Spacehamster’s Blog

Okay, before continuing any further, just a word on my political and religious beliefs. I’m definitely not a far-right wing believer like Andrew Bolt or Janet Albrechsen. But neither am I as left-wing as John Quiggin or Tim Dunlop either. I believe in the right of a person or community to practice their cultural or religious beliefs freely, provided those beliefs don’t clash with the freedoms and rights that other people have fought so hard to preserve.

My grandparents are Churchgoers, and I have family friends that follow elements of Buddhist and Taoist teachings. I’ve also had the fortune to know at least one Muslim too. For that reason, I despise and have little patience for religious intolerance or bigotry, and I cannot abide by racial hatred.

Considering the hysteria being riled up in certain quarters, it was bound to happen in Australia eventually:

A PROPOSAL to ban Muslim girls from wearing traditional headscarves in state schools has been rejected by Prime Minister John Howard and all the main political parties in Victoria. Mr Howard said yesterday a ban on scarves — urged by prominent Liberal backbenchers Bronwyn Bishop and Sophie Panopoulos — would be impractical and could mean turbans had to go as well.

The two Liberals sparked the headscarf debate days after Mr Howard called Muslim leaders to a summit to calm tensions after the London bombings, and to seek help in countering extremists. Mrs Bishop said wearing scarves at public schools was an iconic act of defiance, while Ms Panopoulos said it was more an act of rebellion than religion.

I can’t see how implementing a ban on headscarves is going to help matters any. All it does is unfairly antagonise a section of the community who feel alienated and vilified enough as it is. We need to make sure the Muslim community feel more welcome and included in the wider Australian community, just as Greeks, Italians and Chinese newcomers have before them. This type of thoughtless political point-scoring doesn’t help matters any.

Apart from bigotry, ignorance and religious intolerance, the only reason I can think of for Bishop and Panopoulos to push such a useless ban is to bolster their own political careers. I haven’t heard anything constructive from either of them lately. If this is the best they can do, it’s time for their constituents to vote in new MP’s.