a spirit of anti-Messiah to further give other Jewish people the opportunity to hear about the Messiah’s redemptive love for them, who would not have heard it any other way. Indeed, Psalm 76:10 is true in the case of this spiteful woman when it says: “Surely the wrath of man shall praise you, the remainder of wrath you shall restrain.” The next day our witness for Messiah Jesus continued in Tiberius with a journey to Nof Ginosaur—a beautiful kibbutz in northern Galilee. There we met a young Israeli man working at the café. His name was Iddo.

When I went up to pay for my lunch, I said to him that coming to Israel was like coming home because this was the homeland of my Messiah Yeshua.

I then offered Iddo and the female cashier a Messianic Gospel tract entitled “Love the Jewish People”. When giving this to him, I said that our outreach team does love Israel for what they have given the rest of the world—the Hebrew Scriptures and the Jewish Messiah. Iddo was very excited about hearing this. When I inquired if he had read the Tenach (what Christians call the Old Testament) Iddo immediately replied that he had. I then asked him if he ever looked at the New Testament to learn about Yeshua’s life and ministry in Galilee—a place where He did so much of His ministry. Iddo said he only read excerpts from the New Testament in high school. I decided to offer him a free copy of the New Testament in Hebrew (Brit Hadashah) to which he gladly and gratefully accepted this gift. When giving him the inspired text, I said to Iddo that many Jewish pretenders came to the Jewish people proclaiming to be the Messiah and only one is the true Messiah. He listened with obvious interest and openness. I also remarked that God provided a foolproof method for identifying whom that true Messiah would be when He comes. That method was found in the Messianic prophecies contained in the Tenach that Messiah would fulfill when He came to Israel. Some of these prophecies were: (1) Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:1-2); (2) Messiah would die by crucifixion and rise again (Psalm 16:10; 22); (3) Messiah’s ministry would begin in the region of Galilee (Isaiah 9:1-3). I then plainly told him these and many other Messianic prophecies were historically fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Nazarene. He is alive today and wants to bring the Jewish people to Himself. Iddo could learn of this now by reading the New Testament I gave Him. Iddo was touched by these truths and was very grateful for the gift of the Scriptures he received from this ministry.

Later in the evening, I remembered an old fishing hole (a term I use for a good place in Israel where Jewish people are open to the Gospel of Yeshua). This place was at the restaurant located in the Caesar Hotel in Tiberius. Several past issues of Search the Scriptures (at www.brit-hadashah.org) in the past years have documented these witnessing encounters. When our outreach team arrived, our waitress who came to our table proved to be a very gentle, open, and sensitive soul. Her name was Tohar (which is the word for purity in Hebrew). We asked her how life in Israel was going in the last year after the war in Gaza. Tohar’s response was that life seemed difficult. We encouraged her that the God of Israel will not let His Chosen People be destroyed nor forsaken. He will defend and vindicate them until the end of the present age when Messiah will come and rescue them from the gentile nations’ attempt to eradicate Israel at the battle of Armageddon. Ralph, Debbie, David, and I unanimously expressed our sincere gratitude and deep love for the Messiah’s people to her.

Tohar was visibly touched to the point of tears. To pay our gratitude of debt to her people, we offered her a copy of a complete Jewish Bible containing both the Old and New Testaments (Tenach and Brit Hadashah). Tohar received it with such reverence that she and three of her co-workers kissed the Scriptures with humble reverence with the same gesture that is regularly done in the Synagogue when the Torah Scrolls are passed around among the attendees. Later on, Tohar came back to our table and said that she did the same thing when praying over her food, like when she ate bread that God gave to sustain her physical life. She then cupped her hands as if she had bread in them and kissed it to show her thankfulness to God for giving her food. And now she was showing the same reverence for the New Testament Scriptures that tell of the Messiah of Israel. We were greatly moved at her response. Right away we pointed out to Tohar that Yeshua compared Himself to physical bread when calling Himself the Bread of Life in John 6. Thus, He meant to say by this metaphor, that when a person receives Him as Lord and Messiah, he or she would have eternal life with God. Deborah Conn plans to keep in touch with this precious young lady in the hope of further teaching her in the ways of Yeshua the Messiah.

By Yoram Ettinger, www.YNetNews.com

‘War-torn’ land is in fact an economic, scientific, cultural powerhouse

1. Bankruptcy rate in Israel is one of the lowest in the world (19% increase during the first half of 2009), compared with the US – 45% increase, Spain – 58%, Spain – 75% and Switzerland – 15% (Yedioth Ahronoth, July 27, 2009).

2. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has rebounded to its September 10, 2008 (meltdown) level, scoring a 50% surge (Yedioth Ahronoth, July 27).

