Tuesday, October 24, 2006
The face of tolerance
I’m a South Park fan and one of my all-time favorite episodes is The Death Camp of Tolerance. Towards the end of the show, Mr. Garrison, a gay teacher attempting to get fired so he can sue for millions, makes the point that tolerance doesn’t mean acceptance. An excellent point and one I believe Anne Applebaum also gets at in her column today. (Ed. Note: The more I read her, the more I like her.) Ms. Applebaum addresses the issue of Muslim women wearing veils and the extent to which we need to accommodate it:
“And yet, at a much simpler level, surely it is also true that the full-faced veil -- the niqab, burqa or chador -- causes such deep reactions in the West not so much because of its political or religious symbolism but because it is extremely impolite. Just as it is considered rude to enter a Balinese temple wearing shorts, so, too, is it considered rude, in a Western country, to hide one's face.” Veiled Insult
BTW - in that South Park episode I referred to earlier (first aired in November 2002) the boys visit a Museum of Tolerance…which I thought was an hysterical dig at the PC mind set. Now I discover there really is a Museum of Tolerance (in Los Angeles). You can't make this stuff up.
“And yet, at a much simpler level, surely it is also true that the full-faced veil -- the niqab, burqa or chador -- causes such deep reactions in the West not so much because of its political or religious symbolism but because it is extremely impolite. Just as it is considered rude to enter a Balinese temple wearing shorts, so, too, is it considered rude, in a Western country, to hide one's face.” Veiled Insult
BTW - in that South Park episode I referred to earlier (first aired in November 2002) the boys visit a Museum of Tolerance…which I thought was an hysterical dig at the PC mind set. Now I discover there really is a Museum of Tolerance (in Los Angeles). You can't make this stuff up.
