(Posted by Hube)

The city has stuck to their guns and said "no" to a Muslim request for "private time" at a city pool:

A group of Somali women have asked Portland Parks and Recreation to accommodate their Muslim faith by allowing an after-hours, women-only swim time at a city pool to be staffed only by female lifeguards.

The cityÂ’s response?

No way. Anti-discrimination employment law wonÂ’t allow it, Deputy City Attorney Lory Kraut wrote in an 11-page memo to the parks bureau June 23.

Ah, but the executive director of the local Center for Intercultural Organizing says "Portland should be flexible" and that it will "exclude" the Muslim community if it doesn't accommodate it.

Y'know what? Too bad. The Muslim community has to be accommodating too -- to their (in this case) new adopted homeland (the women are Somali). And this means recognizing that public facilities have to be religiously neutral.

One of the Somali women suggested renting the pool after hours as an accommodation. (It isn't clear from the article if this was the initial suggestion -- renting the pool -- or not.) The city still has said "no;" however, I don't see a problem with this. Where I live, religious groups (usually Christian) routinely rent [public] school auditoriums for services and other events on weekends, which, like the Portland pool situation, is after normal operating hours (obviously).

For traditionally liberal enclaves like Portland, situations like this must really pose a conundrum. They're reflexively hostile to religion, but at the same time, they're ridiculously PC when it comes to religious (and other) minorities.

Stay tuned.

Posted by: Hube at 06:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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