Teaching lawmakers a lesson

Students from Portland State will travel to Salem on Feb. 10 to ask Oregon Legislature to repeal an 87-year-old law which bans teachers from wearing religious clothing. Many topics, such as religious tolerance and the separation of church and state, will be presented in upcoming debates, and common sense will—hopefully—be prominent.

Oregon’s religious dress ban was passed in 1923 amid Ku Klux Klan-led pressure to prevent Catholic priests and nuns from wearing their robes in public schools. I’m glad that Oregon Legislature feels the Klan may have got one right and that they choose to uphold religious persecution over acceptance.

Wait—actually, that’s stupid.

It seems stupidity is governing this debate along with an excess of political correctness and underlying racism. At the center of the issue is the Muslim hijab and Sikh dastaar, or turban. Both pieces of headwear are deeply symbolic of a personal connection with the wearer’s religion and culture. In the U.S. and other Western countries, the religious garb presents a more profound statement amid jeers and curious stares from ignorant onlookers.

Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian author of Middle Eastern descent, discussed wearing a hijab in a Western country on CNN: “You can sometimes feel like you’re in a zoo, locked in the cage of other people’s stereotypes, prejudices and judgments.”

France is poised to pass a law banning the full-veil burqa and niqab from public places. President Nicolas Sarkozy stated that the veil was “not welcome” in France. This has generated a huge public outcry from France’s 3.5 million Muslims—even though less than 2,000 women wear the full veil.
Are 2,000 women such a blemish on a country that their individual freedoms have to be violated? It is the same here in Oregon. How many of Oregon’s public school teachers are Sikh or belong to the Muslim faith?

This law is clearly being upheld because of anti-Muslim sentiment, just as it was initially passed because of anti-Catholic fanaticism. Lawmakers are afraid of making mistakes, afraid of exposing children to other religions and afraid of the consequences of opening this Pandora’s box.
My advice: stop being sissies.

Oregon is one of two states that maintain a religious dress ban in public schools. The other 48 states seem to be getting along fine. Children are not impressionable, innocent sponges. They’re vicious brats. Seeing a yarmulke or hijab is more likely to generate whispers than converts. Children will practice whatever religion their parents tell them to—at least until they turn 18, buy a leather jacket and become anarchists.

All joking aside, it’s important for children to learn how to deal with cultural differences at an early age. I really can’t see a downside to more understanding and more exposure to a real world where not everyone looks and dresses the same. There may be snickering at first, but the individual behind the religious garb will ultimately determine the child’s critique.

However, common sense and tolerance must be equal among all belief systems. Just because Christianity is the dominant religion does not mean that it should be stifled the most. According to the CIA’s World Factbook, 78 percent of Americans identify as Christian. Jews, Buddhists and Muslims combined account for a little over 3 percent of the population. While I am completely in favor of equal religious representation in society, it’s also important not to alienate 240 million people in favor of a minority that may or may not take issue with “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, or with public Christmas trees. Tiptoeing around religion or denying its existence makes everyone uneasy and ashamed.    

I am half white and half Chinese. My Chinese maternal grandmother, a strong Catholic, has statues of Mary juxtaposed with images of Guanyin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy. Having Buddhist parents didn’t prevent her from choosing Catholicism as her faith. Nor did it confuse my beliefs. If anything, it exposed me to another way of viewing our world, as did conversations with my friends from Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Idaho.

A teacher wearing a crucifix or hijab is not necessarily proselytizing their faith or forcing it upon innocent children. Religious expression does not automatically denote religious promotion. It fosters questions that the government is afraid to answer, but that our teachers are more than ready to discuss. Discussion and understanding in the classroom will lead to discussion and understanding outside of the classroom.

The people of Oregon are moving forward and Salem needs to keep up.