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“I think that it’s incorrect in a college setting to institute a policy in which half of the campus gets wronged or denied a resource that’s supposed to be for everyone,” said student Lucy Caldwell, who also wrote a column in The Harvard Crimson newspaper critical of the new hours. Student Ola Aljawhary, who is Muslim and works out elsewhere on campus but is not one of the women who requested the change, rejected that argument.
“The majority should be willing to compromise,” she said. “I think that’s just basic courtesy. ” “We get special requests from religious groups all the time and we try to honor them whenever possible,” he said, noting that the school has designated spaces for Muslim and Hindu students to pray. The special hours allow the Muslim women, who adhere to traditional dress codes by covering their hair and most of their skin while in public, to dress more appropriately for exercising, said Susan Marine, director of the women’s center.
Is this how we are to assimilate into the Muslim community? Where Muslims are the majority, are they willing to compromise?
I can see these “women hours” being bombarded by male streakers by frats. Hell I would
This is a very bad sign.
Why don’t they just go to the womens gym?
Harvard gym tests Muslim women-only hours and chubby male bloggers go apeshit.
This is not the slippery slope. It’s just an exercise room extending a courtesy.
Either someone should monetize this and make a killing by opening up a new business, or it’s not needed and actually is an annoyance. Should a school shut down the gym system at certain hours for the sake of a small, small population that would actually use this time to exercise?
OFTLO –
Do my eyes deceive me? You’re defending a religious-based policy?
#5. “chubby male bloggers go apeshit.”
Speak for yourself, chubbs.
It’s not Muslim women only, it’s women only.
Where are the men-only hours?
#8 – Funny. But really, they can just go back to the way it was originally, and have separate facilities.
It doesn’t seem fair to extend a certain privilege to women without extending that same privilege to men. I wouldn’t have problem with it if they had men only hours as well. Of course no one would show up…
#5 – This is a slippery slope of the worst kind. This is how it works (for those of you in Rio Linda), begin with something small, seemingly insignificant, like gym hours, and than move on to more items, maybe separate times for eating in restaurants or the type of clothing allowed at the beach. When will we AMERICANS stand up and say “HELL NO!!!!!!” to the Sharia Law spreading this way?! What will it take to wake us up?
This is why we should recognize our sacred and ancient origins. In this case, the gymnasium of Greece where only men were allowed to exercise, and only in the nude.
I would be willing to bend these rules in the name of political correctness and allow the womins to exercise in the nude as well. But in privacy by themselves??? Thats just unnatural.
Welcome to America 2.0 people. With small steps here and there, the America you once knew and were accustomed to is changing. And guess what, us Christians, and it’s denominations, better start moving over and allow the religion of peace, bent on world domination, take charge. It’s bound to happen. Why? Simple fear of every American here: to be called racist and insensitive. It’s how your America (well and mine too since I’m naturalized) will be taken away from us. So get used to it!!!
Answer to #6, best post. Exactly what I thought. But it wouldn’t surprise me if these are just activist trying to expose America’s “insensitivity” torwards other religions. Of course, what completely elludes me here is why couldn’t they just split the gym up to be girls on one side and boys in another with a big ass wall in between? Why is it that a religious group must get special priviliges in a school that gets Federal funding? Where is the separation of church and state cry babies in this case? But I bet you that had this been a group of Christian women then Harvard and the ACLU would’ve been all over the place.
#7 – #5. “chubby male bloggers go apeshit.”
Speak for yourself, chubbs.
Unless you are going apeshit – you aren’t effected by my (very minor) slam.
Harvard turns down applicants with perfect SAT scores on a routine basis. Most people bitching about this non-issue are in no danger of ever being denied access to the gym because they ain’t ever getting into Harvard anyway.
As for the legions shouting because Muslims are getting “special treatment”, they should, not to put too fine a point on it, shut the fuck up. Christians get special treatment all day every day and they don’t bitch about that.
#5 said: This is not the slippery slope.
Actually it is closer to a cliff. This is just another example of bend-over appeasement.
We’re are already faced with
* Muslim taxi cab drivers refusing to pick up customers with duty-free wine at the International Airport in Minneapolis.
* Huge Muslim Prayer Tower in St Louis
* Muslim cashiers at Target stores refusing to bar code any food with bacon, including frozen pepperoni pizzas.
* Politicians in West Midlands UK banned piggy banks, novelty pig calendars, and even a tissue box featuring Winnie the Pooh and piglet in all municipal offices.
* In Derby England, a 5 million pound restoration project of the city’s Arboretum Park was canceled due to the rebuilding of the Florentine Boar statue which stood in the park from 1840 to 1942 when a German bomb destroyed it. The officials said they feared offending Muslims, whose religion considers pigs to be unclean.
