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EU states can ban religious symbols in public workplaces
(www.bbc.com)
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this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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Sounds fair to me, we need less religion everywhere.
What I don't get is the right wing pushing this and the left wing being against it, while the hero of the far left said 'Religion is the opium of the masses.'
The left is generally against legislating what women are allowed to wear.
Then wouldn't they be against Islam forcing women to wear the hijab??
Islam doesn't force women to wear the hijab. There's nothing about it in the Quran.
It's a cultural thing, and while many women are pressured or even forced to wear it, many others wear it of their own free will.
The state telling women they can't wear it in their workplace doesn't solve the issue.
And those women who are forced to wear it are effectively banned from working now, which makes the issue much worse.
The “culture” is religious though, like we can’t pretend it’s a social thing, absent religious doctrine.
I mean yes there is the command to cover yourself in the quran, [24:31] for example ("... And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their chastity, and not to reveal their adornments except what normally appears. Let them draw their veils over their chests, and not reveal their ˹hidden˺ adornment...").
Still, the idea of women generally being forced to wear it by their family/social circle is wrong.
There is over 14300 years debate material about if this specific order to a time where women were targeted because who the were, or a general islamic rule.
Regardless it is never, telling man what and what not to wear, but always telling women what and what not to wear.
If the really care about Muslims women being forced to wear it, the law should be:
Ah where did this debate take place with ehich people? AFAIK all 4 sunni schools are unanimous in their intepretation, that people have to cover their bodies.
It is also very much telling men what and what not to wear. The specific body parts that have to be covered differ from school to school, for women and for men, but every muslim scholar says that every human has to cover certain parts of their body from the gaze of other people.
Yeah if you don't wear it you get beaten... Totally not forced.
The free will of women wearing the hijab comes from fear of gOd and social pressure of being impure. No person on its right mind would choose to wear it.
I for sure would prefer if women wouldn't be forced to wear it. But lets be realistic: banning it doesn't make things better, only worse. These women won't stop wearing a hijab, they will just stop going outside. And now you made the situation even worse for them.
A group of iranian college students visited my town in the summer.
None of the girls used any sort of head cover and at some that came as a topic.
Even in Iran, as much as they can, every woman goes without it, unless the religious police is somewhere nearby.
The general, widespread view is that it is a form of repression and nothing else, yet their government/religious authority enforces it.
Although unpopular and understood as fascist, these decisions in european countries echoe impositions islamic countries make to foreigners.
Obviously, the ones who view it as a form of repression, would have already not been wearing headgarb in EU. The ones that do probably think different.
After all it's not as if everyone belonging to one religion is viewing it in the same way.
I'm not going to even step into that debate.
thats bad, but still not as bad as the government responding with mandates on what women are or are not allowed to wear, nor is this an answer to the problem
like, how do you reckon this is going to pan out? you reckon women who actually are coerced into covering up are going to take it off when they go to public buildings (including schools), or do you reckon the men in their life just wont let them go to public buildings (including schools) anymore?
the right either has not thought about this law or is completely disingenuous about why they support it
Are they ever ingenuous?
This one is the most likely outcome.
They seem to be somewhat in denial about it. Which is quite sad
I think it would be hard to find a leftist who is not supporting the struggle of Iranians against being forced by law to wear a hijab.
And equally we are against Western governments forcing women to not wear a hijab.
Forcing people is the wrong doing. Easy to understand, isn’t it?
The rest of the quote is: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." Take from that what you will.
I also don't know that most people who identify as or are called left wing would call Marx their hero.
The only things anyone with a brain can take from it is that religion is a cancer, masquerading as a source of strength and hope when it in fact supresses those qualities, leading to an alienated population.
Opium is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of the heartless world, the soul of soulless conditions.
The answer to this by you is: Ban opium!
My answer would be: Fight oppression!
The fight is not about drugs, it is about self-determination, dignity, freedom. It is the fight against capitalism. And today the search is on how to prevent the socialist society from turning into an autocracy.
Children have questions, e.g.: Where is grandma now? Until we have a satisfactory answer to this, religion will exist. But in a free world it will no longer be addictive.
And everyone can put on or take off whatever they want. We should start with this immediately.
An argument I've heard against it is that it's overly harmful against non-western religions, specifically Islam. A pretty common tenet in Islam is some kind of head covering for woman. Banning that is a pretty sweeping reform. Christianity and Catholicism don't have anything like that, and if you really wanted to wear a cross you could just hide a necklace under your shirt. And Judaism, most non -orthodox Jews don't wear a yamaka 24/7. So in the end (typical) white religions aren't affected while minorities are.
Personally for me I don't care about wearing a religious symbol as long as you're not pushing your agenda. I don't care if my boss has a Bible on his desk any more than if he had a copy of dragon Ball z.
I would vastly prefer if my boss had DBZ rather than a Bible. BDZ is just literature, the Bible is a symbol of indoctrination, I don't want my boss to be influenced by some made up nonsense
The problem is that you have to treat religion equally and for a lot of European countries that would mean pushing Christian symbols out of public offices as well. Most Nordic countries, Greece and Malta have crosses on their flags for example. Many countries like Germany have parties, which are explicitly Christian. The Bundeswehr uses the Iron Cross as a symbol, which is in direct heritage from a crusader order.
The problem for those countries is that baning Islamic symbols is very often just racist rethoric to hit Islam, rather then a proper separation of state and religion.
It would be religionist, not racist. Islam is followed by many different races. But I get where you're coming from. I'm all for getting rid of all the religious symbolism etc.
I am interested, what exactly constitutes a "religious symbol" for you?
When the right talk about Islam they aren't talking about the religion. They have no problem with the Muslims from Kosovo for instance. They are specifically targeting Arabs and Africans.
Those crosses don't carry any religious meaning, they're simple historical artifacts. It's akin to how I still say things like "oh my god" or "go to hell", despite being a militant atheist.
Denmark, Iceland, Greece and Malta have some form of Christianity as their state religion. Norway only separated church from the state in 2017. Finland requires a change of the constitution to change the church law, which gives the local lutheran church special rights. Sweden is secular since 2000, but even today grants the local lutheran church special rights.
The right wing is pushing specifically for the banning of things like the hijab or other religious head coverings usually worn by women. They justify it by saying that these head coverings are a symbol of oppression against women, and have no place in a free society.
Thing is though, how free is a society if it feels it has to dictate what women can and can't wear?
Because banning something so petty like a hijab is just a dick move which serves no purpose other than cause more tension, if any women is wearing something by her choice, who the fuck are we to judge? Isn’t that the whole point of tolerance and being left wing?
There's a rather considerable current of leftism that is libertarian. Over-regulation of what a person can do, especially with something as, well, personal as appearance, is at odds with left-libertarian values.
Left-authoritarianism is of course compatible with such regulations.
Almost like left ideologies are more complex than an just a yes or no, huh?
Wait until you notice they change over time as they evolve with society.