The sense of entitlement

Everybody is entitled to their opinion and has the right to express that opinion openly. But what they are not entitled to is other people’s conformity to their personal beliefs and practices. So why is it that people continue to make dangerous demands from those around them and refuse to respect policies that prevent special accommodations? Between theists expressing how they are entitled to pray during school hours to pseudo liberals/feminists wanting safe-spaces from events that may send the delicate people into emotional breakdowns – I must say, this is all very triggering for someone like me who has zero tolerance for bull****.

Recently, Webber Academy, a private school in Calgary, Canada was fined $26,000 for preventing two Muslim students from praying during school hours within the campus. The school has a long standing policy that does not grant permission to any religious groups to pray on the campus property – which can be said for all public schools and [non-religious] private schools. Many pseudo liberals foaming with outrage asked why discriminate these two Muslim students? So I suggested to one of them to first look up the word “discriminate” in the dictionary. The policy in place that prevented the Muslim students from praying wasn’t just against Islamic prayer – it was a policy that denied all religious groups from prayer – but that didn’t stop the clowns from clattering on about “discrimination” and “Islamophobia”.

Why do people have trouble acknowledging the dangers of accommodating religion in non-religious environments? Many can understand – and probably that’s why everybody else respected the policy and not demanded special privileges. When it comes to Western pseudo liberalism – we all know how the entire world is supposed to dismantle secularism and neutral policies just to appease/accommodate Muslims because anything short of that is simply “Islamophobic”.

People are preoccupied with incapacitating levels of narcissism that they will create a monster out of the most appropriate of policies. If just two Muslim students are granted special privileges to exercise religion in non-religious schools – will it just end there? Do people really think worshippers of other religions will not be compelled to demand their child too have the same rights – and to what degree are teachers and school authorities supposed to be burdened with such task? Who will supervise these students and how will they prevent the inevitable religious hostility that will turn a neutral, safe ground into that of violence and hate? All religions, by the behaviour of adherents, have been proven incompatible with coexistence – only thing preventing a frenzy of religious tension are the policies that deny all religious groups from displaying their religious practices on school ground – and yet, selfish individuals want to invite the devil itself to a facility occupied by hundreds of children.

An element to Islamic prayer that actually violates Canadian human rights policies would be gender segregation – which is precisely the headline that made news back in 2011 regarding the Valley Park Middle School. Racism of lowered expectations struck and suddenly gender-apartheid was fine and dandy in Canadian society. Apparently, since it was “religion” that demanded the sexist practice of females sitting behind males, it can be accommodated and girls can be dehumanized as inferior to boys. If a group of white children were the ones subjected to such abuse – white liberal Canadians would have immediately ended the practice – alas, the students were brown, so of course it wasn’t troubling at all! Canadian girls can be discriminated and subjected to gender-based abuse as long as they are brown and Muslim – that’s a great campaign slogan – how many politicians wants this on their ad?

If there is no religious exemption for any religious groups – then why do Muslims constantly demand policies bend to accommodate them? Muslims and their “allies” are infuriated when told to abide by the same policies that keep every other religious group from disrespecting non-religious spaces as their own personal property. Non-religious schools exist for a simple reason – and that is for safety – you must reform your attitude and respect the fact that people cannot be forced to accept your fascist demands to exercise gender abuse and practices that invoke religious hostility.

 

You have the right to practice your religion, but you cannot prepare to imprison others inside your will and then complain when told to grow up.

As if the religious portion of entitlement wasn’t hellish enough – we have the champions of identity politics positioning themselves as hurdles for common sense to jump over, and hopefully, not trip – otherwise common sense is labeled racist and oppressive!

Here’s a Huffington Post article arguing that ethnic minorities require a “safe space” from “white people” which pretty much demands racial segregation because “being white” apparently automatically equates gross, racist and oppressive – hardly racist, right?! You can’t critically approach these demands without being locked into a room full of insidious bigotry.

It wasn’t surprising when I came across another laughable “anti-racism” platform that literally claimed if you’re white and male, you cannot participate in the event, stating that it was a “BME” only event. I was rather confused by what “BME” represented until I further read the article and it explained the acronym represents “Black & Minority Ethnic”. In other words – an event was created to discuss racism, but only blacks and ethnic minorities can participate [another demand for gender segregation]. If the tables were turned, and whites did this – we’d all be weeping and wailing about “racism” and “intolerance” – alas, the target of discrimination were whites, and therefore, it’s deemed they have no soul and it isn’t actually “racist” to segregate them, right?    

As an ethnic minority who survived a genocide in Sri Lanka, I must say, this blatant display of racism triggers my sense of terror fleeing a war torn country as a child only to have it dismissed and belittled because apparently, I need safe space from white people – not the people with the same skin complexion that persecuted me and my family, along with hundreds of thousands of other Tamils for being part of a different racial identity. The sentiments these “BME” and “ethnic minority”—only groups provoke is hardly anti-racist. If melanin levels are being used to prescribe reasoning on segregation, acceptance and participation – that is the epitome of racism. To flaunt this repelling attitude in a learning institution such as a university is even more appalling to the senses of humanism.

If you utilize racist sentiments to express how you are victimized by racism – you are no better than the people you’re accusing of racism – it’s that simple. Pseudo liberalism has given birth to a new age of racism that perpetuates racist bigotry that is ultimately based on imaginary identities. If melanin levels provoke hatred in you or make you feel oppressed – your stupidity triggers those who want to establish societal progress.

The moral hypocrisy doesn’t end with this new age of racism either – here we have a Bollywood actress by the name of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan modeling a brand in a picture that romanticizes the enslavement of Africans. And yet, it has prompted very little outrage from the black and ethnic minority in the West. We live in the 21st century, and yet, we have people selling products by enshrining slavery. It’s being celebrated by the same race of people who complain about racism in the West – so where is your outrage BMEers? Where are your pitchforks and demands for a “safe space” from such racism by the very group you defend?

Or what about these young black men using slavery for throwing explicit racist comments at random white people who walked by? They fat-shamed white women and promoted rape and homophobia on the street – and after you watch this – please tell me how this isn’t vile, homophobic, misogynistic and racist? I don’t hear the BME groups denouncing these men when they are practically the black version of the Westboro Baptist Church and are anti-white, anti-LGBTQ and misogynistic. Do you not want remove yourself from identity politics that gladly portrays men like this as “revolutionaries” and the people they taunted with racism and rape threats as “tyrants” just because they were “white”…? These men believe that slavery of their ancestors entitles them to behave like the savages who enslaved their ancestors – how ironic is that? Taking pride in colour, regardless of how much or how little, is like taking pride in cancer.

The narcissism is so overwhelming that I can’t even use a sincere approach. I’m compelled to be more satirical about your hypocrisy and contradiction than empathize with your “cause”. You have the right to express objection but you are not entitled to silence people from pursuing discourse on anything, regardless of their race, colour, religion, culture, nationality, etc. Acknowledging facts alone does not precipitate logic in everything you say and do – it’s nonsensical to utilize what was done to you to limit other people’s rights by discriminating them – your suffering does not entitle you to abuse others under the banner of victimhood. Endorsing restriction on people because of their colour and gender is primitive nonsense that boils everyone into a frenzy of triggers and we’ll get absolutely nothing done.

Extreme injustice results in extreme aggression in the demand for justice – I get it. But what the world needs is another Selma to Montgomery – not a different sense of cross burning and racial segregation. Champion the unity uttered by Martin Luther King – not decimate it with narcissism. So if you want to be a revolutionary – judge a person by the content of their character instead of their skin colour. This means you don’t appease someone based on their skin colour, religion and/or gender either – you value them by how and why they do what they do instead of how they look, dress, and physically appeal to you. In essence – stop being a jackass.

Aki Muthali is a freelance writer, who's a feminist. Born and raised in Sri Lanka, she currently lives in Canada. She’s also an illustrator and a painter. Follow her on Twitter 

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt