For the Prevention of Special Feelings...
OSLO (Reuters) - Muslim and Christian leaders in Oslo scrapped a soccer match meant to foster understanding between religions Saturday after the imams refused to play a team that included women priests.
When I read the first paragraph of this article, my immediate reaction was, "Oh, great.. Once again Muslims are showing how freakin' BACKWARDS we can be!" But as I read further, I started to feel that this situation is just a case of cultural misunderstanding, rather than the usual "Muslims being stupid."
The imams didn't want to be put in situation where they could have physical contacts with the female priests. I, personally, would not have a problem playing soccer with men, but... I always go to a female doctor if I have the choice, and I generally don't feel comfortable hugging guys that are not related to me somehow. The average American may find that this is too conservative, but that's what my comfort level is, and the imams have their own comfort levels as well.
Unfortunately, to anyone not familiar with Islam or Muslim cultures, this is going to look and feel like the classic case of excluding women from anything not having to do with cooking, cleaning, or having babies. And given the Muslim world's track record on women's rights, it would be understandable for the female priests in this story to come to this conclusion. Go to any mosque in America, and women are more likely than not stuffed behind a barrier, or excluded completely. And just forget about hearing a woman actually *gasp* SPEAK in front of a congregation!
But I don't think this is the case here. Nor do I think it's a case of Muslims unfairly shoving Islam down the throats of those who are under no obligation to follow Islam (see earlier posts here and here). This is a simple cultural misunderstanding.
So the question is.. how could this have been prevented? Better planning, obviously. I have helped to plan a couple of Muslim-Jewish picnics, and in both cases, representatives of each group got together and went over every detail of the event ahead of time. As a result, both events went smoothly.
Obviously, it didn't occur to the Christian priests that the imams would not be able to play soccer with the women for due to the preservation of their *own* modesty. And the imams didn't think for a moment that there would be women playing on the soccer field. Better communication could have prevented this embarrassing situation from happening in the first place, and the two religious groups could have done what they came together to do--get to know each other better.
By the way, I found the wording of this quote from the article absolutely hilarious:
"Some say that bodily contact is the problem. It leads to special feelings that can lead to something forbidden," imam Senaid Kobilica told NRK public television.
click here for full article
When I read the first paragraph of this article, my immediate reaction was, "Oh, great.. Once again Muslims are showing how freakin' BACKWARDS we can be!" But as I read further, I started to feel that this situation is just a case of cultural misunderstanding, rather than the usual "Muslims being stupid."
The imams didn't want to be put in situation where they could have physical contacts with the female priests. I, personally, would not have a problem playing soccer with men, but... I always go to a female doctor if I have the choice, and I generally don't feel comfortable hugging guys that are not related to me somehow. The average American may find that this is too conservative, but that's what my comfort level is, and the imams have their own comfort levels as well.
Unfortunately, to anyone not familiar with Islam or Muslim cultures, this is going to look and feel like the classic case of excluding women from anything not having to do with cooking, cleaning, or having babies. And given the Muslim world's track record on women's rights, it would be understandable for the female priests in this story to come to this conclusion. Go to any mosque in America, and women are more likely than not stuffed behind a barrier, or excluded completely. And just forget about hearing a woman actually *gasp* SPEAK in front of a congregation!
But I don't think this is the case here. Nor do I think it's a case of Muslims unfairly shoving Islam down the throats of those who are under no obligation to follow Islam (see earlier posts here and here). This is a simple cultural misunderstanding.
So the question is.. how could this have been prevented? Better planning, obviously. I have helped to plan a couple of Muslim-Jewish picnics, and in both cases, representatives of each group got together and went over every detail of the event ahead of time. As a result, both events went smoothly.
Obviously, it didn't occur to the Christian priests that the imams would not be able to play soccer with the women for due to the preservation of their *own* modesty. And the imams didn't think for a moment that there would be women playing on the soccer field. Better communication could have prevented this embarrassing situation from happening in the first place, and the two religious groups could have done what they came together to do--get to know each other better.
By the way, I found the wording of this quote from the article absolutely hilarious:
"Some say that bodily contact is the problem. It leads to special feelings that can lead to something forbidden," imam Senaid Kobilica told NRK public television.
click here for full article
posted by purvis at 4:38 PM
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