Dress Codes and Perception

Yesterday I saw a couple of nuns walking across the campus in full habits. This isn't particularly remarkable given that it's a Catholic university, but it got me thinking (which might be fraught with peril). Whenever I've heard discussions of dress codes and the supposed "tyranny" of certain styles of dress that privilege modesty, it's usually been in the context of oppression. I asked myself if it was a sign of oppression that Catholic nuns go about in habits that obscure all but their faces.

Safe and Respectful Distances

If those behind the Park51 Muslim community center (Cordoba House) project decided to relocate it on Mars, I doubt that it'll make a whit of difference. Most of the opponents of the project aren't concerned about its proximity to "Ground Zero" (that's a convenient excuse), they're incensed that freedom of religion also applies to Muslims in the United States.

In the past few months there's been vocal opposition to mosques and Muslim community centers in Murfreesboro, Tennessee 750 miles from "Ground Zero", Sheboygan, Wisconsin 732 miles from "Ground Zero", Temecula, California 2404 miles from "Ground Zero", Staten Island, New York 10 miles from "Ground Zero" and Florence, KY 575 miles from "Ground Zero".

Communities on both coasts and locations in between are not reacting out of respect for 9/11 families, but out of plain and simple intolerance with a dash of political opportunism thrown in for good measure.