See this report on the Chronicle of Higher Education news blog of a Canadian report calling for special concern for Muslim students. Be sure to read the comments as well.
See this report on the Chronicle of Higher Education news blog of a Canadian report calling for special concern for Muslim students. Be sure to read the comments as well.
The comments seemed more than a little silly. Major universities do in fact make accomodations for various ethnical and religious groups on campus. Plenty of them offer kosher food, or vegan food, for example. Having places set aside that people can use for worship services is in no way unusual. And so on and so forth.
Without knowing what’s in the report it’s very hard to say whether the suggestions are reasonable. The only one that struck me as unreasonable was the stuff about interest.
Oop, my bad, I see the report is there online. Am reading it now. I read through the summary. I find a couple of items questionable; most of it is perfectly reasonable.
To mix metaphors, I hope the Canadians knock themselves out bending over backwards to accomodate the Muslims. With a little luck, they will attract American Muslims to Canada.
Dean:
One problem in the report is the request for private pools for Moslem females. Another problem is what the report doesn’t say, but should. Why, for example, is there no request for special female instructors with covered heads, or only male instructors.
Do public universities already offer places of worship for students? I thought that was illegal.
“Do public universities already offer places of worship for students? I thought that was illegal.”
It shouldn’t be.
Like Dean, I’m not in agreement with some of the comments, although I disagree with the other commenters who seem to see a level of hatred and xenophobia that just isn’t really expressed. “Look at the comments, they are just pouring hatred…” one commenter says. No, they’re not.
I have to say that those of us who have bit our lips and stepped back instead of asking for some consideration shouldn’t necessarily expect others to do the same. One commenter on that site says this: “Therefore check your (be it Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Mormon or Muslim) religion at the door when you go in and pick it up in a few years when you graduate.” Uh, no. To the extent that we’ve enabled this kind of thinking, we’re at fault and I actually kind of applaud Muslims for not wanting to be the same way.