In rejecting the right of religious minorities to employment within An Garda Siochana, the force’s “diversity champion”, Garda chief administrative officer John Leamy firmly believes, “Part of becoming a member of An Garda Síochána is that you leave your own personal beliefs outside…” It seems irony is lost on our boys in blue. Apparently our ’secularized’ society has no problems imposing its own set of ‘personal beliefs’ upon religious minorities.
Trivializing religious conviction that informs every aspect of a person’s being as a ‘personal belief’ is not only insulting it is positively discriminatory when used as a pretext to exclude. Religion is more socially defined than simply ‘personal convictions’ and its social and political force should not be underestimated.
An Garda Siochana’s discriminatory exclusion of religious minorities is deplorable, in the words of Dr Puri, “Certain communities are being denied a fundamental right of equal employment. If you do not recruit from one community, you are falling short of your commitment to diversity.”
Related posts:
- Atheist Ireland’s Vision for Ireland – Not Good News for the Religious
- Garda Uniform Policy – Discriminatory and Exclusionist
- Religious Discrimination in Ireland – Muddy Waters
- Blasphemy law is a Necessary, Rational and Just Response to Secularist Bullies
- Religious Discrimination Black Spots in Europe: A Mask Removed
الثلاثاء 07 ذو الحجة 1430 at 3:07 pm
The same rule applies to all, therefore no discrimination
الثلاثاء 07 ذو الحجة 1430 at 4:36 pm
Let me help you Ross:
Hope that clears it up for you.
الثلاثاء 07 ذو الحجة 1430 at 4:42 pm
Great post Muj – there’s simply no hiding their discrimination.
الثلاثاء 07 ذو الحجة 1430 at 4:56 pm
A uniform is a uniform, if you have ridiculous beliefs that your god makes you cover the head that he gave you (which is actually explicitly mentioned in the koran) it’s not the Gardai’s job to cater to your needs. The Gardai couldn’t be seen to be promoting the birth of children with ricketts.
الثلاثاء 07 ذو الحجة 1430 at 4:57 pm
Sorry I meant to say isn’t actually explicitly mentioned in the koran
الثلاثاء 07 ذو الحجة 1430 at 9:22 pm
Ross, are you aware that over half of a group of otherwise healthy individuals in Dublin (51%) had vitamin D insufficiency; and that this was more pronounced in wintertime, with prevalence rising to 58%. By all accounts there appears to be a high prevalence of Vit. D deficiency among Irish adults. Would you like to reconsider your statement above?
الثلاثاء 07 ذو الحجة 1430 at 9:36 pm
what has that got to do with the fact that women in islamic countries are more likely to be less healthy because of islam (not talking only about vitamins here of course, but fun things such as rape, illiteracy, basic rights, those type of things).
Islam is pathetic.
الثلاثاء 07 ذو الحجة 1430 at 10:47 pm
Dr Munira are you aware that there is a higher prevalence of ricketts in children among islamic then elsewhere?? Are you aware that covering your head and body is unnatural?
الأربعاء 08 ذو الحجة 1430 at 12:18 pm
Ross, we’re speaking about Ireland not elsewhere. Your point wasn’t to do with any other country, it was a specific reference to the gardai and Ireland.
الأربعاء 08 ذو الحجة 1430 at 12:50 pm
Every non-Irish Muslim should be deported and every Irish Muslim should seek mental help.
الأربعاء 08 ذو الحجة 1430 at 1:52 pm
And my point was that the Gardai shouldn’t be seen to be supporting the cruelty to children due to ridiculous and clearly unnatural dress code requirements
الأربعاء 08 ذو الحجة 1430 at 10:11 pm
I would have thought any dress code requirement would be ‘unnatural’ Ross. When you are supporting is the Gardai’s cultural interpretation of what is considered acceptable – and that would be OK if we were a homogeneous society, but we’re not. As it stands the current uniform excludes and is indirectly discriminatory.
الخميس 09 ذو الحجة 1430 at 12:22 am
The reason humans wear clothes and began wearing them was to keep warm – wearing clothes is natural. Covering yourself from head to toe in order to make sure no flesh is shown is unnatural.
الخميس 09 ذو الحجة 1430 at 12:23 am
All you have to do is talk to any body language expert and they’ll tell you how unnatural islamic dress is. Is there more evidence supporting body language than allah?? Yes, so I trust the experts.
