spiked | End this Muslim-Mania: "So why this growing national obsession with what they wear and how they live? What is behind the furore about the veil and the wider outbreak of Muslim-Mania?
Remove the blindfold from our own eyes, and we might see that all of this fuss about how the rest of society sees Muslims is really about how we see ourselves. The separateness of the Muslim community, and its comparatively strong sense of identity, touches upon our own insecurity about wider society, who we are and what holds us together today. "
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
spiked | End this Muslim-Mania
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Yeah it's not all about the veil, but about the reality behind it. But it's naive to think that symbols aren't of first importance and that we can somehow cast the symbols aside and get directly at reality unmediated. We only know the reality by the symbol, even though we know the symbol is not the full reality.
Jack Straw made some statement about how wouldn't it be nice if he could speak to his constituents face to face, and for this, for what should be taken for granted, a hysterical storm full of cries that the state is out to stomp on rights, accusations of Islampophobia, proud counter-affirmations of Islamophobia, etc. Britain is truly in trouble if this is the state of public discussions.
So yes, there is a problem here of two competing and separated cultures. But what is the overarching reason that can mediate between the two? From whence can it come? Must it not be one that demands, among other things, that we be able to meet face to face in public as individuals sharing a common humanity, a commonality that, if not enough to make us all of the same faith, is at least enough to serve as the basis for a national democracy if we all choose that path in good faith.
Why is this faith lacking in Britain and elsewhere at present? Maybe it really is all about veils, real and metaphorical.
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