First gays. Then Hispanic immigrants. Now Muslims. Oklahoma lawmakers are at it again.
Oklahoma House members just approved HB 1645, a new bill making it mandatory for religious people to remove their traditional head coverings both while taking driver's license photos and also whenever a law enforcement officer demands it for identification purposes. While it's true that a few people from other religions will be slightly affected, there is no question that Muslims and Sikhs are the true targets of this bill.
The creator of the bill all but admits it. Republican Rep. Rex Duncan says he wrote the legislation after reading about how a Muslim woman from Norman, Oklahoma--Monique Barrett--recieved an apology from the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety when she complained that she was asked to removed her hijab (traditional Islamic head scarf) for her new driver's license photo.
Many Muslim women only reveal their hair to their husbands and male family members, and it is against Barrett's particular brand of Islamic faith to not wear her head scarf in public.
Barrett was issued an apology, and she was allowed to take a new photo with her hijab. The ODPS said it was happy to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and that the organization would educate its employees on religious issues related to dress and photos. As of last year, the employee telling Barrett she had to remove the hijab was in violation of anti-discrimination laws.
How quickly the world takes a turn for the worse. House members approved the legislation 88-8. Duncan tells Micheal McNutt of The Daily Oklahoman, "If we're going to allow people to cover their hair and parts of their face, then it's going to be difficult for the law enforcement folks to confirm who they're actually looking at" ("Groups Oppose Oklahoma Driver's License Photo Bill.")
But that is not true. Barrett--like most Muslim women--was not covering her face, not even part of it. And anyone of any background can change her hair color or wear a wig, so how does showing one's hair help police identify people? Aside from that, there is clearly no widespread problem being addressed here anyway. It is simply a hateful piece of legislation targeting a religious minority.
So how does an anti-Muslim law relate to Jews?
Rajdeep Singh Jolly, legal director for the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, says, "'We also call upon all religious communities, civil rights organizations, and concerned citizens throughout the nation to demand that the government of Oklahoma clarifies its commitment to protecting civil rights in the 21st century."
We as Jews know what discrimination feels like, and our most sacred text reminds us to be kind to the stranger because we were once strangers. Everyone should speak out, but our voice should be the loudest.
2 comments:
The state of Oklahoma sure is a cesspool of idiocy, bigotry and proto-fascism. This legislation – written by the Imperial Wizard himself, Rex Duncan (the same anti-Muslim, and, presumably, anti-Arab Nazi who, when offered the gift of a Qur’an from the Governor’s Ethnic American Advisory Council, said that he objected “to the use of the state Centennial Seal and the state Seal all in an effort to further” and I quote “their religion” and he did so, in part, as he states, because “most Oklahomans do not endorese the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology,” however, discriminating against them, of course, is just fine and dandy) – is simply one in a long line of reactionary and proto-fascist legislation that is manifesting not only in reactionary hotbeds like the vulgarly backwards House of Oklahoma.
As I opened my “Being Muslim is not a Crime” blog post: “There is one issue upon which liberals and conservatives alike appear to be in general consensus, the vilification of Muslims. In a U.S.A Today/Gallup Poll thirty nine percent of Americans admit to “feeling some prejudice against Muslims.” A similar percentage of Americans agreed with requiring Muslims, which would include U.S. citizens, to carry a special ID “as a means of preventing terrorist attacks in the United States.” Twenty two percent stated that they would not feel comfortable with Muslims living in their neighborhood while both liberal and conservative periodicals, such as The Progressive and The FrontPage Magazine, have propagated rhetoric which both agrees with and encourages such views.
I really should not have to point out that these sentiments are strikingly reminiscent of Nazi Germany, the “special ID” being a virtual parallel between the Star of David which Jews were forced to wear. Singling out an entire religious and ethnic group of human beings only by virtue of their belonging to the group is wrong, by definition. The fact that many Americans are openly doing so in modern times is only further evidence that human civilization is yet but a yearling in evolutionary maturation; modern, first world, industrialized society appears to still fervently cling to the religious practice of fashioning a scapegoat upon which to cast its every sin and fear to then be ritually sacrificed thus, as religious theory goes, purging the sins and fears of the society and therefore serving as an act of purification. It seems fairly evident that Muslims have now become the scapegoat of choice for a significant percentage of Americans.”
I am very glad that you wrote this blog post and put it in a proper context, that of wonton discrimination, the solidarity is needed, the consciousness raising is absolutely necessary and strong opposition to such discriminatory, proto-fascist legislation is required.
its always been a trend in the capitalist system to go after a certain group of people and place blame on them for national problems. Governments have no right to tell people how they dress and when especially if it pertains to religious beliefs.
Post a Comment