Quote:
Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce
We are either tolerant of cultural/religious practices, or we are not. We don't get to move the bar to where we see fit.
By definition, the woman is clearly a bigot.
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I'd say that bar is set roughly around the point where those religious beliefs conflict with someone else's personal rights. Not to say that's what this was, as the story is a little more complicated than that.
I'm of the view that just because someone's religious beliefs demand that they treat women as sub-human, that doesn't make it right, and I won't respect that aspect of it at all. In fact, I'll call it what it is... wrong. I don't care that it's what you 'believe' because the fancy book from your religion told you to, it's still wrong IMO. I just don't buy the whole angle of "I'm religious so I have a badge to be sexist and homophobic". I'm all for accommodating religious people where possible (ie staffrooms at work, police wearing turbans, etc) as long as it isn't at someone else's expense.
The guy can have that belief all he wants (that's not my point). It looks like he didn't ask the woman directly to move because he doesn't respect her as a human being, but the airline shouldn't have even got involved. They should've just said: "Oh you don't want to sit next to your perceived 'lesser', well I guess you can start asking people to switch seats if you want but we're not getting involved with this, it's sexist and we won't support that." But he didn't even ask them to get involved, they just did. I think that's why this woman is mad. She's obviously also mad that this guy designates her as less than human, but I think she's mostly offended the airline tried to help facilitate this guy's 14th century thinking at her expense. I think most women would feel offended over this and rightfully so.
If all that makes me a bigot, so be it... I guess I'm a bigot.