Two Culture War Links

I'm working on a longer post on the recently vetoed Arizona religious freedoms bill, but time has been a scarce resource for me this week. However, here are some comments about the propaganda surrounding (and against) the bill.

Meanwhile, in Canada, there's this.:

Barbers in Toronto who refused to cut a woman’s hair have become the target of a human rights complaint, in a case that pits religious freedom against gender equality.

When Faith McGregor went into the Terminal Barber Shop requesting a short haircut, she was told the shop only grooms men.

The reason, co-owner Omar Mahrouk said, was that as a Muslim he could not cut the hair of a woman who was not related to him.

But for McGregor, the rejection of her patronage amounted to sexism.

“Fundamentally, my hair is the same as their male clients, so why would they have a problem with that,” she told CTV News.

“I felt like a second class citizen, like it was hard to hear that they refused and there was no discussion."

So the 35-year-old filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
Under the law, business owners aren’t supposed to discriminate based on gender, but Mahrouk felt he had religious rights.

It is rather clearly a precept of his religion to not cut the woman's hair, and in a saner society she wouldn't have a leg to stand on. I may disagree with the precept (and the religion), but in this case there is clearly no harm being done, and the state does not have any particularly compelling interest to force practicing Muslims to violate their religious beliefs in this way. I also haven't a clue as to what the woman's being a lesbian has to do with anything.

Stay tuned...