Posted on 02/25/2008 8:19:03 AM PST by white trash redneck
Harvard University has moved to make Muslim women more comfortable in the gym by instituting women-only access times six hours a week to accommodate religious customs that make it difficult for some students to work out in the presence of men.
Men have not been allowed to enter the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center during certain times since Jan. 28, after members of the Harvard Islamic Society and the Harvard Women's Center petitioned the university for a more comfortable environment for women.
Harvard Islamic Society's Islamic Knowledge Committee officer Ola Aljawhary, a junior, said the women-only hours are being tested on a trial basis. The special gym hours will be analyzed over Spring Break to determine if they will continue, she said.
Aljawhary said that she does not believe that the women-only gym hours discriminate against men.
"These hours are necessary because there is a segment of the Harvard female population that is not found in gyms not because they don't want to work out, but because for them working out in a co-ed gym is uncomfortable, awkward or problematic in some way," she said.
Though the policy was in part initiated by the school's Islamic group, Aljawhary said women-only hours are not a case of "minority rights trumping majority preference" and said women of different faiths have showed interest in the hours.
"We live together in one community, it only makes sense for everyone to compromise slightly in order for everyone to live happily," she said. "This matter is simple: Can't we just display basic decency and show tolerance and inclusion for people not a part of the mainstream majority?"
Harvard junior Nick Wells said he believes the women-only hours are inconvenient for the residents that live near the facility and discriminate against men.
"It is unfair to impose a stringent policy that inhibits students from using their own facility in order to further a useless policy that doesn't have any real effect," he said.
"I don't mind that Harvard is trying to give space to women and religious minorities, it's just that it seems that it's not making a real effort," Wells said. "Just one that is impractical and purely symbolic at the cost of people like myself."
Wells lives near the Quad, and said the response to and use of the women-only gym hours so far has been underwhelming.
Harvard freshman Kyle Harasimowicz said women-only gyms have been successful and women-only gym hours fill the same need.
"I guess as long as the time is divvied up fairly, there should be no issue," he said.
Boston University Islamic Society President Mohamed Serageldin said he thinks women-only gym hours would benefit Muslim women at BU.
"Because the FitRec is co-ed, a Muslim woman would most likely be compromising her modesty. He said modesty can be compromised on both the part of the man and the woman when physical action is involved."
BU's Fitness and Recreation Center facilities manager Alex Southall said FitRec's design easily accommodates sectioning off areas for groups.
"It depends on the arrangement with the particular group, so we aren't playing favorites with space, but the FitRec does have the capability to section off for special use," he said.
It is a wonder that white liberal guilt will allow any appeasement of possible jihadist Muslims hidden by their vestments, phoney passports whatever, just to push PC malarky into the faces of Jewish or Christian pupils. Harvard should be ashamed but they won’t be because they and other leftist elites in colleges are the problem not the answer to defeating Islamofascism.
I used to be a John Bircher, and I know the "one world government" line. There are a lot of FReepers that go for it as well, but I don't believe the Western left would dream of asking North Korea or Ethiopia to give up their national sovereignties and merge into a "one world government." Any such "one world government" will probably consist only of the USA, Canada, parts of Europe (exempting the "oppressed" Celts and Basques), and, of course, Israel.
I want to petition the Harvard Islamic Society to make Islam more comfortable for civilized society. Start by eliminating these peaceful gems from the Koran and hadith:
Sura (2:191-193) - "And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution of Muslims is worse than slaughter of non-believers...and fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah."
Sura (5:33) - "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement"
Sura (8:12) - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them"
Bukhari (52:177) - Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."
Tabari 7:97 The morning after the murder of Ashraf, the Prophet declared, "Kill any Jew who falls under your power."
Ibn Ishaq: 327 - “Allah said, ‘A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered enemy is driven from the land. Muhammad, you craved the desires of this world, its goods and the ransom captives would bring. But Allah desires killing them to manifest the religion.’”
cartoons in the gym should solve the problem.
I’m sure all of those who built the Harvard endowment to the tens of billions had just this sort of thing in mind. Harvard never should have gone co-ed. Let Radcliffe be Radcliffe and Harvard be Harvard. Let boys be boys and girls be girls, and let the transgendered go to Cornell, and let the Mos start their own university operated under Sharia conditions.
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Unbelievable.
Not Howard, dude, Harvard.
Do you really think a White Trash Redneck would have been admitted to Howard?
Remember, that us alumni of the University of Chicago consider Harvard a "safety school."
The Turks are right on this issue, although the fool Erdogan wants to change this.
When arab countries allow Christians and Jews to exist as full citizens and to practice their religion fully.
What will they demand next: sharpeners for their machetes and brand new video cams to film the head-slicings so that they can put them on the internet for other bloodthirsty savages?
Don't they say that the U of C is where fun goes to die?
My wife completed a 2 year grad program at the U of C in 2005.
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Then she needs to pull her medieval head out of her fat arse and join the 21st century.
Which is more than can be said for men only.
Do these muzzie women also have male relatives escort them everywhere they go?
Then they’re lying for claiming it’s about their religion. If it really was, they’d be practicing separation everywhere and they’d be following ALL the rules, not just the ones they can sneak in to undermine Western/Christian culture.
Living is a physical action. Their modesty isn't being compromised if they are covered. They can wear their burkas and still work out.
Let them join Curves. There's got to be one near campus, or some enterprising soul can open one for all the profit that could be gained from that. If they're really interested in fitness and not just imposing sharia law.
I’m pretty sure guys can still get in. Just tell them you’re “transgendered.”
It will be interesting when all the little oppressed groups collide, will it not?
I echo that, Clemenza - Harvard is the U of C of the east.
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