poppies a faith symbol?

Hmm. Chatting to the Hatfield Chaplain, before the Bishop's lecture the other evening, he noticed someone wearing a white poppy. I like white poppies, he said. You don't see them very often. Indeed. Interesting - and slightly provocative - article here. I've been following the wearing of religious symbols debate since Jack Straw said muslim women shouldn't wear full veils, and Fiona Bruce was banned from wearing a cross around her neck while reading the news. Personally, I don't approve of the full veil. When we talk to tutees about eg interview techniques, we point out you have a maximum of 4 seconds to make an impressions, and about body language and eye contact etc etc. How many more clues about how someone feels and what they are really saying is not in the words, but in the eyes and the rest of the face. In many facets of society, I think being able to see properly who you are talking to makes a world of difference. I for one, after hearing problems as a child, lipread as much as I listen. I can't eye-read. I think it's very difficult to have an open relationship with someone who is essentially hiding from you. I have no problem with normal veils, just as I don't worry about quakers or nuns wearing veils. It doesn't stop me truly communicating with them. I don't object to true islam. I don't, sadly, think that islamic women here or abroad have the kind of freedom that I do (not that female oppression only occurs within islam), and I don't think I would be happy if they were entirely forced to drop their religion to live here. But I do think - as a think tank at the BBC admitted - that we have one rule for us and one rule for them. If I go to an islamic country, I have to wear a veil, and act within the confines of their country. Well, frankly, if you won't let me dress and act the way my culture consider acceptable, then why should we let you? But the do-gooders are intent that we do. Presumably one must argue that this is cultural, not faith-based. Otherwise how can we object to Fiona Bruce's modest cross? Because that is not cultural, but faith-based? Is it? She might just think it an attractive necklace. British Airways is as bad. They've suspended a British worker for wearing a cross, but don't stop their muslim employees from wearing whatever they want. I wear a cross. A lot. Not always, but very often. I have several. Some are decorative. My usual one is relatively small, and I suppose I think not in your face, although I guess because it picks up the light it's possibly more noticeable to people I'm talking to than I think it is. I don't imagine I'd wear it in an islamic country. I suppose I might not wear it to visit a synagogue, if I felt that it might cause offence. But I think if I were visiting a synagogue I'd be there ecumenically, not impressing on them some radical statement about christianity. I suppose I would judge on merit. But I should be very annoyed if I were ever told explicitly to take it off. But now it's interesting to read that John Snow refuses to wear a poppy on air. That it is a 'symbol' of something. Of something pretty huge, I'd say, though I can appreciate his point about if he wears a poppy then he should wear a red ribbon on AIDS day etc etc. Must be a very fluid line that wanders along this 'symbol' dimension. Will Fiona Bruce wear a poppy? Would it be ok, or expected, for a female muslim  newsreader who the BBC would allow to wear a full veil to wear a poppy? Would this be because the poppy for most people signifies the world wars in which, despite them being 'world' wars, we were essentially fighting eachother. Would we even be allowed to begin a tradition of poppies in this day and age where our wars are as much - if not more - wars not simply against terror, but of the 'christian' west against islamic states? Then I bet the BBC wouldn't let people wear a poppy. It would be deemed offensive to muslims, as it would somehow commemorate the victories over islam. Except of course that poppies don't commemorate any victory, only the loss of so very many men and women in so very many wars. But then again, judging by our loss of soldiers in Iraq, I'm almost surprised eg the BNP hasn't objected and they and fundmentalist supporters of insurgency don't consider the poppy a blatant symbol of the bloodshed of our young men in Iraq in an illegal war. If opinions like that surfaced, would the BBC do a volte-face and ban wearing them?? 

How do I reconcile wanting to be able to wear my cross, as sikhs can wear their turbans and muslim women their veils, but not let muslim women wear full veils?There was similar outrage when France tried to stop schoolgirls wearing veils. All the muslim women I know don't wear a full veil. I don't think I object to full veils on religious grounds, I think I dislike them on social and cultural grounds. I think mutlicultural harmony can better be achieved by interacting with eachother (however disrespectful it seems that I want to interact with them on my terms), and personally, I want to be able to see the facial expressions of the person I'm talking to. And I can't help but not be totally convinced by fully-veiled independant intellectual women telling me that they choose to wear the veil so they aren't judged by what they look like but for who they are. I have to judge on what they look like, though not in the way they mean, because I can't get through the wall of the veil to find out who they are. And such a wall seems to so often go hand in hand with it being a wall behind which is hidden much oppression. And if you're a beaten wife you're a beaten wife whether you are muslim, christian or atheist. Though if we're talking social and cultural, I love this comment on religious expression by considering whether it's offensive to wear a wedding ring round single people...

My internal struggle for reconciliation over 'symbols of faith' goes on. But I wear my poppy with pride.

tags: discussion