Religious accommodation or ‘accessory to sexism’? York student’s case stirs debate – The Globe and Mail

2014/01/10 Leave a comment

The request by a male student at York University in Toronto to be accommodated in his wish to not be in a study group where he would have to interact with female students has understandably attracted much controversy.

Accommodation is not an automatic right but has to be balanced against the rights of others and the broader interests of society, which include the overall mandate of universities to encourage learning, discussion and knowledge, irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation etc. Professor Grayson made the right call in rejecting the request; unfortunately the Dean did not and too accommodating.

Seems to have ended up with the student accepting the Professor’s position, but still worrisome that Dr. Grayson was not backed up by the university administration:

The dean’s office told the student if he wished to drop the course, the fee would be refunded. But less than a week later, the student told Dr. Grayson he would “respect the final decision” to deny the request, was pleased with the way it had been handled, and has since met with his learning group. Even so, York has not changed its stand.

“What concerns me is that there’s an apparatus there that says this kind of thing’s okay, and you could have other students making similar requests,” Dr. Grayson said. “… There is room here for decision-making, and as far as I’m concerned, York has made the wrong decision.”

Religious accommodation or ‘accessory to sexism’? York student’s case stirs debate – The Globe and Mail.

And in Britain some similar debates about accommodation in UK university campuses for Muslim speakers who insist on separate seating for men and women (see Campus segregation: ‘religious freedom’ cannot be allowed to trump equality – Telegraph).

Agree that such accommodation in public universities is not reasonable as it undermines integration and equality:

All the more reason, then, that a fearless debate is encouraged to protect the fundamental values of a secular society. Teachings and practices in some faith schools that undermine women’s freedoms also ill prepare boys for the challenges of a modern mixed workplace. Issues such as forced arranged marriages, and domestic violence condoned by the extended family, have to be confronted, not because they are exclusive to any particular religious group, but because they are out of step with our civic life.

Segregation:our secular values need to be protected | Observer editorial | Comment is free | The Observer.

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What Islam-bashers Can Learn From ‘The West Wing’s Aaron Sorkin | Mehdi Hasan

2014/01/09 Leave a comment

A funny by pertinent piece by Mehdi Hasan, citing Baroness Warsi’s use of the West Wing in response to UK Independence Party former leader Lord Pearson citing some of more extreme verses from the Quran:

In the show, President Jed Bartlet takes on a Christian evangelical radio presenter who had called homosexuality an “abomination”. “I don’t say homosexuality is an abomination, Mr President. The Bible does,” she replies, citing Leviticus 18:22. To which Bartlet responds:

“I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I had you here. I’m interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7… What would a good price for her be? My chief of staff, Leo McGarry, insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or is it OK to call the police? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads? Think about those questions, would you?”

Makes the point that the issue is about fundamentalists and literalists, not religions per se.

What Islam-bashers Can Learn From ‘The West Wing’s Aaron Sorkin | Mehdi Hasan.

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UK: From Burke to burkhas – why it’s time for Tory multiculturalism

2013/12/18 Leave a comment

Another sign of how Conservative parties are embracing multiculturalism and ethnic communities, following the lead of Jason Kenney and Canadian Conservatives. Further reinforcement of Doug Saunders piece a while back (When the right turns left on diversity). Of course, with UKIP, the UK Conservatives have a challenge on the right that likely limits how far they can go:

A multiculturalist Conservative Party would also be serving the nation by harnessing the huge amount of political energy that exists in many BME communities. As Dominic Grieve’s remarks imply, within Asian communities there is plenty of evidence that local electoral and party politics are taken very seriously. The problem, of course, is that this energy does not always have respectable outcomes.

Nevertheless, there may be something faintly admirable in the fact that people outside the mainstream can be bothered with traditional electoral politics, even when this involves slightly dubious methods. Isn’t it preferable to the apathy, nihilism and witless narcissism seen in much of white, urban working class Britain? Northern Tories might thus regard BME voters in the way that Disraeli regarded the newly enfranchised working class: as “angels in marble” rather than devilish aliens. The task now, surely, is to chip away at the marble.

Richard Kelly: From Burke to burkhas – why it’s time for Tory multiculturalism | Conservative Home.

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Campus segregation: ‘religious freedom’ cannot be allowed to trump equality – Telegraph

2013/12/17 Leave a comment

There has been a fair amount of controversy in the UK over segregated lectures by Islamic or other fundamentalists in universities. This opinion piece in the Telegraph argues, correctly, that such segregation is a step backwards and should not be encouraged or tolerated:

In any society, pluralist or otherwise, we are constantly forced to assign priorities to different values. Religious freedom – the right to worship, to free association, to a diet consistent with one’s faith, and so on – is rightly accorded respect. But that freedom cannot be allowed to distort and trump the ideals of the modern academy, at the heart of which is the notion of a scholarly community divided by civilised argument, not race, faith or gender.

Campus segregation: ‘religious freedom’ cannot be allowed to trump equality – Telegraph.

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Britain has an ethnic problem: the English

2013/12/09 Leave a comment

Good piece by Doug Saunders on how the “mainstream” white-origin English have fallen behind other ethnic communities in the UK:

These xenophobic attitudes are harming Britain’s economy. As the Economist recently wrote, the Prime Minister’s pledge to drive immigration below 100,000 a year has done serious damage – steep visa fees, quotas and restrictions have driven away foreign students, educated elites and investors, while many British companies are moving their operations overseas, where it’s easier to hire the best workers. And it is causing a fiscal crisis – according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, immigration rates will need to double if national debt is to be lowered to half its level (and UKIP’s immigration freeze would double public debt).

