On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:01:50 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:40:09 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:



One of my doctors is an Iranian immigrant and once, when we had some
time to kill for one reason or another, I asked her why she still wore
the hijab (head scarf) after all these years of living in the US. What
she said was very interesting. She tried to stop wearing the hijab
during med school - to kind of blend in as she put it, but was very
uncomfortable if only because the hijab represented, to her, concepts
of modesty, privacy, and morality at a personal level. She understood
the concept of freedom of choice, but this was a cultural thing - she
explained it this way - even though she is a non-practicing Muslim
(actually she's rather agnostic), married to an American (former
All-American from Brandeis - I didn't dare ask her if he was Jewish),
basically non-religious, the head covering represented something that
she was comfortable with. What she did say, though, which really was
intriguing is that in America, she had the choice to wear it or not -
in Iran, there was no choice. It meant as much to her to have the
choice as it did to actually wear it.

In part, that's what we're fighting - ingrained cultural ethics and
morality in addition to religious fanaticism.

Excellent example. But all that must be changed if we hope to serve
McRibs in Afghanistan or Iran.
Personally, whether I care for a culture or not, I respect it.
Cultures don't happen by accident.

True and all cultures have their ugly side and their beautiful side.
When I think of Islam (generic Islam), I think of mathematics,
navigation, architectural wonders, trade and commerce in addition to
5th Century barbarism, cruelty and that horror of horrors - theocracy.

We have our analogs in Western society also - this isn't an us vs them
kind of comparison. Western society can be as vicious and barbaric as
any seen on the face of the planet - but Western societies at least
try to incorporate the social out riders and/or adjust for them. That
is'nt necessarily so in other societies.