MUSLIM WOMEN'S CLOTHES - AN OPINION.

A recent article in the local paper devoted a full page to the wearing of head coverings by Muslim women in the United States, specifically right here in Michigan; we have the largest Arab / Muslim population in the whole country.

What attracted me to the article was the sub head that implied that young, modern women WANT to wear the head scarves and are enticing their mothers to wear them also.

The point of the story was that when the mothers first came to the U.S. they did not wear the head coverings popular in the old country because they wanted to fit into the new American society better by adopting the style of dress that predominates here. Younger women, on the other hand, now feel it is their obligation as Muslims to follow what they think the Koran and therefore Allah, demands.

The next day, the paper published a full page of “letters to the editor” about the article and most of the letter writers wrote negatively about wearing Muslim scarves in the United States.

As always, there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding even on the part of the Muslims themselves. One young Muslim woman said why are nuns allowed to cover their bodies but not us?

Please allow some stream of consciousness on my part as I try to work through my own feelings on this subject.

I remember in my Catholic upbringing that women had to cover their heads when entering church. They don’t do that anymore but still it was a tradition if not actual canon law in the past. The basis for the tradition came from St. Paul and his Letter to the Corinthians in which he babbles on about the head of every man being Christ and the head of every woman is man…

The point is quite sexist and basically signifies that the woman was made FOR man and the covering of her head meant she is subordinate to the man (male). Most Catholic women had no idea why they covered their heads in church; they just did what they were told.

My wife said that Jewish women she knows wear wigs over their own natural hair. It is true that in some Hasidic sects’ women shave their heads and wear wigs to this very day. The point – well it goes back to the days when the Bible was written. In those days a woman with uncovered hair was basically nude – hey that is how they thought then!

In my neighborhood, we have women from India dressing in their saris and Sikh men from India wearing turbans because they never cut their hair – no idea why.

Mohammed essentially combined some Christian and some Jewish ideas to form Islam. He stressed that women be modest and dress accordingly. Their modesty was their protection from lustful men. Again, that is how these men thought then and it probably made sense for their social environment.

There is nothing wrong with dressing modestly and many if not most women do just that. On the other hand if you spend any time at local malls in the summer, you will get to see young women dress totally without any modesty. You might say that they are half-nude.

As far as enticing unwanted sexual attention by immodest dress; well that is a fact of life and does happen I suppose occasionally but when you read about 90 year old women being raped you realize that a rapist does not have to be turned on by immodest dress; rapists have other issues. Men will definitely stare though and quite frankly, that is why women dress the way they do; I think it is biological, but that is another matter.

If you saw how women were dressed in Taliban Afghanistan (blue birquas) with not even the eyes showing, you saw where extremism can take you. The Taliban men must be turned on and induced to rape a woman if any inch of skin or hair strand is visible. I feel sorry for those guys; all they see all day is guys that look just like them and smell like them but of course they get to see animals also.

The Taliban also forbad woman and girls to be educated and that is in direct opposition to what the Koran states and so when they tell you they are just doing what the Koran tells them to do, you know it is plain bullshit.

So do Muslim women have to cover themselves because their religion stipulates to do so – no; the Koran asks them to just dress modestly and not to draw attention to themselves – OK?

As you have surely noticed, Muslim women dress in varied styles dependent on their locale; in most cases, the more backward a country, the more severe the dress requirements. Some Muslim countries actually leave it up to the individual woman as to what to wear. On the other hand, some countries have “dress police” that whip and beat women that are not properly dressed in their eyes.

Because female dress requirements change from country to country means that there is no specific and definitive instruction in the Koran that applies to all Muslim women; women dress as is the custom in their individual ethnic group.

Now let’s talk about American culture. We too value modesty but we do not have strict rules about it; it is a matter of personal choice how someone defines modesty. We do have laws that prohibit public nudity and such but no specific dress codes.