Don’t get me wrong about the English. I know quite a few English people who are rather decent (including my dear old Mum and Gran), and their culture is not without its charm. But they need help. Ethnic English numbers are growing, and if they’re allowed to gain any more influence in British society, they could be trouble.

Britain has an ethnic problem: the English – The Globe and Mail.

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Britain’s Ministry of Nudges – NYTimes.com

2013/12/09 Leave a comment

A good in-depth profile of how the Cameron government is applying “nudge” to improve policy outcomes. Further ahead than the US initiative (easier to make things happen in UK). Not aware of any substantive work in Canada at the federal level, at least, to explore “nudges” as a policy tool.

It starts with recognition that existing government policy approaches have incorporated in their defaults some aspects of “nudges”; more awareness of these implicit biases makes for a good starting point, as well as the more in-depth and methodological approaches highlighted in the article.

Britain’s Ministry of Nudges – NYTimes.com.

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Counter-extremism is getting smarter

2013/12/05 Leave a comment

Commentary on the new UK counter-terrorism strategy, praising the broadening of focus to tackle extremism of all kinds, not just radical Islam, and ongoing serious effort to reduce anti-Muslim prejudice:

no counter-extremism strategy will unite us all. Such work lies at the notoriously fragile intersection that separates civil liberties from national security. But for the first time in a long while there are signs that we are moving in a better direction, and have acknowledged some failings in the past. While this week’s recommendations provide us with a foundation rather than a coherent strategy, they are a useful starting point for us all.

Counter-extremism is getting smarter | Matthew Goodwin | Comment is free | The Guardian.

And from the other side of the political spectrum, The Daily Mail takes this tack, which reads it into a broader critique of multiculturalism, defined in UK terms as promoting separateness:

David Cameron: Mistake of multiculturalism aided extremists | Mail Online

For the actual report, well-thought out and written as most UK strategies, link below:

Link to UK counter-extremism strategy

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The Right’s attitude to radical Islam is as bad as the Left’s » Spectator Blogs

2013/11/21 Leave a comment

A few pieces from the UK on Islam, starting with an opinion piece in The Spectator by Nick Cohen, noting how many on the right are weakening the voice of Muslim moderates:

Consider the title [Silent Conquest]. Muslims and by extension ex-Muslims are not a part of the West. They are outsiders, ‘silent conquerors’, who have sneaked in and torn up our rights. Nowhere can the filmmakers acknowledge that many Muslims, who have come to the West or indeed been born in the West, hope to enjoy the same rights as everyone else. More seriously, they display an ignorance of totalitarian movements, which would embarrass a first-year history student. They ought to know that, just as the first victims of communism were the Russian working class, which the Bolsheviks regimented and all but destroyed, and the first victims of Nazism were Hitler’s German opponents, so the first victims of radical Islam are the Muslims it claims to ‘own’. If they were to acknowledge that elementary truth, however, they would have to abandon their gratifyingly horrific story of a white West under attacks from dark barbarians, and that they will never do.

The right, or at least the most vocal part of it, are as willing as the most vocal elements on the liberal-left to ignore liberal Muslims and ex-Muslims. Like the left it is leaving them to fight unequal battles without help from mainstream society. As I said earlier, their behaviour is one of most glaring and depressing treacheries of our age.

The Right’s attitude to radical Islam is as bad as the Left’s » Spectator Blogs.

And UK Faith Minister Baroness Warsi being quoted in a Pakistani site, reiterating her standard message on Islam, and arguing strongly against the xenophobic views of UK Independence Party:

 “To be an adherent, one must also be a historian. This is a point that the late Benazir Bhutto, the first female Prime Minister of a Muslim country, once put particularly well when speaking of teachings in the Quran. She said: “In an age when no country, no system, no community gave women any rights, in a society where the birth of a baby girl was regarded as a curse, where women were considered chattel, Islam treated women as individuals.” …

“Deep, entrenched anti-Muslim bigotry goes against everything this great nation stands for,” she said. “I am concerned that the deeper Islamophobia seeps into our culture, the easier becomes the task of extremists recruiting.”

Sayeeda Warsi defends Islam in British parliament – thenews.com.pk

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Theresa May must not further erode Britons’ rights to citizenship

2013/11/14 Leave a comment

An opinion piece in the Guardian by Matthew Gibney on removal of citizenship rights for suspected terrorists. Given there has been some talk in Canadian circles as well of similar measures, of interest. While the people that have been stripped of their citizenship are “not nice people”, the question of due process and the rule of law is an important one, although I would not be as absolutist of the right of citizenship in such cases.

Theresa May must not further erode Britons’ rights to citizenship | Matthew Gibney | Comment is free | The Guardian.

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‘Wear hijabs in and out of class’: Pupils at state Islam school become the first to be forced to cover up with Muslim headscarf | Mail Online

2013/09/30 1 Comment

The debate in the UK on state schools with dress codes, in and out of school. Lacking in the article is a comparison with other faith-based state schools, and their dress codes (e.g., Catholic, Jewish, Sikh etc), and how they are applied.

Quebec, ironically, also provides state financing to faith-based schools, despite it ongoing focus on secularism.

A reminder that providing financing can reinforce parallel communities and reduce opportunities for integration.

‘Wear hijabs in and out of class’: Pupils at state Islam school become the first to be forced to cover up with Muslim headscarf | Mail Online.

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