Right, now I've had enough.
I've kept quiet about this, 'cos I don't like to be controversial or offensive, (except when I've had too much wine perhaps..?) but now I'm getting quite annoyed.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but we are a Christian country by tradition. Our country. Now, I'm happy for people to live here from other countries, so long as they live by our laws and contribute to society and I'm happy for them to practice their own religion, but I'm not happy that we should compromise our beliefs and traditions in order not to offend other ethnic origins or religions!
If a Christian wishes to wear a crucifix or cross of somekind, do so. It is our country and our traditions, we are traditionally Christian.
Anyone, a company, office, business, whatever, should never 'ban' Christmas, for fear of offending other faiths. We are a Christian country! Yes, we have a multi-faith society, but we are a Christian country!
I can't bear the fact that our country is losing it's identity and traditions for fear of 'offending other faiths'. They are welcome here, but they should accept our laws and traditions, they don't have to change and celebrate them, but they are in our country. If we went to live in a foreign country, we wouldn't expect them to stop wearing their traditional dress or dumb down their festivals for risk of causing offence and they definately wouldn't think twice about whether they should, they wouldn't do it fullstop!
For those that are born and brought up here, may not even be of a different ethnic origin, but choose to follow a different religion, that's personal choice and fine, but we still don't have to change our traditions!
As you can tell, I'm a little aerated about all this and I'm sorry if I offend, but I am a very traditional person.
Step away from the soap box and breath.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
I agree - I really don't understand the BA issue with the crucifix - maybe it hasn't been explained to me properly. I'm all for mutual respect. I'd love to hear other's views on this.
But what do you think of the veil?
Hmm, I have been wrestling with that too.
I like to respect others' views and beliefs and I think it is an important part of these womens' beliefs that they have chosen an obvious display of their religion, like wearing a crucifix. It could cause distress to request a woman to remove their veil in such circumstance. I wouldn't be happy if a woman had chosen to wear a veil as a display of fanaticism, one step away from suicide bomber and terrorist.
Now who's being extreme? Perhaps I should hop back on my fence...
ARrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhh!!!!!!
I just wrote a long comment here - and it suddenly disappeared completely.
:-(((
And I got right off the fence too.
But I can't remember what I said.
Something along the lines of wearing the veil being tricky because it can cause a physical barrier to communication. Apparently Jack Straw is partially deaf, and the reason he iinvited a woman to remove her veil was so that she could lipread. However the fact that he was both a man, and in a position of authority, made the request a difficult one for her to deal with.
(I'm doing this in short chunks in case it was a time-out issue)
As for observing hijab (the head scarf) - my biggest problem is with people who make a fuss about it. I believe (I don't _know_ - it's not my culture) that to ask a devout (non-fanatical) Muslim woman to remove her headscarf would be akin to asking all women to go topless. The invasion of privacy is equivalent.
The really sad thing is that the more fuss there is, the more it becomes a political issue. Ignore it, and it becomes a personal matter. Make a big hoo-ha, and people are going to become more determined to continue/adopt such practices.
It's been seen time and again, when religious groups perceive themselves as being persecuted, they get stronger.
And the whole "no crucifixes", "no Christmas" (adopting "Winterval" (yuk!!!) instead) seems to be led by ardent secularists who claim to speak for other minorities...
Someone give me a hand back up onto that fence...
You seem to have said everything so much better, more clearly and more thoroughly than me.
Yup!
Come and sit next to me.
Have to say, girls, not much of a discussion if we agree on things.
I did try to be controversial...
I've just read this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/christmas2006/story/0,,1967367,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1
Did anyone say "Conspiracy Theory"?
Bother - that link won't work - try:
http://tinyurl.com/ybnxf6
Post a Comment