Things that get top billing as STUPID!

If you read this blog on any kind of regular basis, you'll know that generally, I think adults are idiots. Here's yet more proof....


This item is in newspapers across Canada today:
MUSLIM GIRL EJECTED FROM TOURNAMENT FOR WEARING HIJAB

First of all, that is INCORRECT! The girl's coach caused her team to walk from the tournament. The team was not forced to do anything. Their coach CHOSE to forgo the game. The ADULTS chose to leave the tournament.

The coach's last comment was something to the effect that muslim girls are not allowed to play soccer. I CANNOT STAND stupid adults.

I am entirely disgusted by the adults in this story, not because this child was asked to remove her hijab, but because the adults around her have hijacked a safety issue and turned it into yet another ridiculous opportunity to create discord.

Any item around the head or neck or finger or waist of a player can easily be caught during a soccer game will very probably cause injury to the wearer and likely other players as well. This is why there are rules that players must remove anything from their bodies that might cause them injury. Those rules are not related in any way to religion.

Secondly, sports in this country are secular pursuits. Go ahead and participate, but leave your religion at home, where it belongs.

It is frankly irresponsible for any parent or coach to put religious symbolism before the health and safety of a player and team mates and to then abscond responsibility by making an issue of discrimination and persecution. Children learn discrimination, hate and discord from adults and this is a prime example of how it happens.

How dare these adults inflict their narrow, personal interpretations of this religion on this girl and all the other players in this tournament – and all the others that will be affected by this incredible stupidity. It cannot be that the muslim god is so intolerant of a CHILD removing a scarf for the sake of her safely.

The other point that needs making here is that this girl is not a "Muslim" child. She is a child who follows her family's religion, Islam, because, at the age of 12, she doesn't have a lot of opportunity to dissent, nor does religion offer much to children in the way of rationality. To label a child assumes that the child has made some choice, which cannot be the case when it comes to religion.

Children are indoctrinated and there cannot be any dispute about that. I dare say that most religious families do NOT say to their children, "when you're old enough to make considered, logical, rational observations on issues of philosophy or religion, you can come to church/mosque/synagogue.

If you're unconvinced about indoctrination, go find the film called "Jesus Camp" and watch what they do to the kids - little kids - there. Suspend your own religions indoctrination long enough to consider what is going on there - and in any religious organisation - from the point of view of rationality.

You're a christian so it's ok? Well guess what; I PUT MONEY ON IT, that you do NOT think it OK when the same type of indoctrination is going on in madrassas overseas or in any organisation that teaches philosophies that differ from yours. Such is the great and profound insecurity of all religions and religious people: so unsure are they that they will kill other people to protect something that is not real.

Religion, which is based on all sorts of crazy interpretations and millions of falsehoods, is a personal pursuit. It belongs with the person in private. It is not something to be sold, bartered or forced on other people and it should be a criminal offence to brainwash children under the guise of 'religion.'

MORE? The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins.