Religious symbols
I've just been reading about the BA staff member sent home on unpaid leave for refusing to conceal her cross under her uniform. BA say that religious symbols should not be displayed but makes an exception for hijabs and Sikh turbans as they cannot be concealed. Ann Widdecombe has chipped in to say Christians are being persecuted. Whilst I hate to agree with Ann, I do think that being sent home for wearing a cross is ridiculous and out of proportion, especially as crosses have been worn by Brits for centuries. Given that a cross is sometimes worn by people simply as a fashion accessory, I fail to see how it could be regarded as something that must be concealed to avoid causing offence. What other religious symbols do BA require to be hidden? I wonder what their view is on Muslim women wearing a veil?
I begin to wonder whether France's policy of no display of religious symbols whatsoever in schools etc has some merit. Although that also led to trouble as a few Muslim girls felt unable to attend school without wearing a hijab. Strange to think that almost every religion describes itself as a religion of peace!
I begin to wonder whether France's policy of no display of religious symbols whatsoever in schools etc has some merit. Although that also led to trouble as a few Muslim girls felt unable to attend school without wearing a hijab. Strange to think that almost every religion describes itself as a religion of peace!
posted by Deshni @ 6:21 pm
2 Comments:
At 10:11 am,
Anonymous said…
My memory of this story (which admittedly comes through a brief scan of the Observer in Glasgow Airport) was that there wasn't a religious angle to the ban at all - you just weren't allowed to wear jewlery over your uniform as it conflicted with the corporate image (there may have been a safety aspect too, I can't remember).
Anyway - Christian persecution, no.
At 7:21 pm,
Deshni said…
I think a Church of England spokesman pointed out that a cross is not just 'a bit of jewellery' to Christians who wear it and shouldn't be treated as such. No safely aspect was mentioned in any of the reports I read - she worked on the check-in desk. I suspect that this woman has worn her cross for years without any problems, and wonder why it's so bad now?
The reports I read said religious items were specifically banned from being on show unless they couldn't physically be hidden.
The whole thing is a lot of fuss about nothing - let the poor woman wear a cross smaller than 1cm in size!
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