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Shariah comes to Old Crimson:
"Harvard tries women-only gym hours"
On February 26th we presented a story about Muslims in Australian Universities clamoring
for classes to be scheduled to accommodate prayer times, and for segregated male and
female dining rooms and recreation areas.
Today we bring you an AP story below, which describes how Harvard has adopted a policy of
banning men from one of its gyms a few hours each week, to accommodate Muslim women.
The comment by one of the Muslim women who requested the change is particularly
noteworthy:
“The majority should be willing to compromise," she said. "I think that's
just basic courtesy. We must show tolerance and respect for all others."
But is this “respect for all others,” being “willing to compromise,”
and “tolerance,” a two way street? As the Brits, the French, and the Dutch have
learned, the answer is a resounding “no.” When the Archbishop of Canterbury
stated that the imposition of sharia law is “unavoidable,” and necessary for
“social cohesion” in England, he was acknowledging that the answer is
“no.”
Do Islamic countries allow for free expression of religion by non-Muslims? Do they
“tolerate” those whose beliefs are contrary to those of Islam? Do they
“compromise” with non-Muslims? No. Why not? Because doctrinal Islam asserts not
only the supremacy of Allah and Islam as a religious belief, but the supremacy of the
political ideology embedded within Islam that dictates how a society and its government
and laws should be ordered. It brooks no tolerance or compromise.
As we noted on February 26th:
“…if you accept what the Qur’an and the Hadith teach about the supremacy of
Islam and Allah, about not only the right but the duty of Muslims to forcefully
subordinate all other beliefs to Islam and Allah, then it is perfectly logical to conclude
that you have the right to demand accommodations for your beliefs that subordinate the
beliefs of everyone else to yours.
This is the theological rationale and justification for Islamic Jihad, whether by violence
or “Cultural Jihad” – the subversion and ultimate conquering of a society
from within by means other than physical violence. For what is Jihad but the call to
subjugate “infidels” to the “supreme” religion of Islam and Allah?
It is one reason why sociologists and authors who are studying the migration of Islam
around the globe regularly note that most Muslims do not “assimilate” in
societies to which they migrate that are not Muslim. Even when they are in a small
minority in a society, it is not uncommon for Muslims to demand special accommodations
that no other religious belief in that society would demand.
Therefore, even if a Muslim denounces “terror” and the concept of
“jihad,” but at the same time demands unreasonable accommodations for his
beliefs that result in the direct subordination of the rights and beliefs of others to his
Islamic beliefs, he in effect acts as a “warrior” for Islamic jihad, whether he
acknowledges it or not.”
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, stated in the
article below:
"The Muslim bashers portray it as the world coming to end, but if women have a couple
hours a week to work out in private, I don't see it as a major issue," he said.
That’s exactly what Muslim leaders and spokesmen were saying in Great Britain 15 to
20 years ago. But the initial requests for accommodations, which were not “major
issues,” gave way to increasing demands and greater accommodations, until today we
see demands for sharia law to be implemented as a parallel legal system in Great Britain.
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by Mark Pratt, Associated Press Writer, March 4, 2008
In a test of Harvard's famed open-mindedness, the university has banned men from one of
its gyms for a few hours a week to accommodate Muslim women who say it offends their sense
of modesty to exercise in front of the opposite sex.
The policy is already unpopular with many on campus, including some women who consider it
sexist.
"I think that it's incorrect in a college setting to institute a policy in which half
of the campus gets wronged or denied a resource that's supposed to be for everyone,"
said student Lucy Caldwell, who also wrote a column in The Harvard Crimson newspaper
critical of the new hours.
Student Ola Aljawhary, who is Muslim and works out elsewhere on campus but is not one of
the women who requested the change, rejected that argument. [emphasis added].
"The majority should be willing to compromise," she said. "I think that's
just basic courtesy. We must show tolerance and respect for all others." [emphasis
added].
The trial policy went into effect Feb. 4, about a month after a group of six Muslim women,
with the support of the Harvard College Women's Center, asked the university for the
special hours, spokesman Robert Mitchell said.
"We get special requests from religious groups all the time and we try to honor them
whenever possible," he said, noting that the school has designated spaces for Muslim
and Hindu students to pray.
No men are allowed in the gym between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Mondays, and between 8 a.m. and
10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even the staff during those times is all women.
