Religious Rights or Secular Space?

It’s a pretty incendiary title, alright, but the issue is one that has to be engaged one way or another, and not just swept under the carpet, hoping it’ll never happen to us: taking our religious lives into public space.

De Maitre showed me this article a few days ago, about two separate, but related issues. The first was on this French Muslim lady who was refused entry into a public swimming pool wearing a “burkini” (which is like a swimsuit covering one from face to ankle). The second issue was that some of the UK’s public swimming pools are starting to impose Muslim dress codes and “Muslim-only” swimming sessions.

Well, I’m not going to talk about the swimming here. What I am going to talk about is the related issue that spring out of these cases:

Individual rights or not?

Personally, it’s everyone’s, and anyone’s right to lead a religious life, if one so wishes to do so. But the issue is, there are bound to be situations where secular systems prevail, especially in a secular, multi-racial and multi-religious society.

Take for example the (in)famous tudung (headscarf) incidents a few years back. A few Malay parents insisted on letting their children wear the headscarf to government schools, despite such action being against the schools’ dress codes.

When I first heard of the incident, the first thing that came to my mind was “what’s the problem? Why so persistent?” It’s understandable to want to follow a religious life, but I thought the parents were missing two important points.

First, they wanted their children to have a good education. But to do so, they have to respect the institution of the school. The school has rules that are to be respected, and these rules are meant to provide the conditions for constructive education under a multi-racial and religious setting.

Second, a religious life isn’t simply one’s form of dress, it’s about internalising the values that underpin the religion.

It’s the right of the parents to want a religious life, but what about the right of the children to a good education? If the two come into conflict, which is more important? The wiser parent would know. Ultimately, it begs the question, if they so desire a good religious upbringing for their children, why reject the madrasas (religious schools)? If they want a mainstream school, why reject its rules?

It’s ultimately the children who pay the price for the religiosity of the parents.
To return to the question, is it an individual right? Well, arguably yes. The person does have a right to lead a religious life. But it must not be at the detriment of others in the community, who may not share the same ideas. And as I have mentioned, one may lose some of his/her own rights in the process.