skygiants

Hah, dude, I was actually kind of hoping you would come and talk all over my journal - I had a vague memory of you reading and talking about this book a while back and could not find the post. >.>

I loved the part about "We have Sikhs?" too - I mean, it's just such a good example of how a law that really was targeted at a very specific group can have all kinds of unanticipated consequences. (And I think possibly being Jewish also ties into my visceral reaction of what, how can you make them do that - because Jewish women wear headscarves, too, and while obviously I am secular enough that it doesn't affect me, it would be so infuriating for me to have any kind of regulation saying this wasn't allowed. I mean, the stories about doctors refusing to treat women in headscarves - it was hard to make myself think non-emotionally about that.)

Yeah, that distinction that you're talking about was hard to wrap my head around as well. And, I mean, Bowen also makes the point that State control of training imams could in some respects be just as problematic as the lack of it - because the value there, and the push there, is all about assimilation, and if assimilation is not the value you're going for that's a fundamental conflict right there. The entire perspective and value system regarding the religious freedom question is so different from what it is here.