Some schools have dress codes, especially parochial schools like Catholic schools. I happen to think it is a good idea because it is less expensive for the parents and takes the guess work out of what to wear each morning.

So why do Americans have problems with Muslim head scarves and especially the whole body covering? Number one, yes, we do associate that type of dress with female oppression. We know the Koran does not require it and we do know that in other countries like France, teachers and students are actually forbidden from wearing a Muslim scarf.

We feel that if you come into our country and want to settle here and raise a family here, you should become as American as possible, after all something about Americans and America made you want to come here. That does not mean to abandon your ethnic ways and traditions, we all keep them to a certain degree, but do not stand out to the point that you are perceived to be mocking our society, our traditions and the way we look.

The views on modesty have changed dramatically through the years and especially since Mohammad walked the earth. If American women do not see the need to cover themselves for safety or for modesty’s sake, neither should the Muslim women; they are after all, all women and they live in one society – the American society.

Well, I guess some of my feelings are starting to show. I will have to pass it through my crowd to see if I am missing something in my logic.

FUNDAMENTALISM, Part 2

OK, things quieted down after 1925 as far as Fundamentalism is concerned. We got into a DEPRESSION and then WWII - so we were pretty busy as a nation.

When did Fundamentalism raise its ugly head again, well in the 60s? And why you ask- because secondary education in the South and Midwest improved dramatically and that was due to, of all things, the Russian SPUTNIK. Yes, the Ruskis beat us into space and that made us look retarded.

The federal government in 1963 demanded better science education in our secondary schools and a much better science text book was introduced and yes, it had the subject of evolution in it this time.

The Fundamentalists attacked but were driven back by the Supreme Court in 1968 which allowed the subject of evolution to be taught in public schools. They turned to demanding equal time in the class room for creationism but in 1987 the Supreme Court ruled that creationism is a religious doctrine and not a science.

And now we have INTELLIGENT DESIGN as another way to stick God into our science courses. The few legal challenges that I am aware of followed the trend of still calling ID as another form of creationism and therefore a religious doctrine and therefore not to be allowed into our school science curriculums.

The election of the current George Bush pushed Fundamentalists into the forefront as king makers when actually Al Gore won the popular vote. The false perception that Americans are fundamentalists and vote for people of like mind continues to this day.

There is no question President Bush has a religious agenda and is trying to turn our nation into a Christian nation (his idea of Christianity) even if he has to circumvent or even defy our Constitution and unfortunately, we are allowing him to do just that.

I noticed in a debate among Democratic presidential contenders that all of them swore how important religion and God is in their lives and how their faith has helped them throughout their lives – gag! Whatever happened to religion being a personal matter?

The presidential aspirants, both Democrats and Republicans have failed to notice that Americans are sick and tired of fundamentalists and want religion OUT of their government. Did you happen to notice how many so called religious Republicans are being prosecuted for breaking the law or at least committing SINFUL acts? I think even the fundamentalists cannot support such stinking hypocrisy anymore.

History shows us that religion and science have coexisted together very well and in fact, continue to do so. Christian theology is quite flexible when it comes to new scientific findings; it has to be to remain relevant at least to the people with normal reasoning power.

Therefore, I continue to be puzzled by the seeming power of a minority, extremist Christian sect, especially political power or is this all an illusion propagated by a clever illusionist like Carl Rove.

More to follow…

AMERICAN FUNDAMENTALISM IS THE ANSWER!

In my on-going search to find out why current Americans are so much more religious than Europeans, Western that is, or at least why religion is such a large topic here and not there, I came upon a possible thread that may lead to an answer in one of my “Teaching Company” courses; I listen to a 30 minute lecture while exercising every morning.

The course is “Science and Religion” taught by Professor Lawrence M. Principe of Johns Hopkins University.

In his lectures, he points out that science and religion have coexisted mostly amicably throughout the ages. St. Augustine, all the way back in 354-430 A.D. declared the indispensability of both faith and reason and that statement has been reaffirmed by the Catholic Church as well as other Christian denominations to this very day.

