"andrel" <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message
news:497### [at] hotmailcom...

> - There is a distinction between culture and faith. I think that this is
> more culture than faith (although not having studied this particular
> religion it is hard for me to judge). Even so, in this case culture
> should prevail over arbitrary school rules. I have probably written
> about this before, but for me this is a very fundamental discussion. Too
> often cultural expressions (head scarfs, female genital mutilation) are
> claimed to be religious in order to have them accepted in a host
> culture. We even had a religious 'leader' who claimed that he as a
> muslim was not allowed to shake hands with females and 'therefore'
> refused the hand of a minister. As long as we don't make the distinction
> between culture and religion anybody can make such things up to annoy
> others and get away with it because the others are not allowed to
> discriminate against a 'religion'.

You have some points about "abuse" of religious freedom, but I don't think
it's very productive for courts to go into long winded arguments of what's
culture and what's religion, and how old the religions/customs might be. And
fundamentally, I agree with your claim of distinction between faith and
culture. Much (in fact, all) of the practices of Abrahamic religions are
based on culture. Ultimately, there's no such thing as religion distinct
from culture - at least from this atheist's perspective - since all
religions are invented by men, and culture is just that - whatever lifestyle
man invents. So instead of wasting time and money trying to sort all the
silliness, I say that the principle be adopted where so long as there are no
adverse effects (health, safety... etc), let them wear what they want, and
be consistent/evenhanded. Braids, long, free flowing hair is a no-no in a
machine shop, food preparation.... etc, but it's hard to justfiy it as a
risk at a school.

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