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Religion and Racism
Feb. 8th, 2010 03:57 pmAt present the idea that religions should be randomly exempt from laws they don't like seems to be one that's gaining ground. As someone who favours secular government I find this distressing and problematic.
Recently a story has come to light about a Sikh boy who was not allowed to carry a ceremonial knife in school. As reported the school offered a compromise to allow the boy to carry a small knife welded into a sheath, but the family refused and withdrew him.
I would side with the school on this - carrying knives is, for the most part, illegal. However, I do think that a lot of the people who will be protesting about this and saying, "laws are laws and should apply to everyone" will likely be silent on another recent news story, where a religion used its political influence to exempt itself from certain legislation, that being Christians using their influence in the house of Lords to force exemptions for themselves on employment equality legislation.
So I have just one request - if you're going to get het up about people with dark skins claiming they should be exempt from knife carrying laws, I think it's only right and proper that you get at least as het up about people with light skins actually managing to sabotage anti-homophobia legislation.
After all, you wouldn't want to be a hypocrite, would you?
Originally posted at http://auntysarah.dreamwidth.org/224718.html - you can comment here or there.
Recently a story has come to light about a Sikh boy who was not allowed to carry a ceremonial knife in school. As reported the school offered a compromise to allow the boy to carry a small knife welded into a sheath, but the family refused and withdrew him.
I would side with the school on this - carrying knives is, for the most part, illegal. However, I do think that a lot of the people who will be protesting about this and saying, "laws are laws and should apply to everyone" will likely be silent on another recent news story, where a religion used its political influence to exempt itself from certain legislation, that being Christians using their influence in the house of Lords to force exemptions for themselves on employment equality legislation.
So I have just one request - if you're going to get het up about people with dark skins claiming they should be exempt from knife carrying laws, I think it's only right and proper that you get at least as het up about people with light skins actually managing to sabotage anti-homophobia legislation.
After all, you wouldn't want to be a hypocrite, would you?
Originally posted at http://auntysarah.dreamwidth.org/224718.html - you can comment here or there.