So why here, in America, right now, are we having so much turmoil between faith and reason, science and religion, church and state?

Well it seems it is a relatively recent phenomenon, born in America and called the American Christian Fundamentalist Movement.

To properly examine this issue, I may have to spend a few blogs discussing it.

I cannot discuss every detail that factored into the rise and spread of the movement but I can touch on what I feel are the important reasons.

It started in the late 1800s and in its first phase went on strong until the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925.

It was the turn of the century and just like in 1999, the kooks were out in force especially the MILLENARIANS, those who took the Book of Revelation in the Bible literally to predict the end times with the second coming of Jesus.

This particular movement brought on the belief in BIBLICAL INERRANCY where the Bible cannot be wrong and what we call NAÏVE LITERALISM where every phrase and every word in the Bible is believed to be directly from God and means exactly what it says.

This could also be viewed as a direct reaction to HIGHER CRITICISM of the Bible, a method developed in Germany where words and ideas in the Bible are looked at in the historical and cultural context of the time they were written in and the audience they were intended for; in other words not us.

This higher criticism method of Bible study is accepted and used today by many Christian scholars and has been accepted by the Roman Catholic Church as an “indispensable method for the scientific study of the meaning of ancient texts”. They call the method the “HISTORICAL – CRITICAL METHOD”.

The Fundamentalist movement was also a social movement. At the turn of the century America was changing from rural to urban. Immigrants were streaming in bringing with them new religions and new ideas. WWI also broke our isolationism with American troops back from the war telling about all they have seen and experienced over there!
Fundamentalism was a reactionary movement against MODERNITY and all it brought with it. They wanted the old days back.

Fundamentalist preachers held revival meetings all over the country warning all to keep those wicked new ideas out of their lives and to do God’s bidding the way the Bible tells them to. Prohibition was enacted because of fundamentalism.

One other factor that I think is very important is the fact that as people left their farms for towns and cities, high school attendance sky rocketed and with that came exposure to modern science including evolution.

Fundamentalists like William Jennings Bryan attacked evolution with a passion. He took that passion to the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 in Tennessee and a challenge to a state law banning the teaching of evolution by the ACLU.

The trial itself was a circus (see the movie INHERIT THE WIND) and was widely reported on. Clarence Darrow for the defense made Bryan look like an anti-intellectual baboon. Bryan died shortly after the trial and fundamentalism quieted down and was more or less dormant for 30 years, why?

Here is the kicker; evolution disappeared from textbooks because the people in charge of ordering textbooks for schools demanded its removal. Publishers not wanting to endanger the sales of their textbooks complied. Can you believe this?

See you on the flip side in the 1960s.

A CREATION MUSEUM IN AMERICA!

I have another example for the need in our society of “militant secularists” who aggressively attack preposterous religious beliefs instead of just “letting them be…”

A “Creation Museum” is opening on Monday in Petersburg, Kentucky. The museum cost $27 million dollars and was built by the “Answers in Genesis” ministry.

By all accounts, the museum is beautiful with 60,000 square feet of exhibits that were created by Patrick Marsh, the same guy that created the “Jaws: and “King Kong” exhibits at Universal Studios in Florida. I have visited those exhibits in Florida and they are stunning to say the least.

The only problem with this stunning museum is that most of what it shows and teaches is based on un-truths and in essence, is trying to promote a fabrication.

As the name of the museum implies, the builders of this museum believe in the literal truth of the Bible; in this case the Book of Genesis, hence their name: Answers in Genesis Ministry.

They believe the earth is barely 6,000 years old and that humans and dinosaurs inhabited the earth together and were present in Noah’s Ark.

Their belief system is so outlandish that conservative Christians have a hard time defending it because to defend it would mean to deny all the hard scientific evidence gathered to date. May I remind you that some of these people are college graduates?

This would be funny if it was some kooky billionaire doing this but the organization that built this museum has 9,000 charter members and their magazine has 50,000 subscribers. The $27 million debt has already been paid off, in some cases by money from international sources.

