well if you have friends who would think that racist then you clearly associate with intellectual equals, its semantics and its nothing to do with racism. stop watering down the term
who do you know who wears the niqab regularly? im guessing nobody. girls who wear full makeup plus hijab are a tiny minority, maybe one in twenty if that. this is because it is borderline haram
like i said, equating the culture obvserved on your jaunts round the tourist traps of the middle east to domestic british-islamic culture is pointless. over here the majority take a hardline stance. valentines day is not celebrated amongst practicing muslims. please stop equating your university experience to everyone else. i live in dudley, surrounded by the culture - its not recognised, just as christmas or easter is not. whether its idiosyncratic to the immigrant islamo-culture in the west is debatable, but i doubt its any different in pakistan or saudi arabia. i could get into shi'ite vs sunni minutia, but fuck it. back on topic