* Burger King had to redesign their ice cream cone lid because if you looked at it sideways, it resembled the word Mohammed in the arabic language.
* The Muslim-owned Rising Star Inc. in Orlando, Florida fired an employee for eating a BLT during her lunch break.
* Bell Helicopter withdrew it’s ad for the Team Osprey Helicopter when CAIR complained about a mosque in the background.
* And don’t get me started on the cartoon issue.
Slippery slope? I don’t think so. There are hundreds of these stories.
Wait, let’s look at this once more: Muslim Women Only hours. So, it’s not just women in general only then but Muslim Women only? Why not also add a Baptist women only time as well? Or Budhist women only? Or Jewish women? What about Hindi women do they not deserve the same respect? Athiest women being dissed by not getting specials hours too? And if they’re going this far then they might as well have one for that most hated by leftist instituion of learning group: Christian/Catholic women.
As for #12, Christians getting special treatment? You gotta be kidding me right? Christians have become the most hated group in this country, well, hated by the left and liberals that is. Besides, what was that holiday we just had? Friendship day? Wasn’t it called Saint Valentines day? Then it became Valentines day, then V day, now Friendship day or whatever it is Christian haters want to call it. Don’t get me started on Christmas either.
I’m sure if you were to look at every influential Muslim leaders long term goal you would see Sharia Law practiced everywhere. The progressive groups in this country won’t realize what they’ve done until it’s too late and they’re not allowed to “progress” anymore.
#10 David “I wouldn’t have problem with it if they had men only hours as well. Of course no one would show up…
Well, I would, Dallas would, Angel Wong would….
Haven’t Muslims ever heard of the ancient wisdom of “not pushing your luck”?
#18–apeguero===how do you get “hate” out of good folks who simply think you and all religious types are walking nut bags?
Thats not hate. Hate is the reaction to having my freedoms interfered with/restricted by religious nut bags because YOU believe not making everyone else behave as you wish is a hate crime.
So–let me abort my unwanted bastards and drink to excess in public and not have to pray to jesus in a group hug and we will get along.
#20, bobbo means sucker or idiot in Spanish which is exactly what you are. For the record, I’m agnostic. Did you actually read my full comment or only focus on my claim that Christianity is the most hated religious group by the left or liberals? Did I push some buttons there “bobbo”?
This whole act by Harvard is beyond absurd. They are giving special privilidges to not only a particular sex but also to a particular sex of a particular religious group. It’s beyond offensive. It’d be a real bitch to pay the excessive tuition in that school to then be banned from using a common area becaue of this. It’s an act full of exclusivity which is the complete opposite of what that school and the likes have tried to breave down our throats for the past 40 years. Most of which I have agreed with but this is over the top and I hope won’t be signs of things to come but I’m afraid it’s alrady started.
Nothing gets me harder than a woman with a bag over her head.
#13 – #5 said: This is not the slippery slope.
Actually it is closer to a cliff. This is just another example of bend-over appeasement.
We’re are already faced with:
Who is faced with this? We? Who is we? I live in Indianapolis, the 13th largest city in the US and while I face Fundy Xian issues from time to time, I have yet to face a Muslim issue.
And most Muslim issues are the result of the guy with the issue just irrationally hating Muslims.
* Muslim taxi cab drivers refusing to pick up customers with duty-free wine at the International Airport in Minneapolis.
Wow… Is that still an issue? Was it Muslim cab drivers en mass or was it one or a few isolated cabbies? And what is it to you? I drove a cab for three years and I denied passage to a variety of people.
* Huge Muslim Prayer Tower in St Louis
This is a problem? You can’t lob a softball in an American city without hitting a Xian church, but a tower is now your biggest problem?
* Muslim cashiers at Target stores refusing to bar code any food with bacon, including frozen pepperoni pizzas.
That was one cashier, over a year ago, and it made news ONLY because it played to our anti-Muslim bigotry. I’m sure management worked it out. It’s Target’s issue, not society’s.
* Politicians in West Midlands UK banned piggy banks, novelty pig calendars, and even a tissue box featuring Winnie the Pooh and piglet in all municipal offices.
So the issue isn’t Muslims. The issue is that Politicians in West Midlands UK are idiots.
* In Derby England, a 5 million pound restoration project of the city’s Arboretum Park was canceled due to the rebuilding of the Florentine Boar statue which stood in the park from 1840 to 1942 when a German bomb destroyed it. The officials said they feared offending Muslims, whose religion considers pigs to be unclean.
Again… This sounds like the officials are the problem, not the Muslims.
* Burger King had to redesign their ice cream cone lid because if you looked at it sideways, it resembled the word Mohamed in the arabic language.
