Is Jack Straw a racist for requesting that women remove their veils?

[magicfarawaytree]

just watching the news. didnt personally think he had done anything terrible in asking.

,snort. I am an Escaped Catholic so I know what you mean... I was really worried I had upset you on that thread!

Ugh, flu - had it recently too, it is foul

If it is like the one that dh had it was nasty!

He spiked a temp of 103 and was rough.

Catholic, smasholic, at least you lot got confessions to get rid of some of the guit. We (lapsed) baptists just got the guilt!

yellowrose, the trouble is though some mulsims have said he had no right....no muslims on MN btw. some muslims say we cannot question.

this is what worries me (the some IYSWIM)

But Xenia - the bloke in the batman suit - it is not inherent to his religious belief to wear a batman suit is it ? So you argument fails on this important point.

but why is religion the all deciding factor?

Why does a religious belief take precidence over any strongly held belief?

its notinherent to the moslim faith either. its cultural

Othewise the RE teacher gets to tell me what to do, because God tells her, and I just have a scientific 'belief' in Evolution.

martian - SOME Jews, Buddhists, Catholics, Taoists, Mormons, etc also say we cannot question. Inability to question is not solely a Muslim sickness, is it ?

No, never said it was. Pisses me off wherever I see it.

this is true. catholics particularly dont like you questioning - we have secret societies and albino hit men and everything

LOL. They will have to 'erase' you now!

albino men and Ruth Kelly

Scary.

It is cultural to some Muslims but a fundamental belief to others. Depends on the type of Muslim and how they interpret the word "modest". We had this discussion further down the thread.

Yes well, we all know about the Vatican !

if there was a culture where people dressed as superheros. it would only be right in a free society to ask them why they did dress like that - and when they respond - well its cultural and i want to save myself for my female/male lead in life before i reveal myself.

i would be cool with that - as long as the superhero was cool with me asking - in the free society mentioned aforehand

btw i previously mentioned that the moslim council in JS constituency asked why JS hasn't asked them to get some women together so they could tell him.

you see i have never met a moslim who disn't mind me asking stuff. and they ask stuff back.

Is there a secret batman suit Catholic society ? I wondered about that, some Catholic priests look like they might rather enjoy wearing dark blue tights !

gosh what a freee society we live in that you can say such things about the priests in my religeon yellow rose

It's interesting that there appears to be some sort of unspoken amnesty on making quite shockingly offensive remarks and judgements about Catholicism. I wonder why that is?

hell - hope did not offend ? Just kidding ! Yes, it is good to be able to joke about such things. I have many jolly funny friends from different religions. Not one of them takes offence when we joke about religion/politics, not even my rather strict kosher eating Jewish friends. I am very happy to have such people around me.

because in the catholic culture you taught that not eveyrone shares your views but you shoudl respect those opposing views just the same.

sadly this is not taught in all faiths

eh - green - the Catholics on this thread and elsewhere seem to be ok with such jokes which pretty much indicates they are ok with batman suit jokes ? I have muslim friends who are totally secular and even the ones that have some religious beliefs are ok with Mullah jokes. In fact if you know any Iranians their entire humour is based on Mullah jokes ! Now isn't that shockingly unlike the stereotypes we see of Iranians ?

well, even I knew about the 'Mullah' jokes, so I sort of thought that was generally well known

hellmouthcusty. I agree with the issue of dress and respect. I would not wear a bikini in any religious establishment out of respect.
I think it is not respectful to wear veils when you are talking to someone whose culture finds covering your face not acceptable or polite. respect has to cut both ways surely.
I certainly am not going to bend over backwards to accomodate someones's cultural and religious needs if they stick two metaphorical fingers up at of those of my culture.
I've had enough of it and so have an increasing number of the population if news reports about people's reactions to these ridiculuos outbursts are to be believed.
The government policy to increase culutural harmony by encouraging acceptance and tolerance of other religious beliefs and cultures has now gone to far and is infact having the opposite effect. People appear to be becoming more and more resentful and fearful of Muslims in particular.

martian - good ! Why is it that people assume Mulims are humourless when most of them have the ability to take the piss out of Mullahs ?

Have you ever seen the contraption that is actually made of metal and is worn over the face like a shield with a slit for the eyes. Well I saw a woman learning to drive once with one of these on and I wondered how on earth her peripheral vision was affected. I was convinced her vision was affected and as such she probably shouldn't wear it while driving.

As an aside my ds?s school has a large Muslim population and I am always surprised how attractive a veil can be if worn in a certain way. The Somalian women also wear veils that are anything but modest. In fact they are very showy with glitter and sequins and stuff.