Quote:
Originally Posted by Maggy J
I wear glasses to drive because I'm very short sighted.However they could be said to cut down on my peripheral vision..and I choose to wear very large frames..could it be argued that wearing the present fashionable narrow frame glasses cut down even more peripheral vision..and where does one end with the banning of things?
We will be banning flat caps next...  |
I too am short sighted Maggy and need glasses when I'm driving, the difference here is that glasses are an aid to driving not an impediment.
I like to think that on the whole I am a fairly liberal person with a live and let live attitude, and as I have said in a previous post my disdain for the burka is based on its misogynistic overtones, as I believe this garment is a choice many men make for "their" women to wear. I've no doubt that there are some women who do choose to wear this, but for the ones that don't is it right that in a liberal democracy we throw our hands in the air for fear of offending the very vocal minority.
As for the driving argument the small frame example is irrelevant, a persons peripheral vision is not restricted by these glasses so short-sighted or not you'd still have peripheral vision, something you certainly wouldn't have with a full-faced burka or any other headwear that encased your entire head leaving only a slit for vision.
Is it not madness to be arguing whether a person should be free to drive a half-ton hunk of metal down the street potentially being a danger to all, just so as "they" can observe their religion by wearing a garment that obviously hinders vision?
IMO its precisely stories like these that lose the progressives the argument, and credibility, when it comes to everyday moderate mainstream Muslim issues that so many of our hateful tabloids like to exploit.
There is a time when the overall public good comes before an individuals religious right to engage in an activity that is detrimental to the majority.