Just in case you wondered why some Islamic officials or heads of state don't wear neck ties, here is an explanation from the horse's mouth...err...the
Islamic Center Of Beverly Hills website (yes, you read that right: Beverly Hills)
A few historical points: Crusaders in the 13th and 14th century were attacking Muslims and wanted to conquer Jerusalem. Their clothing was made of armor with a big cross over their chest. Later on, the cross became smaller and slowly changed to a white shirt and cravatt (neck tie). This resembles the cross and has become the symbol of western civilization, western domination, and capitalism.
When the Ottomon Empire (Islamic Empire) was defeated in this century by the West, the first thing the West did after dividing the country was to remove the Hejab from the women and take the turban and aba from the men. In Iran and Turkey, the popet government soldiers beat women with Hejab and men with aba. The West then started to make fun of our Eastern clothing and Hollywood started to promote the neck tie and jacket as a symbol of civilization and success. The West also started bringing liquor, gambling, night clubs and prostitution to the Eastern countries.
The West looked at the East as an army that has been defeated. They were not allowed to wear their own uniform and instead must wear the uniform of the conquerors and give up their own identity.
In the United States now, we must slowly go forward to gain our religious identity and start wearing Sunnah and promoting it to our youth so they will be proud of their Islamic identity. We cannot expect our women to wear Hejab when we do not wear aba and instead, wear a cross (neck tie) around our neck.
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In summary, we recommend the following easy steps:
1. Do not wear a cross (neck tie) around your neck and please explain that to other Muslims.
2. Always have Tasbih in your hand to show your Islamic pride.
3. Keep your hair short.
4. Wear an Islamic hat (Kofi) whenever possible.
5. Grow your beard (2-3 inches long) if you can.
6. Wear aba over your jacket whenever you can especially when going to Islamic events or to the mosque.
7. Be modest; no silk, no gold, wear nice, clean and inexpensive clothing.
8. Our women should wear long, loose, nice, clean clothing with Hejab (head cover) just like Khadijeh and Fatimah (R.A.).
As a soldier in the army of God in America promoting Islam, this is our uniform, our leader is Prophet (PBUH) and our constitution is preserved in the Holy Quran.
That's it, folks! For the "soldiers of Allah in America" as they call themselves, the true Constitution is the Qu'ran. Stupid me, I always thought it was the Constitution adopted in 1787, the one all immigrants - including the Muslim ones swear allegiance to when they take US citizenship. As for the necktie = cross = infidel symbol = haram.
By the way, did you noticed our President lately? Last Sunday, while in MA stumping for the soon-to-be-loser Coakley, he was wearing a suit, a dress shirt but no tie.
Yesterday while spouting some BS about jobs in Ohio, again: suit, dress shirt but NO TIE.
For a President he is dressed casually FAR too often. Just sayin'