Monday, June 23, 2008

What's in a name?

The emphasis is mine:

Alinoor Ahmed Sheikh, a Somali based in an asylum hostel in Tralee, was to have been honoured for his work raising funds for Amnesty International at a ceremony last Thursday organised by the Africa Centre in Dublin. The event was designed to highlight the positive work done by refugees and asylum seekers in Irish communities.
Five minutes before Benedicta Attoh, a member of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, was due to present the award she was told not to call out Sheikh’s name. "The judges had decided that someone else should get the award," said Attoh, chairwoman of the Africa Centre's board.
«snip»
"I don't think I would have presented his prize if he wouldn’t shake my hand because I’m a woman," she said.

[ Islamophobia Watch ]

How can you be on a committee who is clearly against racism and for interculturalism and then somehow be offended by someone else's culture? Perhaps the NCCRI is for racism and against interculturalism? Irregardless of whether the gentleman is correct or not about his particular flavor of his professed religion, if he believes that it is forbidden or even impolite to shake hands with the opposite gender, we should vilify him and take the award away? Something is really wrong here, and the message it sends is don't seek asylum in Ireland unless you plan on leaving your own beliefs and culture where you have been forced out of...

rant

Comments [2] |

Monday, June 23, 2008 5:31:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

What if it were an even more fundamentalist guy -- say an Pashtun Afghan activist -- who was offended that women would be seen in public, without burqas?

Should they have cleared the room of females, or demanded they cover every inch of skin, just to make sure that guy wasn't offended?

What's wrong here is that expecting someone not to have Medieval views toward gender politics is labeled "Islamophobia". (For the record, particularly religious Orthodox Jewish men wouldn't shake her hand either and, yes, I think they are backward too.)

No one is asking him to abandon his beliefs and culture entirely, but it is reasonable to expect that an immigrant would shed some -- for example, Yemeni child-marriage and Jordanian honor killings.

Speaking of anti-woman traditions, I wonder what his opinions are on female genital mutilation -- being a religious Somali -- and if you would expect Attoh to automatically honor and respect those beliefs too.

Joe Grossberg

Monday, June 23, 2008 8:05:05 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Watch Fox News much these days?

Here is the problem with your so-called argument:

1. This isn't something else, it is what it is.
2. He did say he found it offensive, certainly his tradition could be out of respect for women.
3. He is a refugee, and therefore a guest, and most people treat their guests with respect.
4. His cultural tradition harms no one. He isn't asking them to do anything except give allowance for his culture.
5. He got prior approval and was assured that it wouldn't be an issue.
6. We were not discussing anti-woman traditions. Thus your final argument is just inflammatory.
7. The award was to be given by a woman from a Committee that exists to rid the world of racism and to help bridge the gap between cultures, this is a tiny cultural allowance, if their committee can't do that then what is their purpose.
8. The exaggeration of your remarks are just shy of shouting "Hitler! Hitler!" in a crowded blog-room.

Kearns

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