Sights of London
This afternoon as I
sat observing Londoners I saw something worth commenting about and if I
expected the tweet to go unnoticed, I failed in that mission.
I robustly engaged
all commentary and I have decided it is an issue that should be blogged.
#SightsOfLondon
It's 26 degrees and you are in a black hijab. Diagnosis: Heatstroke brought on
by religious stupidity.
Immediately after I
posted this I was told my comments were inappropriate and that I was ignorant
of the subject.
This was one area
where I was not ready to back down to insouciance because of the many things
that were clearly in that tweet that the reactions missed out of a lack of
comprehension first, an inability to contextualise commentary and thin-skinned
feeble-mindedness.
The context
The setting is this
– the weather, it was hot and humid, without a wind, literally every was
dressed lightly, I did not see any extremes of undress of exposure, but people
were dressed to ensure they did not overheat, probably dehydrate and possibly
suffer heatstroke.
The verdict in
terms of diagnosis what I anticipated the possibility that if she was dressed
and completely covered in black, the body will not be allowed the opportunity
to dissipate heat and hence cool down bringing on heatstroke – if she did
suffer heatstroke, one would expect that emergency services and doctors will
come to an easy conclusion, but that was from my tweet a future possibility
much as she might well never suffer heatstroke for all sorts of extenuating
circumstances.
What my tweet did
not say was that hijabs were bad and the completeness of my tweet made a clear
reference to colour.
Common-sense: The missing piece
Then to address the
other surrounding issues in terms of the reactions, I have no problems with people
following some religious creed or diktat, it is a matter of conscience but even
religious matters require the use of common-sense, that is what we have our
intellect for, to be able to reason and make smart decisions in relation to our
faiths.
The hijab allows
for wearers to express outward modesty and chastity but it should not be at the
expense of their well-being and comfort because that will be foolish – I can
see no reason why that should excite argument apart from fundamentalist
fanaticism that sacrifices every God-given ability to reason for a blind
adherence to letter that has not spirit of recognising basic human
circumstances, needs and situations – reason allows us to adapt – in very hot
and humid weather, sure reasoning would have been expressed in wearing a hijab
of light clothing and light colours.
The disabling power of ignorance
It is the same lack
of reasoning in the application of religious views that had the Catholic Church
in Brazil opposing the abortion of the pregnancy of a nine-year old girl where
doctors had clear said she could not bring the pregnancy to term and the risk
of loss of life to the girl and the foetus was very likely.
The parents were
pragmatic and sensible enough to allow for the pregnancy to be terminated to
save their nine-year old daughter than to risk the loss of their known daughter
and completely unknown prospective grandchild. Sadly, they were
ex-communicated.
The same can be
said of the Mohammedan cartoon controversy where people were killing themselves
in faraway lands for depictions that could never be true and they should have
better not to accept considering the artists were not even adherents of the
faith.
Feeble sensibilities
I am saddened that
feeble sensibilities, ignorance and the wiliness to be easily offended to the
extent of causing oneself undue and unnecessary stress over matters that are
particular and easily irrelevant is stifling good discussion but if we allow a latitude of tolerance in our
outlooks we gain the opportunity to show that our religion is not driven by fanatical observance to the exclusion of our faculties one will usually expect this of the supposedly better informed.
From time
immemorial, religious practices of all faiths have been praised, debated,
questioned, condemned, excoriated, blamed or ridiculed – it will not stop today
and if the affected are not ready to cast off subjective assessments of the
issues and they succumb to the disabling influence of sentiment that negates
the use of their intellect and common-sense, they will invariably be hurt and
the higher moral ground with be yielded to those who challenge the practices.
Worse still, their
reactions might well take what has been questioned into the realm of the bizarre,
the outlandish and outrageous bringing even more opprobrium on the matter.
In closing my
argument, the tweet was written to a very particular situation and observation
but it got blown up into a generalisation by the reactions that it would have
been within my rights to take serious offence for the fact that the readers
lacked understanding of my tweet and their comprehension of the whole context
was wanting – on the other issues of fundamentalism, fanaticism and the use of
intellect – the blog speaks for itself.
