$43,000 RAISED FOR CANADIAN MUSLIM WOMAN

Ottawa, 12 Jumadil Awwal 1436/3 March 2015 (MINA) – More than 43,000 Canadian dollars has been raised to help a Canadian woman after a judge refused to hear her case claiming that she was not suitably dressed for court proceedings.

Judge Eliana Marengo told Rania El-Alloul on Tuesday that she was not dressed suitably for the courtroom, which is a secular place, according to an audio recording of the proceedings obtained by the Canadian broadcaster.

After the incident, two Canadian citizens Nouman Ahmad and Rayan Rafay opened an account on the campaign website www.gofundme.com for donations to raise money to help El-Alloul buy a new car as she went to court to retrieve her seized vehicle, World Bulletin quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Tuesday.

The online funding campaign raised over 43,180 Canadian dollars from 951 people in two days via the link: www.gofundme.com/buyhijabiacar.

Rania El-Alloul expressed her gratitude for the support she received across Canada and said she knows “she made the right decision” not to remove her hijab at the court hearing.

El-Alloul’s car was seized by Quebec’s automobile insurance board after police stopped the car which her son was driving with a suspended license.

At the court hearing, the judge told her she was “not suitably dressed” and postponed the case.

The judge told El-Alloul that she had two choices: either remove her headscarf or apply for a postponement in order to get legal advice.

Ahmed said that they created the account to support El-Alloul as she “was unfairly treated because she wore a hijab. This is not the opinion of most Canadians we know.” (T/P002/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)