Religious Practice Versus Imposition

Wednesday

Earlier tonight an acquaintance said he had heard that during Ramadan in Dearborn, Michigan, there's a high school football team that does their football practice from 11:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m. because some of the devout Muslim players can't eat or drink anything during the daylight. He said this without any judgment at all. It looked like he felt absolutely neutral about it.

I said, "In other words, the Muslims are imposing their practices on non-Muslims." I said it with a face that clearly displayed disapproval.

He was casually dismissive. "Well, other religions do crazy stuff too," he said.

I said, "They don't impose their stuff on me. Are there religious people who impose something on you? Or try to get you to grant a concession? Or try to make your values yield to theirs? To practice a religion is personal and private. If someone wants to go without food, what do I care? They can go right ahead. But when it impinges on people who are not members of the religion, that's no longer religious. It's political. So all the high school students who want to play football at that school have to practice in the middle of the night because Muslims are thrusting their Islamic practice into the non-Islamic public sphere. Those non-Muslim kids have to disrupt their normal sleep cycle because the Muslims won't bend and the non-Muslims will. And step by step, inch by inch, orthodox Muslims gain one concession after another as our tolerant culture yields to their intolerant culture. Is that okay with you? It's not okay with me."

I had to leave, but this brief conversation inserted an idea I got from Bill Warner. And my acquaintance looked like he heard something he had never even thought about. I wish I'd had time to explain to him that religious supremacism is the belief that a particular religion is superior to others and entitles members of the religion to control or dominate non-members. That's what these Muslim football players were doing.

But maybe it was better that I didn't go into any more detail. Sometimes less is better. Sometimes it's actually more effective to let things sink in a little at a time.

Given how many people are becoming aware of the disturbing nature of Islamic texts, these kinds of brief conversations must be taking place all over the free world. Let's keep it up. We should think in terms of small bits and long campaigns.

8 comments:

Anonymous 5:10 AM  

As you know, I'm on your side. But how do you reply to people who would point out that holiday breaks are usually timed to accommodate Christmas and Easter?

In the case of this school, I wouldn't have been offended if the football team had had to break into two different practice groups for a month -- the Muslims practice in the middle of the night and the non-Muslims at the normal time, and then they come back together as a full team after a month. Maybe there's no good way to practice without everyone being together, but it seems as if it *ought* to be possible. --Bradamante

Citizen Warrior 12:52 PM  

Holiday breaks are usually timed to accommodate Christmas and Easter. That was the original purpose of them. Now they are winter and spring breaks. If someone wanted to impose a new religiously-motivated something on everyone, I would say it should be stopped. If some Buddhist groups decided every morning in school should be started with meditation, I would say that should be stopped.

Religious practices, of whatever religion, should not be impinged on non-members of that religion. Period.

Anonymous 9:09 PM  

Always remember ,the minute the muslims religious practices starts to impinge on non muslims and force us to change our ways, schedule, inconvenience us etc., then it is no longer practicing religion but politics and should not be protected by the constitution. If you want to pray in private and kow tow a zillion times a day till you keel over dead, that's fine with me, but the minute you want to scream your prayers through a louod speaker and wake me up 5x/day, that is intrusion and poltical. If you want to segregate your daughters in your house or mosque that is fine with me, but the minhute you force the local swimming pool or the university swimming pool to set aside 4 hrs of segregated swimming and mess up my schedule that is political.

If you want to eat halaal meat , go stuff yourself till you explode and I don't care tuppence, but the minute you force all of us ( I am talking to a muslim ) to eat halaal meat then that is imposition and political.

In Dearborn, at the local KFC , the muslim majority KFC has 2 signs sneakily done in Arabic ( Man/rijaal and women nisaa) ie they have segregation of sexes at the counter in a public place of eating in America....I want to know why this is allowed? Is anyone going to complain to KFC about sex segregation in public places, this is America..abide by American laws. If I were to go to that KFC does this mean I have to place my order at the Man's section and if I happen to be in the women's section I will be refused service ? is this what we want in America? ( I think BareNakedIslam has a foto showing the sex segregated order line at the Dearborn KFC --in other words since Dearborn has significant muslim populstion they are now imposing shariah illegaly on americans. Islam is incompatible with a free society, we can't have 2 sets of law, muslims claim they cant be a complete muslim until they obey shariah ....well that will disqualify them from citizenship !)

Mahindra

Anonymous 6:58 AM  

You are right in this case. You gave that person something to think about and if he is rational, he will see the reason in your argument.
Way to go.
Thanks for doing all that you do :)

Citizen Warrior 1:02 AM  

I just thought of something else I could have said. What if several of the Buddhists on the team wanted all their teammates to become vegetarians? Or to meditate as part of football practice?

Do you think anyone would go along with it?

It's a ridiculous question because Buddhists do not impose their religion on others. Buddhism is not supremacist.

Or what about this? What if several members of the team were Scientologists and they wanted everyone on the team to go through a "purpose rundown" (a Scientology process)? Would the parents, teachers, principle, and coaches agree to this? Not a chance. Why not? What's the difference? Muslims apply pressure skillfully to our Achilles' heel.

Walter Sieruk 11:33 AM  

One question that may be answered is "Just what is Islam ?" The answer to that question is that Islam is a religious/political/ cultural system of tyranny that controls the minds and lives of millions of people around the world." In the light of this the wisdom of the words of Thomas Jefferson very much apply here. For. Mr. Jefferson stated "I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal against every form of tyranny over the minds of men."

Walter Sieruk 12:24 PM  

That the followers of Islam actually believe the illogical, far-fetched ,nonsensical and absurd teachings of the Quran only brings to mind the proverb from POOR RICHARDS ALMANACK which reads
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."

Anonymous 12:34 PM  

Inch by inch, step by step, islamophobic accusation by accusation.. I live in Ireland, they're at 2% population right now, and I'd like to keep it at that!!

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