Posted on 07/19/2005 1:03:41 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
It's Saturday evening, the end of a hot day, and a group of women and children have gathered at North Seattle's Meadowbrook Pool for their monthly swim.
Most of the pool staff has left, except for two female lifeguards, who on this day will be on duty for the next two hours.
The women and children — all Muslims — have been swimming in private once a month at Meadowbrook as part of a program organized by the North Seattle Family Center.
Because Islam requires Muslim women to fully cover themselves in public, swimming in pools or the ocean is largely off-limits for many.
But across the Puget Sound area, that's starting to change as public and private pools at times are sending home their male staff members, covering up their windows and allowing women of faith to swim alone and in private...
Access to these pools is not free; the groups, like all others that use these facilities, pay a rental fee....
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
OK. So when they rent, we lease.
When they demand, we refuse.
That's pretty clear, isn't it?
Who?
"Sophistry and deliberate avoidance of the issue. Do you understand rental agreements or not?"
Arrogance and tunnel vision. Do you not understand the bigger issue? And the rental agreement in a public facility can specify what type of clothing, or the inclusion of male lifeguards.
But, given your clinging to your tenious position, I'd guess that comes from a lack of exposure to human contact. So, a koran would be ok for you.
Well, at least they aren't demanding a separate pool - yet.
I remember in the 1930s movie "Lost Horizon," there's a distant shot of the female star swimming nude in a pond. Pretty daring for those days. (I forget her name; she later played the wife on the TV show "Father Knows Best" - Jane Wyatt? Wyman?).
Think I'm gonna have an all-Old-Order-Mennonite girls' pool party. So there, you guys! Swim suits way up to here and way down to there.
And we get the shoo-fly-pie!
Private rental? Why not?
My only question about this is whether any other group is allowed to rent the pool for its own purposes. It seems if too many private groups were allowed to rent the pool, then the general public would be shut out or reduced to very narrow hours.
We've established that Muslim women are about 100 years behind the times in swim wear. I guess the encouraging thing is that if we changed, so will they, eventually.
Agreed, with enthusiasm.
I wonder if the issue was a nudist group renting a pool for nudists only - blinds on the windows to prevent curious voyeurs - life guards not going au natural not welcome.
Would the cultural elite also object?
...but would it be rented to the Boy Scouts for an activity to earn a badge, or to a Christian group?
I would have liked something like this when I was a kid. We were not allowed to wear bathing suits. No shorts either. My mother even altered my gym suits for school because they were too short. That was rather embarrassing at age 12.
We were not Muslim, but Christian. It was a Church of Christ (of which there seem to be several varieties). I don't attend anymore, but they may still be like this.
" If they want to use the pool, fine, use it, and swim in your stupid abaya. "
Maybe it's two fold. Just think of their savings on laundry soap.
From the article:
While I'm sure we could postulate some groups that would not be welcome because of their proposed pool activities, I think the word "all" pretty much answers your question.
Would it really be such a bad thing if the public had limited access? The city of Pittsburgh, PA, runs many public pools all summer, free for the welfare kids, paid for by the taxpayers. Oh, and free meals are thrown in also. The total cost of running these "free" pools is put on the city, already close to bankruptcy. If these pools were "pay to swim" places it wouldn't be such a chore to keep them open.
Sure. I would fight for their right to use the pool on a rental basis, just like everybody else.
ditto
So how do we know what Muslims do as they swim? Are they praying while doing the backstroke? Doing that weird yodel thing? Bowing to Mecca?
The Christians were honest enough to say what they would be doing in the pool. Do you know what rituals Muslims practice re. immersing themselves in water? Would they be told they can't pray while using that facility?
Somehow, I don't think so.
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