Man with big mouth learn to like the taste of foot......
There's been a lot of coverage in the press lately over Jack Straws comments about Muslim women wearing veils.
Now I read that a Muslim teacher has been suspended for wearing her veil while teaching.
Isn't this a religious issue rather than a a political one?
I don't claim to know much about any religion, but I don't see how the government has got any say on religious clothing, as long as it isn't offensive and this clearly isn't.
Jack Straw claims that the veil creates a barrier with people......unlike say a cassock or dog collar - that wouldn't alter the way you act around someone, would it now.... ..?
There is enough suspicion around the Muslim faith as it is at the moment -so I'd just like to say...
mind your own bloody business mate!
Now I read that a Muslim teacher has been suspended for wearing her veil while teaching.
Isn't this a religious issue rather than a a political one?
I don't claim to know much about any religion, but I don't see how the government has got any say on religious clothing, as long as it isn't offensive and this clearly isn't.
Jack Straw claims that the veil creates a barrier with people......unlike say a cassock or dog collar - that wouldn't alter the way you act around someone, would it now.... ..?
There is enough suspicion around the Muslim faith as it is at the moment -so I'd just like to say...
mind your own bloody business mate!
Just to bring things down to my normal level.....
Beautiful eyes, don't you think?
12 comments:
Hi Confucious,
My feeling is that you're absolutely spot-on!
When I visited Dubai & Jordan, some of the most beautiful & cultured women wore veils.
I remember at Amman airport in Jordan that was somewhat haphazard in its arrivals lounge and then this lady, all covered in black with only her eyes showing, guided me (I travelled alone) with ease and friendliness towards the luggage conveyor belt & also explained transport arrangements and kept me company, while I tried to get it all together.
She didn't have to.
After all, she was just another stranger on her way home - and as she told me very tired - from her earlier trip to Dubai. I remember she was soft-spoken, immensely kind and spoke polished English.
And on an Emirates flight once while on the way to Abu Dhabi - when I worked as a travel writer - I remember that the flight was filled with noisy, boistrous children. These ladies in black and wearing veils as their mothers acted gently towards their babies and children and hardly seemed annoyed or ruffled. They coaxed and soothed their toddlers' tantrums with infinite patience and a rare feminine softness, not always seen these days. And their psychology worked. I don't know how they did it but they were dream mothers.
Strange wonderful memories like these, abound today, from my travels.
Thank you Confucious for highlighting this topic and for subtly attesting to the solidarity of good women everywhere.
And indeed, yes, they spot beautiful, intriguing eyes.
Hmmm - in the article I read about this incident, the children could not understand what the woman was saying to them. Also, the muslim council has said that there is no muslim law or recommendation that says people need to wear the veil when among pre-adolescents.
Children cannot speak for themselves in the way that adults can.
Hello Maxine, thank you for commenting.
In the BBC interview, the woman said that she had agreed to take the veil off in front of children, but not male colleagues.
There is a link on the post, so you can all judge for yourselves if she can be heard clearly or not.....
However, she did admit that she had attended the interview without a veil.
That aside, and this was an aside to the main point really, I was challenging whether Muslims wearing veils, is really a matter for political discussion.
Particularly in view of the suspicion that the Muslim community currently faces.
I agree. Very nice eyes. I also think that everyone should learn to respect other people's beliefs.
If the veil is important to the person wearing it, then that should be respected.
There is an eastern saying about everyone following their own tao. There is a lot of sense to it.
Well said, CT - and yes, beautiful eyes. They do say the eyes are the windows to the soul.
I have a friend who wears the veil - it is her right and the rights of people should be respected.
The same effort is going on here in the US. In fact, if Mr Straw wasn't held in such dubious regard by the bushytailed bugeyed biblethumping powers that be over here, I'd suspect it was a coordinated push.
But I guess it's just the mindless bigotry of individuals...
Can'e we all, at long last, grow up?
Respect Miss Hen...now there's a word that isn't given enough...er...well, respect
jta thanks for visiting..............and wouldn't that be refreshing....grown up grown ups........
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Thanks for posting this, Confy. I'd been wondering how to tackle this.
I think it's symbolic of the appalling levels of Islamophobia abounding currently. Sometimes the news seems like one item after another demonising Muslims and creating divisions in order to divide us (eg the reporting of a woman who's been suspended from BA for wearing a cross provoking fury that Christians have less rights than other faiths.)
And (don't shout at me, I'm NOT justifying terrorists) can we be surprised when young Muslims say they feel alienated and disenfranchised?
Exactly, smacks of the most dangerous type of propoganda to me.....isn't that how things started in Germany.........
Er --- why is nobody writing anything about the children who have to try to understand what their teacher or teaching assistant is saying?
I don't see what Islam or having a pot-shot at Jack Straw or whatever has to do with it -- if you have a job teaching or communicating with children, seems daft to me to put a cloth over your mouth so they can't hear you properly.
Should politicians have a say in what people wear, as long as it's not offensive, Maxine?
I don't say that the woman hasn't got some questions to answer about her interview for the job. Did you go to the link for the interview with the BBC?
But I fail to see how insensitive comments from politicians are going to help the current situation.
I doubt very much whether the veil would affect the children hearing that she said, if anything, I would say there might be a problem with them not being able to see her facial expressions.
However, we should all defend the right of others to follow their own beliefs, even if we don't necessarily understand them.
In my opinion Jack Straw deserves all the pot shots he gets, for interfering and inciting bigotry in an already bigotted world.
His words were poorly chosen and more suited to a right wing extremist, as far as I'm concerned.
The reason for my post, was not to defend the rights or wrongs of what the woman had done with regards to her employment. But to highlight a politician whose unwelcome comments could only serve to further racist attitudes.
Sorry Maxine, but you're just not going to get me to agree with you on this one.
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