We must remember that these people have children or even grandchildren and that these children are brainwashed into believing this utter nonsense.

We have freedom of speech and freedom of religion in this country so they have every right to believe what they want BUT we cannot let them get away with this nonsense without saying something!

In my previous arguments, I have maintained that religion fills in gaps in our knowledge base. Once science offers proofs to fill those gaps, religion is then replaced by facts.

Science does not know how the universe began. The “Big Bang” theory is plausible and probably correct but how the Big Bang occurred, why or if someone caused it to occur; here you can throw in a god of your choice.

But science does know how old the earth is, when modern man evolved and when dinosaurs lived and when they all became extinct – these are knowable and proven facts. To deny them is to deny reality.

Deniers of the Holocaust are ostracized and condemned; in Austria they can be jailed since it is against the law to deny the Holocaust ever occurred. The builders of the Creation Museum belong to a similar group of people and should be exposed for what they are; insane.

MORALITY AS AN EVOLUTIONARY PRODUCT?

I want to share with you some new scientific discoveries. Yes, they do have something to do with religion and in effect, shed some light on my questions as to why, as humans, we seem to need religion.

The headlines that attracted my attention were: “Study: Morality has biological roots” and “Researchers: Morality appears to be hard-wired”. The sub-heads were interesting also: “Experiment shows good impulses such as altruism are basic to the brain like food and sex” and “When volunteers placed the interest of others before their own, the generosity activated a primitive part of the brain that usually lights up in response to food and sex”.

I will not get into the minutiae of the actual experiment but suffice it to say that modern science can now map and view the brain as it never has before. Scientists can ask questions and see with what part of the brain you respond.

I have always maintained that knowing right from wrong is intrinsic to the human brain, i.e. we are born with that capability and do not need to be taught. Now, of course, we need to be taught manners particular to our culture as well as many other things but basic things like stealing and murder, etc. we automatically know are wrong.

The reason this particular scientific discovery about us humans interests me is that some of my religious friends and I suppose they represent a microcosm of the entire religious population; think that religion teaches right from wrong, good from evil and that is why kids have to have religious training.

Now of course, I can decimate that logic by just pointing to all the pedophile priests, mass murderers and the like that received religious training and so what…

This particular scientific study shows that culture is not what teaches us morality but that evolution has given it to us. Evolution as we all know is about survival of the fittest and even though genetic mutations happened at random, those with the strongest survival tools lived while the others did not.

To put this into perspective using our pre-programmed morality theory, people who got along with others and worked with and for the group (altruism) produced stronger groups which then protected individuals within the group better thus affording enhanced survivability.

I will take this a little further to suggest that the same group would be made even more cohesive and thus stronger with a shared belief system (religion) thus improving survivability.

Individuals that did not feel comfortable in groups because their brains did not have this morality gene programmed into their brains did not have as good a chance at survival and perished allowing the stronger, moral individuals to flourish.

You must admit this is interesting…

ISLAM ELEVATES WOMEN?

To: The Canton Observer
Re: “Islam elevates women”, Letter, May 31.


Mr. Mohammed Yunus is correct when he states that the holy book of Islam, the Koran, protects the rights of women and elevates them to a status in line with men. But, as in many religions, holy written words are subject to varied interpretations and we are left with the actual behavior of a group to form our impressions and not by what their holy book says.

Many Muslims are aware that the abominable treatment of women in places like Taliban Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. are because of cultural norms which are justified by and based on, in many cases, their distorted interpretation of the Koran.

I think American Muslims need to voice their objections to the perversion of Islam and the Koran by these so called radical Muslims and point out exactly how their actions are anti-Islamic. In this way you can show us how true Islam operates and how it teaches its followers to behave.

American Muslims have remained woefully silent about the barbarous behavior of some of their Muslim brethren and should not be surprised by our misconceptions about the religion of Islam; we judge by what we see.