Last week I discussed the Mormons in Utah who are largely given a pass on practicing bigamy/polygamy by Utah authorities. But they aren’t the only ones who demand (if not receive) special treatment by virtue of their superstition.
Recently American Muslims and Muslims of foreign birth passing from Canada into the US have been complaining that they have had certain of their religious precepts breeched by Border security. Horribly intrusive things like asking a Muslim woman to remove her veil to show her face and confirm her identity. It’s just too much of an imposition. They are quick to shout “freedom of religion” and invoke the Forth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure to protect their religiously required modesty.
Here’s a flash for those Muslims who want to be remained veiled on their drivers’ licenses, and who refuse to show their face to female Border Patrol agents: Your right to practice your religious delusion stops where it becomes a demand for special treatment not extended to people of other faiths or no faith at all. I can’t expect to cross the border into the US unchallenged wearing a Freddie Kruger mask, nor have my local DMV office put my preferred photo of me wearing a towel over my face on my driver’s license. Don’t want to expose your face? Don’t drive a car, and don’t attempt to enter/re-enter the country... problem solved.
Then there are the Sikhs whose male adherents are required by their religion to wear a ceremonial dagger at all times. They want to wear it on planes, in courthouses, and on public school property in violation of statues that prohibit the carrying of any weapons. If I can’t carry my secular pig sticker on a plane, their supernatural delusion and customs do not grant them a special pass to be armed.
If my own personal religion prevented me from being finger printed, it doesn’t excuse me from the practice in order to obtain security clearance, or a secure a pistol permit. My options are clear. Forego the job requiring security clearance and don’t carry a pistol concealed.
Look, religionists of foreign custom ... here’s the thing: You can walk around veiled, armed, and otherwise encumbered by your religious idiocy all you like. But when it comes down to being treated special and excused from common convention because of it that’s where accommodation of your religious rights come to a screeching halt.
If your god/ gods are going to be offended by you not wearing a knife for a few hours, or his briefs will get in a wad by your face being shown for thirty seconds, then you need to realize that you scraped the bottom of the belief system barrel and your imaginary god is an asshat. Find a new one. If your husband will have to kill you after the fact in order to protect his honor... you picked the wrong husband. Find another.
They have as much right to practice their religion as I have to not have religion, it’s all good. But the choice is theirs. They can adapt to this country’s culture, laws, and expectations of behavior, or forgo the benefits this country has to offer. Frankly, I don’t care which. Just shut up.
10 comments:
Full on agreement here. And that freaking special council on American-Muslim relations(can't remember the exact name at the moment) needs to go! They are so full of shit!
None of the claims of the theistically-deranged above are valid. Driving a car on public roads is a privilege, not a right. If they don't want their face on a license then they don't deserve a licence. Not showing a female border patrol a woman's face is not even a religious issue. It is bogus.
Again, if certain males want to carry a dagger then let them walk.
Once again, well said. They are free to adhere to whatever superstitions they like, provided that they are otherwise in compliance with the law of the land. If their superstitions prohibit them from showing their faces for identification purposes, stay the fuck at home. If their religion endangers my safety, my safety comes first.
In Canada the Modern Multicultural State, we seem to bend over backwards trying to accommodate cultural practices from other nations. We allow the Sikhs to wear a turban in the RCMP for example. However, when it came to someone wearing a burqa in the polling place for voting without having to show their face; it went way beyond what we all say is common practice to show your face in the bank and at the polls, so that never happened thankfully.
Interesting how these Muslim women assume the right to breeze through passport control and customs without being properly ID'd. When I (American woman of obvious northern European ancestry) enter their countries I doubt I'd be offered the same convenience. Even though I hold a resident's visa to Algeria I still get pulled to the side where they inspect every stamp and date on my passport, search every inch of my baggage with interesting little comments like, "Oh! isn't that a nice little (fill in the blank), I wish I had one of these..." hint, hint... and plenty of personal questions having nothing to do with national security, while I break out in a light sweat hoping they don't order me into a side room for further questioning. We all know what that means.
In the pre-hijab days of North Africa when the elderly women still wore the haik and the head to toe black tent that was left over from the Ottoman invasion, they all wore white face veils to go with them. When passing over international borders or posing for ID photos it was a given that these women had to drop their face veil without exception. If my 80+ year old Mother-in-Law could do it then so can the rest of them.
The extent to which these people are jerking us around is absolutely incredible!
Next thing you know, they will be trying to rewrite American history and destroy the legacy of the Founding Fathers (especially Jefferson).
Oh wait, the religious right in *this* country have already beaten them to the punch!
Regarding my last comment, last line should have read:
"Oh wait, the Religious Right loons native to this country have already beaten them to the punch"
Every time I see that drivers license, I laugh by butt off. It's so ridiculous. It just points to the absurdity of Islam. And the fact that women choose to reduce themselves to ghosts makes it even worse.
Bookish Babe
hoax
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