Re: beards ..etc.

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:04 AM 9/21/01 -0500, you wrote:
> I noticed that Bush made particularl reference to the Taliban requirements
> that beards must be at least a certain length. Sikhs are not allowed to cut
> any body hair as I understand it. They all have beards don't they? I wonder
> how the Sikhs must feel about such a reference.

Dubya was trying to build up support for a war against Afghanistan. Though
I don't support such a war, you've got to admit that the Taliban is really
disgusting. We have to be very conscious of that.

The Sikhs don't push their beard law using state power the way Taliban
does. I didn't hear the whole of Dubya's speech, but based on the fragments
I did hear, I think it was pretty clear that he was referring to the
state-imposed rule.

>     Religious restrictions particularly upon women are just about as strict
> in Saudi Arabia it would seem as in Afghanistan. I wonder how Bush's
> references to fundamentalist religious practices will  go over there..

He does -- or rather the people who make decisions for him do -- have to be
conscious of that, especially in his previous use of the word "crusade"
(which was withdrawn because it offended the officially-defined "good
Muslims").

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine