If Your Primitive Religious Beliefs Are A Poor Fit With Western Society...
...Should Western society transform itself to make you comfortable -- or should you maybe live in a country that's a little more Dark Ages, where you'd be more comfortable?
A York University student was asked to be excused from group work because he said his religious beliefs prohibit him from meeting with female classmates. (Those dirty and inferior female classmates.)
From the CBC:
His professor at the Toronto university, Paul Grayson, rejected his request, which ignited a controversy at the university about human rights."I was quite shocked," Grayson told CBC-Radio's Ontario Today. He said he did not know the religion of the student, but fundamentally did not agree with accommodating him.
The sociology professor got in touch with the Centre for Human Rights and the dean's office at York. Both replied that he had to comply with the student's request, with the dean issuing three separate orders to comply.
"I basically refused," said Grayson. "My main concern was that for religious beliefs, we also can justify not interacting with Jews, blacks, gays, you name it. And if this were allowed to go through, then all these other absurd demands could be made."
Grayson said accommodating the student would be against everything he stands for.
...The student participated in the group project, ultimately. But Grayson said the university ordered him to make it clear to the student that he did not have to meet with female classmates.
Michele Mandel quotes Grayson in Sun News:
"We have to make a value choice," he told QMI Agency. "What's more important -- the rights of females who make up 54% of the population, or those of individuals with religious notions incompatible with egalitarianism?"
Welcome to a society committing slow suicide.
They went through this in Britain a couple weeks back.
Amy's right and all, but one of the sources and consequences of our enthusiasm for government is that everybody has something precious that they want from The Man™.
(Yes; such expressions of Islam are intolerably offensive to Western values, and must and shall be rejected. We're not going to sell out the Sisters.)
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at January 9, 2014 9:29 PM
I am of two minds on this one. Glad his request was denied, but at the same time, always suspicious of classes that require "group work".
It is usually just a thinly disguised substitute for the teacher getting off his lazy ass, and actually teaching, and evaluating his students on the individual basis that they deserve.
Isab at January 9, 2014 9:59 PM
We're always trying to separate the genders and try to justify it either via religion or feminism. But it's always about puritanism. And it's one of those nasty little human nature traits we're always fighting off.
My stepfather always talks to me about how inferior womenfolk are, and how his biggest mistake in life was letting his wives work and be educated. The way he talks about his daughters (calling them whores) makes me cringe.
It wasn't ya know that he picked bad women-it was that all women are bad.
This is exactly the same kind of logic one of my female friends has. It's not that she picked them wrong it's that they're all bad, they're all whores, they're all obsessed with sex.
She hates men as much as my stepfather hates women. It must be a MINDFUCK to be attracted to them, and fall in love with them and have kids with them.
((((By the way I believe in equality with all my heart mind and soul. I hate both men and women.))))
ppen at January 10, 2014 12:01 AM
> it's always about puritanism.
☑
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at January 10, 2014 12:25 AM
York University was home of the first slutwalk, and all women at York receive rape whistles during orientation: http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/11/27/the-real-danger-for-women-on-campus/
So cynically, I wonder what our professor's thoughts would have been had the sexes in the story been reversed.
jerry at January 10, 2014 12:31 AM
Is there anything lower than a school administrator?
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at January 10, 2014 12:41 AM
The goddess writes, "Welcome to a society committing slow suicide."
Last I checked, I wasn't Canadian.
Patrick at January 10, 2014 4:32 AM
"Very early in the game, I got in touch with the student and said, look, I'm sorry, I simply cannot accommodate you. And his reaction basically was, oh, OK. And he was OK with it. The student is not the problem."
The student backed down and the professor kept his job?
I'm outraged. That would never happen here! These days.
So which society is committing slow suicide?
Pricklypear at January 10, 2014 8:44 AM
The religion of the requester is not given in the article. In fact, the professor explicitly says he did not know the student's religion.
However, the fact that the professor consulted the Centre for Human Rights would seem to indicate that the student was Islamic - at least that there was something about the student that would indicate he practiced a non-Western religion and thus he could simply be dismissed out of hand as a fundamentalist crack-pot).
Later in the article, one of the government ministers who commented mentioned Afghanistan, so again, the assumption of Islam is not without foundation.
==============================
'cause, you know, it's all about the professor and what he stands for.
Conan the Grammarian at January 10, 2014 11:36 AM
I don't understand. If he doesn't want to work with women, that's okay. He can suffer the consequences and limit his education. It's his choice.
Jen at January 10, 2014 10:29 PM
Grayson: "What's more important -- the rights of females who make up 54% of the population, or those of individuals with religious notions incompatible with egalitarianism?"
I don't understand. Do women have a right to require the guy to meet with them? Does it violate the women's rights if the guy doesn't take the class for the reason that he doesn't want to meet with women? I suppose some women might be offended by that, and from what I can tell women at universities do have a right to not be offended.
It seems like the professor and the college administrators are trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. If the guy doesn't want to meet with women, why not do the women and him a favor and tell him, "OK, don't". He can choose a different class.
I suppose if he is a member of some religious or ethnic minority he probably has some kind of right to receive credit for a class that requires group work without being required to participate in it.
Ken R at January 11, 2014 10:08 PM
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