Letters to the Editor
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More on the Headscarf Business
I know most of these letters have already covered the ground of rebutting the initial letter attacking Speaker Pelosi for wearing a headscarf. But there is one piece of information that I don't see anyone discussing. Victoria asks why Nancy Pelosi would go to a mosque at all. The answer is pretty simple. The Umayyad Mosque which Pelosi visited contained a shrine believed to contain the head of John the Baptist, a revered prophet in both Islamic and Christian traditions. Nancy Pelosi is a practicing Catholic and made the sign of the cross in front of The Baptist's shrine as an act both of personal religious pilgrimage and solidarity with Syria's million Christians, who have at best a tenuous relationship with the Assad regime.
Unless you are willing to criticize the Catholic Speaker of the House for attending Mass conducted by a sexist and sexually oppressive priesthood in the United States, then her decision to visit a mosque for what are, primarily, personal religious reasons is just more Islamophobia of the worst sort. The most powerful woman in American history wearing a headscarf is no more offensive than her carrying a rosary. Indeed, seeing a proud, powerful woman standing in a mosque making the sign of the cross while doing her best not to offend her hosts is as profound a rebuke to the sexism inherent in all religions as I can imagine.