Minarets in Switzerland

[crazycanuck]

A long ramble on a hot summer afternoon

Here's something from today's paper regarding minarets in a local area (to me anyways)...

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225811534888

The same thing occurred out in Camden,NSW-the locals didn't want an Islamic school (high school??) in thier country community & fought it in court by focusing on...local planning laws. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225720528855

Regarding large groups of (insert nationality/religious persuasion here) people harassing anyone really..it's not just women. The problem is...many cultures have created enclaves & reside only in that area for whatever reason. For example...many brits only live north of the river in Perth, many Koreans & South Africans live only on the North Shore in Auckland, many East Asian folks live in Millwoods in Edmonton..but I have no clue why.. These are friendly examples & no one cares who lives where and everyone gets along quite peachy keenly.

BUT...it's a different story in Europe & even parts of Sydney/Melbourne

The reason certain folk can't go into a certain area is because they're not part of that "culture".. Lawmakers etc are too afraid of upsetting anyone because it's not politically correct. What a bunch of bunk.

Read " Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali or look up Theo Van Gough...

I reckon it's the same situation in the (deep)Southern US in terms of African American/Caucasion relations. If you're X you don't go into X area..plain & simple. Then & possibly now.

Doesn't take a genius to relate it all together. Same same..

[Irulan]

Recommended reading.

Nine Parts of Desire:The Hidden World of Islamic Women by journalist Geraldine Brooks.

Link to Amazon reviews

Ms. Brooks has spent much time in Islamic countries and this is book is the result of being taking into families homes and interviewing Islamic women from many varied aspects of Islamic religion and culture. The stories are of Islamic women, their values and experience, both from the point of view of women who have taken up the veil of their own choice
and women who have moved away from it.

It seems like a lot of the posters here are running their opinions through their own cultural filters, and making what to me are somewhat inappropriate judgments on how other people choose to live their religious life or manage the religious life of their families. Just because you don't like it or don't approve of it, or think it's oppressive, doesn't make it bad or wrong. This could be said in general for any one of differing religious practice or political belief.... I am specifically speaking of wearing the veil or the culture of modesty. It blew my mind to read the interviews of women who have made this choice ( to wear the veil) independently, and why they did it, and why they like it.

back to lurking.