الخميس 09 ذو الحجة 1430 at 12:41 pm
Ross mate you should’ve quit some time back – your argument has lost any semblance of a point.
الخميس 09 ذو الحجة 1430 at 2:41 pm
If you can’t keep up with the point you must be an idiot. Let me explain. The Gardai shouldn’t support the unnatural covering of the body by muslims, I then explained why it is unnatural – not too hard to keep up with.
الخميس 09 ذو الحجة 1430 at 8:47 pm
There’s no must be about it Ross. His brain is in his colon.
الجمعة 10 ذو الحجة 1430 at 7:50 am
Salam Alakium,
I don’t really see this as much of an issue for Muslims as I do not think any Muslim should by joining such a force which is there to uphold and enforce man made laws which are in many cases completely contrary to the Law of Allah.
الجمعة 10 ذو الحجة 1430 at 10:31 pm
You don’t deserve the support of the Gardai then Khalid. What a childish way to look at things
السبت 11 ذو الحجة 1430 at 2:08 am
The Hypocrisy of the Irony
If anyone has taken any time to read the rest of the articles on this site the stark hypocrisy is amazing in light of this article. It is also stark respective to the vesitges of Dhimmi laws endemic throughout the Islamic world. Do we in the West prohibit dawa, building/reparing mosques, or open displays of faith. No?and even non Muslims would be aghast if it ever came to be. Yet in every Islamic state they have laws that specifically target and prohibit religious minorities. Try doing any missonary work in an Islamic state–you’ll most likely be imprisoned if not outright killed. In the Maldives and Saudia Arabia you cannot be a citizen unless your Muslim. Bibles if found in many Islamic states are burned–just imagine if we burned a Quran in the West!! In Pakistan the Law of Equivalents states it takes the testimony of 4 Christians to equal the testimony of one Muslim male. Yet Islamophobia and discrmination of Muslims in the West in the worlds greatest problem if you would believe the OIC. I would encourage readers here to compare the “discrimination” against Muslims in the West vs non Muslims in Islamic states. A good start is to review the OIC report on Islamophobia and the human rights reports on any number of Islamic states. What you will find is harrasment followed by large financial settlement in the West vs death, church torched, and charges against the non muslim victim(review the death of 9 christians burned alive in Pakistan for some background.) Literally a day does not go by when we don’t here about some religious minority killed or church bombed/destroyed somewhere in the Islamic world! How many Muslims get killed by fanatic Christians in any western state? Do you here of weekly stories of Mosques burnt to the ground in the West? No on both because unlike many Muslims we believe in true freedom of religion and regard them as equals.
The problem is Islamic scripture clearly places a negative predisposition on the non Muslim(many of the articles here reflect that.) When are Muslims ever going to realize if they want respect they have to treat our coreligionists with the same respect they want! It is just so ironic Muslims bleet on about discrimination yet if allowed to rule all us non Muslims we would be reduced to second class citizens overnight! I don’t know but maybe we should implement a Christian version of Sharia with all its draconian practices and let Muslims see their own laws at work against them! Yeah Isalm is the religion of peace, tolerance, and mercy but don’t miss the small print–you must submit!
السبت 11 ذو الحجة 1430 at 4:50 am
Childish in what way?
I don’t want their support and never did, even before I was Muslim.
السبت 11 ذو الحجة 1430 at 11:43 am
Tee hee. Fundies say the darndest things Abu
السبت 11 ذو الحجة 1430 at 2:24 pm
Salams AK:
It’s more the principle than anything else Abu Khalid. In a country that dares to promote itself as democratic and based on equality then glaring inequalities must be addressed. I don’t accept that keeping law and order is necessarily a man-made idea, and where distinctions exist between what Allah ordains and what man desires I’m sure Muslims can adequately argue their point.
السبت 11 ذو الحجة 1430 at 2:47 pm
Bill said: “Do we in the West prohibit dawa, building/reparing mosques, or open displays of faith. No?” You might try watching the news sometime Bill, very informative it is. But in case you don’t have the time here’s some reading for you:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/25/AR2009112503892.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1a60a1f6-d898-11de-b63a-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2009/11/23/four-arrested-in-protest-against-mosques-in-wrexham-55578-25228522/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/6556300/Nicolas-Sarkozy-pushes-for-burqa-ban-in-France.html
In fact there are so many examples of dawa being stopped, mosques buildings being prevented and moves for hijab bans that it leads one to conclude that your are either extremely ignorant or have chosen duplicity in your response.
