The Wearing of Islamic Veils in Irish Schools

The towelheads are looking for the right to have school children wear veils and other face and body coverings. They use a variety of specious arguments: we tolerate nuns wearing veils so why not muslim school girls, not allowing the wearing of veils is religious intolerance against Islam, and so on.

They constantly look for offence where no exists. They are a vocal and bigoted minority. They constantly look for societies to adapt themselves to their beliefs, except for Islamic countries where the reverse is applied.

This is all nonsense. It is immaterial drivel advanced as logic and reason. Putting in place a toleration or an acceptance of school girls wearing veils creates the likelihood of compulsion by the children’s parents and community. School girls who do not want to wear veils no longer have the excuse that veils are not allowed. Choice and option is eliminated. An atmosphere of intolerance is nurtured and encouraged.

Catholic nuns may or may not wear veils. They do so voluntarily as adults as a form of uniform to denote their religious office. Catholic priests wear a distinguishing uniform. So also do Islamic imams. The comparison of the voluntary wearing of veils by adults to indicate a role and a decision to allow intolerant parents force some of their children to cover themselves on the spurious justification of modesty is irrelevant. It is the reddest of red herrings.
Allowing the wearing of veils enables demands for more restrictive forms of covering. It will be the start of a process that must be and needs to be stopped.

Apparently within Islam, modesty applies exclusively to women. Men have no obligation to impose self-control. The female is obliged to cover in order not to tempt the male. Responsibility is removed from the male and imposed on the female. The burden of restraint is reversed. The logic of this is that some form of female covering may leave some residual male temptation and so the covering must be increased and further increased. This reasoning will allow the wearing of the veil to be used a basis for a semi-legitimatised request for additional, female only, covering.

Allowing exceptions based on religious beliefs needs to be considered carefully. It creates exceptions that would not be tolerated in other circumstances. Religious beliefs are promoted to a unbending and immovable absolute to which existing laws and normal modes of behaviour must adapt.

So, for example, Sikhs do not have to wear motorcycle helmets because of their requirement to wear a turban or more correctly not to cut their hair and to tie it daily. But there is no reason why they should not wear oversize helmets. In theory Sikhs also have to wear a kirpan – a short sword. However, you can bet that this alleged religious requirement has been rapidly dropped by Sikhs who travel by plane after the events of 11 September 2001.

The advocacy of the alleged rights of one group in contradiction of the rights of the larger incumbent group also represents in some a form of cultural displacement: where actions that would not be tolerated from one’s core community is all to easily tolerated from an external one. This hypocritical cultural displacement is all too common among those on the left.

However, expecting thought leadership from Irish politicans is a futile exercise. Being long-time experts at issue dodging, they simply say it is a matter for individual schools.