I had to Google this…
That’s pretty funny. Yes. Fundy Muslims are primitive and easily offended. Okay… You almost have my sympathy on this one, until I remember it’s the lid of an ice cream cup and I don’t care about Burger King.
* The Muslim-owned Rising Star Inc. in Orlando, Florida fired an employee for eating a BLT during her lunch break.
Is this violation of an employee’s civil rights an isolated incident is is there are rash of employees being fired over food issues?
Instead of claiming that the sky is falling, hire a damned lawyer and nip this problem in the bud.
Do you honestly believe no one has ever been fired from a Christian owned company over violating some BS Christian rule?
* Bell Helicopter withdrew it’s ad for the Team Osprey Helicopter when CAIR complained about a mosque in the background.
Good.
* And don’t get me started on the cartoon issue.
Or me either. But this isn’t that, or anything like that.
Slippery slope? I don’t think so. There are hundreds of these stories.
This story is only a story because the Muslim angle is the interesting angle, but in fact the gym is open to all women, and not just Muslim women… and who gives a fuck?
Women don’t want to be ogled by men when they work out. Okay. Fine.
Will every man on this blog who attends Harvard and can’t get a good workout because of this policy please speak up so we can get a good perspective on this issue.
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You can’t buy alcohol on Sunday in most states. Here in Indiana, for some dumbass reason, you can’t buy a car on a Sunday. These are concessions made to Christianity and they annoy the fuck out of me. But I don’t drink, and if I did, I’d buy alcohol on Saturday so it wouldn’t be a problem.
The point is we accommodate people’s religious bullshit all day and all night every day. Deal with it.
These complaints about ice cream lids and gym hours are bullshit. There are women in the Middle East who are being brutally beaten to death because they were the victim of rape, or because someone could see their ankles or because they can read.
Get some perspective. There are real Islamic problems which are all about the brutality of a minority of Nazi-esque stormtroopers masquerading as clerics co-opting a religion to terrorize a region of the world.
#18 – Muslim Women Only hours. So, it’s not just women in general only then but Muslim Women only?
Except that it is women and not Muslim women. It’s 6 hours a week, out of 70 operating hours, during which time only women (even Jews or atheists or Pagans) can work out. If we really have to have the stupid fight over fairness, then have 6 male only hours and everyone can shut up.
The media reporting is only focusing on Muslim women to rouse the rabble.
Mission, apparently, accomplished.
While the media may be using the Muslim aspect to kick up the dust, the women only thing really gets my goat.
A certain subset of women have spent the last 30 years horning into every possible nook and cranny of society where they were previously excluded under the banner of “equality”. While I agree that there should be no barriers in politics (monsters included), employment, public facilities, I draw the line at private clubs, which a Harvard gym obviously is. It is either open to everyone (well all students and faculty, for example) or it is discriminating. You can’t have it both ways.
If women want to be able to have exclusive use of a private gym, they need to stop pushing their way into male locker rooms, gay bars, “gentlemens clubs” and so forth. If they INSIST on EVERYTHING being mixed, and they have been doing just that for several decades now, then they can’t have the gym to themselves.
PS: Some of my best friends are women. :).
#24 – Hiding your head in the sand or trying to shift the blame won’t solve anything other than maintaining your attempt at politically correct appeasement.
Most cries against “political correctness” should fall on deaf ears. Typically what is really being said is, “I want to talk like a bigot and don’t want anyone to be allowed to call me on my bullshit.” I’m not accusing you of being that guy.
What I’m saying is, yes, there are huge problems… Internationally, locally, with Islam, with us, and the issues are different from each perspective and complex from every perspective. So, we can get mired down in a fight over every perceived slight… Or we can learn to separate the stuff from the stuff.
If a white man went in and asked for anglo-christian male only hours, what would happen?
#31 – If a white man went in and asked for anglo-christian male only hours, what would happen?
I don’t know… But once again… THE MUTHER FUCKING GYM IS NOT CLOSED TO MUTHER FUCKING CHRISTIANS… IT’S JUST CLOSED TO MEN.
JESUS FUCKING MOHAMED… LEARN TO FUCKING READ!
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But even if your race baiting bullshit were valid, it still wouldn’t work. Blacks who follow Christian traditions were converted by European missionaries and so black men would be permitted to use the facilities during Anglo-Christian hours.
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So does all this mean we’ll be seeing ugly naked Muslim women on YouTube soon?
Will Harvard gym test an all Gay Day also?
the story I read said that only 6 women asked for this. And the (female) reporter showed up one day during the designated hours, and guess what? None of the six women were there.
#34. That figures, sign my wife up every year, she goes for two days, Pffft!