Ritual genital cutting kills boy in Italy
https://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2019/...y-in-italy
INTRO: A two-year-old boy has died and his twin brother has been hospitalised after their genitals were cut for religious reasons at a migrant centre in Italy. The boys were circumcised at the request of their mother, who wanted to mark Nigeria's Islamic traditions, according to local media reports. An American man of Libyan origin has been charged with murder.
National Secular Society chief executive Stephen Evans said the death was "a reminder of the risks and harm associated with the ritual circumcision of baby boys". The NSS campaigns for an end to non-consensual, non-therapeutic circumcision. In recent years several other babies' deaths from circumcision have come to public attention....
MORE: https://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2019/...y-in-italy
Dear Nancy Pelosi & the Democrats: A hijab is not a hat
https://religionnews.com/2019/01/03/dear...not-a-hat/
EXCERPT: After Democrats take control of the U.S. House of Representatives today, one of their first agenda items is to change an 1837 rule banning hats on the House floor, in deference to a new Muslim congresswoman who wears religious headwear known as hijab. You might think that as a scholar who has studied Muslim women’s sartorial choices for more than a decade I’d be excited by this news. But I find myself disappointed and uneasy.
Disappointed because Democrats think they need to change a 182-year-old rule in order to accommodate Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s headscarf, a bit of attire that should be automatically protected by the First Amendment.
Uneasy because the premise for their proposal is that a hijab might be reasonably equated with a hat. We have conflated religious expression and fashion too often in the United States, and it must stop. A Muslim woman’s headscarf has literally nothing in common with a hat other than it is on top of her head.
[...] To be fair, Democrats are trying to inoculate against future discrimination against religious minorities. They are worried that the old hat ban could also be used against Sikh men in turbans, Orthodox Jewish men in kippahs and even orthodox Jewish women who wear wigs. While I understand why the amendment is being proposed, I am disappointed it had to happen. [...] Equating a hijab to a hat has dangerous implications beyond Congress....
MORE: https://religionnews.com/2019/01/03/dear...not-a-hat/
https://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2019/...y-in-italy
INTRO: A two-year-old boy has died and his twin brother has been hospitalised after their genitals were cut for religious reasons at a migrant centre in Italy. The boys were circumcised at the request of their mother, who wanted to mark Nigeria's Islamic traditions, according to local media reports. An American man of Libyan origin has been charged with murder.
National Secular Society chief executive Stephen Evans said the death was "a reminder of the risks and harm associated with the ritual circumcision of baby boys". The NSS campaigns for an end to non-consensual, non-therapeutic circumcision. In recent years several other babies' deaths from circumcision have come to public attention....
MORE: https://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2019/...y-in-italy
Dear Nancy Pelosi & the Democrats: A hijab is not a hat
https://religionnews.com/2019/01/03/dear...not-a-hat/
EXCERPT: After Democrats take control of the U.S. House of Representatives today, one of their first agenda items is to change an 1837 rule banning hats on the House floor, in deference to a new Muslim congresswoman who wears religious headwear known as hijab. You might think that as a scholar who has studied Muslim women’s sartorial choices for more than a decade I’d be excited by this news. But I find myself disappointed and uneasy.
Disappointed because Democrats think they need to change a 182-year-old rule in order to accommodate Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s headscarf, a bit of attire that should be automatically protected by the First Amendment.
Uneasy because the premise for their proposal is that a hijab might be reasonably equated with a hat. We have conflated religious expression and fashion too often in the United States, and it must stop. A Muslim woman’s headscarf has literally nothing in common with a hat other than it is on top of her head.
[...] To be fair, Democrats are trying to inoculate against future discrimination against religious minorities. They are worried that the old hat ban could also be used against Sikh men in turbans, Orthodox Jewish men in kippahs and even orthodox Jewish women who wear wigs. While I understand why the amendment is being proposed, I am disappointed it had to happen. [...] Equating a hijab to a hat has dangerous implications beyond Congress....
MORE: https://religionnews.com/2019/01/03/dear...not-a-hat/