السبت 11 ذو الحجة 1430 at 8:02 pm
Ah so you’re obviously one of these scumbags Khalid who is too mad for the pigs, badly educated no doubt, hence why you became a muslim. How is a normal society expected to function without a police force??
الأحد 12 ذو الحجة 1430 at 7:41 pm
Mujaahid,
Thank you for your reply. I am not ignorant of the protests or even attacks against the Islamic way of life in the West. However, you fail to grasp my point but the articles you highlighted(which I read)actually reinforce my point. You cite protests and the Hijab ban(which I think is wrong being from the States) yet fail to note the disparity in quantity and harshness the other way around. I am not going to list articles because you can just go read the human rights reports for any number of Islamic states or just google the subject and find literally thousands of articles. As I stated we do not have laws banning mosques or dawa in the West yet this is the reality for religious minorities in the Islamic world. Can you imagine if the UK passed a law saying it takes four Muslims males to equal the testimony of one male Christian? It would be outrage yet this is the law for non Muslims in Pakistan and several other states have similiar ones. Where on earth did they get the idea for this? Answer the Quran, Hadith, Sira, and Sharia law. For God’s sake slavery is tecnically still legal under Sharia. Why is alright for non Muslims to convert to Islam yet by all four schools of Sunni jurisprudence they say it is death for a Muslim to convert to another religion(Personally I think Sharia got this wrong because the Quran is quite clear it is up to God–sort of my whole beef about an over reliance on Hadith in light of the fact it at times contradicts the Quran.)
While we are not perfect in the West we follow a golden rule that all are equal. Islam only recongnizes this golden rule when one submits and this is my beef with Islam. Everything is conditional on this submission and until one does he or she is essentially second class in the eyes of Islam. It is why the OIC would not endorse the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but created their own the Cario one. It clearly says their is no freedom of religion and Sharia is the basis for all of it. Why must this be the case? Why can Muslims morally argue to retake Spain yet it was wrong that they were conqured elsewhere(ie Palestine.) This double standard of believer vs non believer is rife through out Islamic scripture because as I see it Islam does not recognize any other truth than its own.
We are seeing a resurgence of the Islamic faith but in response we are also seeing a resurgence of the right throughout the West. I don’t want conflict but they way it is heading we will mostly likely see more of a clash. We in the West need to clean up our act(ie the war in Iran, foreign policy, and blind support of Israel) but the Islamic world needs to correct the gross inequity it places on non believers. The Islamic world needs to recognize some of their issues are of their own making at not always at the hand of the West or those “evil” jews. As a side note last year I was walking home in Chicago when I passed a Mosque and saw a drunk idiot about to throw a stone through the one of its windows. I didn’t just pass by but stopped it and ended up getting in a fight with three drunks. I trully see all Muslims as equals when are they going to view me the same way.
Thx
Bill
الأحد 12 ذو الحجة 1430 at 7:45 pm
Mujaahid, I don’t hide behind names nor, despite the perceived harshness of my comments, wish any Muslim ill. My effort is to hopefully open eyes so we can simply get along. Happy Eid!
Thx
Bill
الأحد 12 ذو الحجة 1430 at 8:09 pm
William,
We don’t publish emails, but thank you for your clarification. I suspect if we were all to meet it would be an extremely friendly engagement devoid of all the ambiguity that internet discussions can often generate. I suspect most Muslims like your good self simply want to be treated the same as everyone else. It’s a shame that people must highlight differences and use that as a criterion for respect and civility.
الخميس 17 ذو الحجة 1430 at 11:29 pm
Admin
Thank you for your comments. As I stated while I offer critique, at times harsh, my purpose is to bridge the gap between the two. All faiths have something to teach each other and it is about time we stop the we vs them attitude. Happy Eid!
Thx
Bill
الثلاثاء 07 محرم 1431 at 8:25 pm
The opening piece is not clearly exact as to what aspect of Moslem practice the Gardai found problematically brought to the job from outside.
Long historical British and French experience across the Moslem World did not find it difficult to defer to dress fashions, (naval) beards included, and at least in UK there is no problem in preferring minority religous feasts for leave from public service jobs rather than the majority’s feast days. If anything if Moslem gardai take off Eid they will be available on Christmas or Easter to the delight of their RC colleagues.
So is this about some objection to crosses turning up in insignia?
or possible refusal to take orders against another Moslem?
or to swear the oath of loyalty or affirm in stead?
or some other fundamentalist bee the bonnet?