The special hours allow the Muslim women, who adhere to traditional dress codes by
covering their hair and most of their skin while in public, to dress more appropriately
for exercising, said Susan Marine, director of the women's center.
"It's a pretty big breach of their moral and religious code for a man to see them
with their hair uncovered and it's just not possible for them to be in a mixed
environment," she said.
When student Kareem Shuman showed up to work out at the gym on Monday, he was turned away
but didn't mind.
"Knowing it was requested by women of my faith -- it's very understandable to
me," said Shuman, 21, who figured he'd just come back later for his workout.
Other men find the new hours inconvenient. Nick Wells, a junior who wrote an opinion piece
in the Crimson criticizing the policy, suggested setting aside one room for women.
"It's not that I am opposed to the idea of helping people in religious groups or
women in general, but I just think Harvard is not being fair to people like me who live
(near the gym)," Wells said in an interview.
The policy only applies to one gym, a facility mainly used for intramurals. Because of its
location at the edge of campus, it is the university's least used gym, Mitchell said.
The women-only hours are of minimal inconvenience because they are just six out of the 70
hours a week the gym is open, Marine said.
"Harvard has a moral and ethical responsibility to make sure our students can stay
healthy," she said.
An Associated Press reporter who went to the gym Monday did not see any Muslim women
entering. Efforts to reach some of the women who requested the policy through the Women's
Center were unsuccessful.
The policy will be reviewed at the end of the semester, Mitchell said.
Kent Blumenthal, executive director of the National Intramural-Recreational Sports
Association, which has 660 member colleges and universities nationwide, said he could not
think of any other institution with a similar policy.
"It seems in some ways contrary to the purpose of campus recreational programs, which
is all about access," he said.
Harvard's policy is no different from commercial gyms that cater partially or even
exclusively to women, said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations.
"The Muslim bashers portray it as the world coming to end, but if women have a couple
hours a week to work out in private, I don't see it as a major issue," he said.
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Richard Kerbaj and Milanda Rout | February 25, 2008
MUSLIM university students want lectures to be rescheduled to fit in with prayer
timetables and separate male and female eating and recreational areas established on
Australian campuses.
International Muslim students, predominantly from Saudi Arabia, have asked universities in
Melbourne to change class times so they can attend congregational prayers. They also want
a female-only area for Muslim students to eat and relax.
But at least one institution has rejected their demands, arguing that the university is
secular and it does not want to set a precedent for requests granted in the name of
religious beliefs.
La Trobe University International chief officer John Molony said several students had
approached the Bundoora institution about rearranging class times to fit in with daily
prayers.
Mr Molony said the university was attempting to "meet the needs" of an
increasing number of Muslim international students, including doubling the size of the
prayer room on campus.
La Trobe University International College director Martin Van Run said that although it
was involved in discussions with the Muslim students who had made the requests, the
university was not planning to change any timetables.
"That would seriously inconvenience other people at the college and it is not
institutionally viable," he told The Australian. "We are a secular institution
... and we need to have a structured timetable."
Mr Van Run said that Saudi students were fully aware that the university was secular
before coming to study there. "They know well in advance the class times," he
said.
A spokesman for RMIT University would neither confirm nor deny reports that Muslim
students had requested timetable changes.
One university source told The Australian that the requests by Muslim international
students for timetable changes included a petition.
"Some of the students would prefer that lecture times were organised so it would be
easy for them to attend prayers," he said. "But it wouldn't be a good precedent
to set."
Islamic leaders yesterday backed the push by Muslim students to have their lectures
arranged to accommodate prayer sessions, but said such a move would be essential only for
congregational Friday prayers.
Female Muslim leader Aziza Abdel-Halim said yesterday it was a religious duty for those
who followed Islam to preach with their fellow believers on Fridays.
But the former senior member of John Howard's Muslim reference board said there was
nothing in Islam that indicated men and women be segregated when it came to educational
activities.
"There's nothing in Islam that says there should be complete segregation, especially
in educational institutions," said Sister Abdel-Halim.
She said afternoon prayers for Muslims - Zhohor, at 1.10pm, and Asr, at 4.50pm - could be
performed until 10 minutes before the following daily prayer, so it was more appropriate
to alter prayer times than lecture schedules.
"It's reasonable to ask for the lectures to be shifted around on Friday," Sister
Abdel-Halim said. "But if it's going to cause havoc with the timetable, I don't think
it's really feasible to ask for every single prayer to be catered for." |
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