Lift your veil to vote.

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This is not religious bias or racism. It is a call for egalitarian principles. All immigrants should be nice enough to blend in with the majority.
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It looks insulting when people hold their religion higher than the law of the land they live in.
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Muslim women will have to lift veils to vote in Quebec election
Friday, March 23, 2007
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Muslim women will have to remove their face coverings if they want to vote in Monday's Quebec election, said the province's chief returning officer.
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Marcel Blanchet announced Friday he was reversing an earlier decision that would have allowed Muslim women wearing niqabs to vote on March 26 without showing their faces.
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The initial decision, reported in Montreal newspapers, sparked fierce debate in Quebec.
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The chief electoral officer's headquarters were flooded with angry e-mails and phone calls, forcing Blanchet to hire two personal bodyguards and assign security officials to survey the building.
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Some Quebecers threatened to show up at polling stations wearing masks, which spurred Elections Quebec to reverse its decision so voting day could proceed without trouble.
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http://tinyurl.com/35quqa
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Re: Lift your veil to vote.

noinipo wrote:

This is not religious bias or racism. It is a call for egalitarian principles. All immigrants should be nice enough to blend in with the majority.
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It looks insulting when people hold their religion higher than the law of the land they live in.

This is laughable.

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noinipo wrote :

Quote:

All immigrants should be nice enough to blend in with the majority.

that's not quite the way i see it . i don't think veiled muslim women are being asked to "integrate" . they are only asked not to wear the veil while in the election station . they are free to come and go wearing the veil .

some time ago some muslims asked that veiled women be allowed to have their passport picture taken without having to remove their veil .
i believe that problem was resolsed and that the women are removing their veil when the picture is being taken .
if they wear a veil before and after the picture has been taken , is entirely up to them .

i think this will quickly become a non-issue .
(as we already discussed elsewhere , there are now many(most , probably) muslim women that are no longer wearing a veil . the canadian association of muslim women has also come out quite strongly against a requirement for muslim women to wear a veil . )
hbg

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If Muslim women have to remove their veils to have their passport photo taken, do veiled Catholic nuns have to remove their habits,
or is this a law intended to discriminate ONLY against Muslim women?

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noinipo wrote : Quote:
All immigrants should be nice enough to blend in with the majority.

Hamburger wrote:
that's not quite the way i see it . i don't think veiled muslim women are being asked to "integrate" . they are only asked not to wear the veil while in the election station . they are free to come and go wearing the veil .
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You are right, they can wear the veil in public. What I said is only my opinion. You blended in and I blended in to become good Canadians.
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A minority should not be the tail that wags the dog. Imagine they would have won the right to use their Shia Law in Canada. Luckily it did not pass.

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Miller wrote:

If Muslim women have to remove their veils to have their passport photo taken, do veiled Catholic nuns have to remove their habits,
or is this a law intended to discriminate ONLY against Muslim women?

Nuns' habits don't cover their faces, so why would they have to remove them?

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Miller wrote:

If Muslim women have to remove their veils to have their passport photo taken, do veiled Catholic nuns have to remove their habits,
or is this a law intended to discriminate ONLY against Muslim women?

Well, you can see their faces. I know, I used to want to be a nun for about six months of my life lonnnng ago. Not that many are veiled now... and I bet those that are in the strictest orders can vote by absentee ballot, at least in the US. Hmmm, that poses another question.

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Anyway, I agree with Hamburger on this.

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Roberta wrote:

Miller wrote:
If Muslim women have to remove their veils to have their passport photo taken, do veiled Catholic nuns have to remove their habits,
or is this a law intended to discriminate ONLY against Muslim women?

Nuns' habits don't cover their faces, so why would they have to remove them?

Oops, missed the "veiled Catholic nuns."

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Quebec is very interesting, ain't it.

There was a small fuss about a group of muslims asking to pray on a dance floor in a sugar cabin.

I thought the man was reasonable. In the interview, he said basically "If no one was using the dance floor to dance, I would have let them pray. But people were dancing."