3. Sequoia Capital and Tanya Capital led a $15.5MN round of private placement by Israel’s Kontera (Globes, July 24). Intel Capital, Cisco, Greylock Ventures and Menlo Ventures participated in a $13MN round by Israel’s AeroScout (Globes, June 29). The Boston-based media giant, Medtronics, invested over $10MN in the Israeli VC fund, TriVentures (Globes, June 23). Motorola Ventures, Stata Venture Partners, Argonaut and Walden participated in a $10MN 4th round by Israel’s Amimon (Globes, July 15). Arts Alliance Digital Ventures invested $9MN in Israel’ YCD Multimedia (Globes, June 23). Innogest, Italy’s largest venture capital fund, invested $8MN in the Israeli-Italian company, beeTV (Globes, June 4). The Boston-based Globespan Capital and Spark Capital invested $7.5MN in Israel’s 5min, their 3rd investment in Israel (Globes, July 24).

4. Intel Vice President for Technology and Manufacturing Group and General Manager of Intel Israel (6 plants, 6,500 employees!), Maxine Fassberg: “We have developed breakthroughs in Israel that have changed the face of computerization…In Israel, we are developing and manufacturing network and communication products as well as microprocessors – in parallel to spearheading the mobile domain in Intel Corp. Among the technologies developed here are MMX, which constitutes the basis of the Pentium processor, platforms for Intel Centrino mobile computers and the Intel Core 2Duo processor. In addition, the first fast Ethernet and first wireless LAN (Local Area Network) were developed here…(Jerusalem Post, May 23, 2009).

5. The Med’s best-kept secret (excerpts of Willy Stern, The Weekly Standard, July 27, 2009):

“Perhaps nowhere else on the globe does there exist a greater discrepancy between perception and reality than Israel. The press portrays the country as a savage land racked by war and terrorism… The reality, though, is a country of 7.4 million people whose stock market and economy are humming along quite nicely (at least in contrast to the rest of the globe) and whose citizens revel in their chic Mediterranean lifestyle…

“In Israel, life goes on. The Western newspapers just don’t notice… Israel today has become a vibrant, functioning jewel of a nation tucked into the eastern flank of the Mediterranean. Tel Aviv looks more like San Diego or Barcelona than Baghdad or Kabul. On a recent five-mile run along Tel Aviv’s Gordon Beach, I saw Israeli yuppies cycling the boardwalk on $1,500 Italian mountain bikes, teenagers in full-body wetsuits surfing the breakers, a deep-cleavaged Russian model (nobody seemed to know her name) doing a photo shoot in a skimpy bikini whilst middle-aged Israeli men with potbellies and hairy chests shamelessly gawked, rows of high-priced yachts docked at the Tel Aviv marina, an endless stream of private planes on final approach to small Sde Dov Airport, and two Israeli soldiers in drab green uniforms making out in the sand and drinking Heineken. A nation at war? It seemed more like high season at Coney Island…

“Israel has a world class cultural scene. Want to see Franco Zeffirelli and Daniel Barenboim? No problem. The Alvin Ailey Dance Company visits. The opera plays to audiences at 97 percent capacity. Even at lower pay, (Israel) attracts the best talents from around the globe…

“Israel enjoys top universities, upscale restaurants, million-dollar homes, hoity-toity architecture, and the like. In the fourth quarter last year, when the global economy went all to hell, Israel’s annual, quarter-over-quarter rate of GDP was only off 0.5 percent, the best figure in the industrialized world. (The United States was off 6.3 percent and Japan 12.1 percent.) ‘Think about the resistance of our economy in recent times,’ suggests Zvi Eckstein, deputy governor of the Bank of Israel. ‘Our prime minister (has a stroke). The war in Gaza. The war in Lebanon. The government gets replaced. But we’ve maintained a stable macroeconomic structure and a strong high-tech sector…’

What’s the secret? A very conservative banking system…No mortgage crisis…A current account surplus since 2003…Negligible inflation…Prudent governmental fiscal policy… Healthy integration into the world economy. Last year, 483 Israeli high-tech companies raised a whopping $2.08BN (only US companies raised more). All the major tech players – Google, Microsoft, IBM – have large research centers in Israel. They go where the talent is…’Israel is today the third-hottest spot (after Silicon Valley and Boston) for high-tech venture capital in the world…’ Israel produces more science papers per capita than any other country. Israel lags behind only the United States in number of companies listed on NASDAQ. Twenty-four percent of Israel’s workforce has a university degree; only the United States and Holland have a higher number. Israel leads the world in scientists and technicians per capita…

“The cell phone? Developed in Israel. Ditto for most of the Windows NT operating system and for voice mail technology. Pentium MMX Chip technology? Designed in Israel. AOL Instant Messenger? Developed in Israel. The list goes on. Firewall security software originated in Israel. The latest breakthrough is the “PillCam,” a video camera that can be swallowed and aids physicians in diagnosing intestinal cancer…it seems the other Israel — the land not of terrorists but of milk and honey and goats — may finally be being discovered.”