In Mecca, where I recently made the umra pilgrimage, women are not supposed to cover their faces, and there is no separation of the sexes. How can we argue that a woman should cover her face and be separated from men when it doesn’t even happen in the holiest place in Islam? Opportunists have created their own ideology within Islam, and this is profoundly dangerous. If no one is willing to speak up for what the religion actually requires, anyone can use it for his own ends. Way back in 1979,
