Values we cherish - We must be clear about tolerance

EVERY democratically elected government should protect the rights and privileges that give dignity to their state’s citizens and legitimacy to that society’s principles, traditions and values.

In the generally liberal, open societies that have come to define the western world tolerance is one of the cornerstone values, especially as the consequences of intolerance are so very vivid in our memories.

Tolerance is one of the principles that makes it possible for people of opposing views to live together in a functioning and peaceful way. It is the reason that this society recognises and protects relationships and family units not recognised by the church once so dominant that it had great influence in these matters.

That tolerance is often misused and occasionally attacked in murderous ways such as Anders Behring Breivik’s rampage that left nearly 80 people dead in Norway earlier this summer.

So many of the issues surrounding tolerance are seen at their sharpest in the challenges brought by immigration. Some European countries have decided that they need to protect their values by banning dress codes used by some Muslim women because they regard them as expressions of medieval misogyny. They suggest that kind of religious observation is demeaning and abusive to women and is a direct challenge to how the role of women has evolved in the West. Some people wonder why we should allow our idea of tolerance be used to facilitate the imposition of intolerant practices on women married to Muslim men.

As Europe’s Muslim population grows towards 20 million — three million in France alone — these issues have the potential to foster fear, mistrust and exclusion.

The decision by Fine Gael city councillor Joe O’Callaghan, to ask Cork city council to support a motion asking Justice Minister, Alan Shatter, to ban burkas and give gardaí the power to demand that people wearing hoodies remove them is all part of that process.

Mr O’Callaghan’s motion on hoodies is probably provoked by the unrest that caused such shock in England and it will at least make for an interesting debate.

However, hoodies are a passing fad but burkas are an expression of religious belief or, depending on your view, suppression.

It would be easier to turn away and hope these issues will resolve themselves but they will not, they must be debated and a conclusion, or at least a position reached.

If we are, say, to ban Muslim girls from wearing head scarves in classrooms are we prepared to remove all Christian symbols from the classroom too? Or are we to insist, as the patronage system that runs the majority of our primary schools suggests, that this remains a Christian society and those who wish to live here should be aware of that and all it implies?

Just as we hope the tens of thousands of Irish people trying to build new lives abroad are welcomed in their new country, our instinct is to welcome those who would join us here. However, it can’t be surprising if some of us are less welcoming of ideas that directly challenge the values we have spent generations trying to establish and celebrate. We must debate these issues or risk avoidable conflict.