I understand that most conservatives, with their strong sense of national pride and social responsibility, tend to group most of us liberals into the, “they believe in what is expedient but not in what is right” category.
In other words, they sometimes say that we don’t believe in anything for certain, that we don’t have any imovable principles.
Well, they’re right about the imovable part. With the exception of such basic and fundamental ethics like the golden rule, thou shal not do unto others what you’d find repulsive when done unto yourself, morality and principles generally change with society. They change based on the constitutional agreements of majorities in the respective societies.
More recently, however, with an increase in interconnectedness, humanity as a whole has adopted certain guiding principles, which for now seem imovable, that are enshrined in the constitutions of all civilized nations.
Things were very different just a hundred years ago, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights did not exist.
So to demonstrate that this liberal is not a moral relativist, I will tell my conservative comrades what I think about the recent decission, made by the Montreal-area soccer association, to ban a girl wearing a hijab from refereeing a girls soccer game.
First, however, it is important to note that the president of the Qebec Soccer Federation issued a press stement on Tuesday defending his organization’s decission. The statement read that according to FIFA’s international rules players cannot wear any religious symbols on the pitch.
Despite the fact that many of my fellow liberals screamed discrimination, on the account that the young girl by the name of Sarah Benkirane wore the hijab during her previous refereeing season without incident, I will remain steadfast in supporting the decission of the Montreal-area soccer association.
Why?
Because I ask myself, what need is there to wear religious attire or carry a religious symbol when playing a sport?
This is not a case of discrimination.
For example, when Christians play soccer they do not insist on wearing palm sized crucifixes, Jesus t-shirts, altar robes or any other visible religious paraphanelia. They do not feel the need to do so, despite the fact that many of them believe strongly in the Christian doctrine.
Plus, the FIFA rules apply to them just as much as it does to Jews and Muslims, yet they do not complain.
Why is it that Sarah Benkirane demands an exception be made in her case? Why not be reasonable and not wear the hijab while refereeing? What’s the harm in complying?
It is not morally relativistic to say that enough is enough, that certain unreasonable requests deserve rejection by mainstream society.
There are many liberties that religious minorities enjoy in Canada, from practicing their religion in public and voicing their doctrines in open forums to performing their religious rituals without discrimination. But, on this silly issue we have to say no.
And thus, this liberal blogger will also say no and return a stout non serviam to my fellow liberal friends.
I do not support the changing of rules that work and that apply to a majority of people, for the sake of one religiously insecure person.
