In UK, ‘Islamophobia’ Trainer Claims the Virgin Mary Wore a Hijab

Crazier and crazier. In the UK, participants in a course designed to cure them, staff members of the British Council, of “Islamophobia,” were told that the Virgin Mary wore a hijab. Not everyone was pleased. More on this preposterous claim can be found here: “British Council Staff Told Virgin Mary Wore Hijab in Anti-Islamophobia Training, Sparking Outrage,” by Ailin Vilches Arguello, Algemeiner, September 30, 2026:

British Council staff were told during an Islamophobia training session that the Virgin Mary wore a hijab, sparking controversy over course materials accused of rewriting religious history to draw a modern parallel between Islamic and Christian traditions.

As part of a taxpayer-funded Project Unity training program, North Yorkshire Council staff involved in counter-terrorism efforts attended a seminar in northern England focused on combating “myths and misinformation about Muslims,” British media reported.

Abbas Najib, a former police officer and CEO of Better Communities Bradford — a charity that delivers community and counter-extremism training — led the session, telling council workers that “Mother Mary wore a hijab” as he explained that head coverings were a tradition shared across different faiths and cultures.

There is no evidence for this claim. No representation of Mary in painting or sculpture, and no written records in the Gospels about Jesus and his mother suggest that she ever wore a hijab.

According to local media reports, the training materials also claimed that “Jesus grew a beard,” drawing a striking and historically misleading parallel between Christian and Islamic religious traditions.

If Jesus grew a beard, as he may well have, it was not for religious reasons. It was simply a practice of the time among the Jews. Most Muslims, though obviously not all, believe that a beard is wajib (obligatory). The origin of this can be found in a hadith in which Muhammad instructed his followers to trim their mustaches and grow their beards. The majority of traditional scholars and major schools of jurisprudence consider growing a beard to be wajib or fard (compulsory). In this view, shaving the beard is considered a sin because it goes against an established command meant to emulate Muhammad.

The seminar further asserted that “the hijab was prevalent in the UK only 100 years ago,” using images of shawls worn in early 20th-century Britain to illustrate the point, even though the garments depicted were unrelated to Islamic practice.

A shawl used not to be draped over the shoulders, but over the head, is not a religious requirement for Christian women, unlike the hijab that Muslim women are expected, at the very least (think of all the Muslim women forced to wear the chador or niqab), to cover themselves with.

After the remarks drew widespread criticism, Najib defended his reference to the Virgin Mary in an interview with the Daily Mail, arguing that he had cited her example to illustrate the longstanding tradition of women covering their heads across different faiths.

“Hijab is an Arabic word that simply means ‘covering,’ and in everyday usage, it refers to a woman’s head covering,” he said, adding that his lecture was meant to show that covering the head is a tradition shared by many faiths and cultures, not something unique to Islam….

But unique to Islam is what happens to a wife who disobeys her husband by not wearing a hijab. In that case, he can hit her for disobeying him. Muslim fathers, such as Yaser Abdel Said, have been known to kill their daughters for refusing to wear a hijab. Christian fathers mete out no such punishment to their daughters and wives who go without a head covering.

As part of its wider community work, Better Communities Bradford has received about $660,000 from the National Lottery Communities Fund, which supports projects that strengthen communities and improve people’s lives.

Does claiming false similarities between Islam and Christianity “strengthen communities and improve people’s lives”? Or does it anger Christians who understand that they are being fed falsehoods?