Makes sense, right.

Well, some were angry that the notion was even being toyed with. "They should not be allowed to pray in a sugar cabin! "

Almost no one cared that a non-pork vegetarian option of beans was on offer.

I agree with Hamburger. I'm quite sure it will all get worked out.

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Roberta, I don't know that there have ever been catholic nuns who veiled their faces. You were right in the first place. (Who knows, I may have something to learn on this, but I doubt it a great deal.)

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In the meantime, I'm mouthing off and didn't read the link in the first post. Sorry...

And, apropos of my veil comments, we all know women have used veils on hats, especially at funerals. Wondering.... if... oh, never mind.

Makes me start to wonder about the history of hats. In my early life, they had something to do with going to mass (I've stopped with the capitals), but given the nature of weather and folks' needing protection, I doubt that religous stricture or scripture is first in line.

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Quote:

Muslim women will have to remove their face coverings if they want to vote in Monday's Quebec election

Illogical and discriminatory decision...

Our Muslim sisters in Quebec are asked to unveil if they want to vote, but, what is really unveiled is the so called freedom in the province, a freedom that allows all women to wear what they want EXCEPT Muslim women...

noinipo wrote:

It looks insulting when people hold their religion higher than the law of the land they live in

Not really...

Would you follow the Law of the Creator or the law of the creatures?
I think any smart person will follow the first rather than the latter. Now if the law of the land a Muslim woman lives in, is compatible with her religion, then there is no problem in following it.

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it seems that it was a bit like a tempest in a teapot ...

this is really all you need to read :

Quote:

Shama Naz, a 30-year-old Montrealer who wears a niqab, said the issue has been blown out of proportion. She said Muslim women routinely remove their face veils for security matters. She has done so for her Medicare card photo, and each time she crosses the border to visit her father in New York State.

"It's common sense. Muslim women have no problem identifying themselves for security reasons," she said. "If [elections officials] had spoken to me they would have known I wouldn't mind identifying myself at the ballot box."

While she would prefer to do so to a female elections worker, she would do so for a man as well, said Ms. Naz, an economics graduate.

here is the full article from the globe and mail (followed by a link) .

Quote:

GLOBE AND MAIL REPOPRT

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muslim1 wrote:

Now if the law of the land a Muslim woman lives in, is compatible with her religion, then there is no problem in following it.

Here's the rub. When religion and law are compatible, there is no problem.

When the law of the land and the law of each religion conflict, he/she should follow the law of their religion first? Then surely, they accept the punishment of the law of the land for doing so?

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Eorl wrote:

muslim1 wrote:
Now if the law of the land a Muslim woman lives in, is compatible with her religion, then there is no problem in following it.

Here's the rub. When religion and law are compatible, there is no problem.

When the law of the land and the law of each religion conflict, he/she should follow the law of their religion first? Then surely, they accept the punishment of the law of the land for doing so?

As it should be!

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Students in a university demand a room for their prayers and start a huge argument.
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Muslim group demands prayer space, threatens McGill with human rights complaint.
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But McGill has maintained that, as a non-denominational university, it has no responsibility to provide permanent prayer space to any specific religious group.

"The University provides only a secular space that can be used by any student of any religion," said Principal Heather Munroe-Blum to Senators in a letter dated February 23, referring to the Birks Building chapel on University Street.
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http://www.mcgilldaily.com/view.php?aid=3723

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muslim1 wrote:

Now if the law of the land a Muslim woman lives in, is compatible with her religion, then there is no problem in following it.

And if it's not compatible, they can blow it up.

Rolling Eyes

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Man, am I ever glad to be an atheist.
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Religion is responsible for most evil deeds in this world, it seems.

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noinipo wrote:

Man, am I ever glad to be an atheist.
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Religion is responsible for most evil deeds in this world, it seems.

Don't know about "most", but certainly a hell of a lot.

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Lift your veil to vote.

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