Double-Reverse Discrimination
Various people have commented, per Harvard’s accommodation of Muslim students by providing female-only workout periods at one of their gyms, that such an accommodation would have been rejected if it came from an evangelical Christian group, so this is an example of creeping “dhimmitude.”
Others have commented that it would have been considered unproblematic if it came from a Jewish group, so the attention to this particular accommodation must be due to “Islamophobia.”
I don’t know whether either supposition is correct. But does anyone think Harvard would have made allowances to male Muslim students who didn’t want to exercise around women?
I lean towards the dhimmitude explanation, and I actually disagree with the second one. I may be wrong, but I think it would have been problematic if the request came from a Jewish group, because it would have been an Orthodox group, and the Ivy League distaste for religious Orthodoxy of any kind would have been stronger than the concern not to appear anti-Semitic. This is all purely conjecture of course but that’s my bet.
— PEG · Mar 7, 10:32 AM · #
Yes, I do think they would have made the call for male students if that were a legitimate part of their religion. Why wouldn’t they?
— Kent · Mar 7, 06:58 PM · #