A blind student at the University of New Brunswick has been turned away after being accepted into an English as a second language program. It is a complicated situation, involving the fact that his seeing-eye dog undertsands only French, and only English is allowed during this program. It is silly enough not to make an exception in this case, but there is, according to Susan Mesheau, the university's director of public relations, another intriguing reason why Yvan Tessier is not getting into the program. From the National Post, with thanks to scaramouche:
Ms. Mesheau said it was not just the language issue that made Pavot's presence problematic."We have students here who are allergic to dogs. We have students here who have religious affiliations that they cannot associate in the same room with a dog. Those kinds of things we have to take into account," she said.
How's that again? Religious affiliations that they cannot associate in the same room with a dog? Hmmm -- who might that be?
Here is one of many relevant ahadith:
Narrated Abu Huraira:Allah's Apostle said, "Whoever keeps a dog, one Qirat of the reward of his good deeds is deducted daily, unless the dog is used for guarding a farm or cattle." Abu Huraira (in another narration) said from the Prophet, "unless it is used for guarding sheep or farms, or for hunting." Narrated Abu Hazim from Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "A dog for guarding cattle or for hunting." (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 39, Number 515).
But alas, nothing about seeing-eye dogs. I guess Tessier is out of luck with the dhimmis at UNB.
UPDATE: Good news — Tessier can attend class after all.
That is just disgraceful.
She should get the PC brigade onto this.
Muslim cultures often don't look favourably on the disabled. Islam is not a religion of charity.
How do the PC people justify discriminating against BLIND people for God's sake? In the US by law seeing-eye dogs are allowed to go everywhere with their owners -- even into restaurants.
Just another example of how, in Islam, satisfying the insane cultic pronouncements of Mo far outweighs even simple human decency. Another example of the "justice" of Islam.
This article on the same subject from the Biased Baghdad Corp. completely leaves out the religious element:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3874819.stm
Typical.
This is another one for our PC readers here to explain to us: Which side do YOU on the Left discriminate against? The blind man or the religous group that you support over Christianity?
You can't have it both ways.
I know none of the LLL who read this will ever answer. Not if they are Honest about it.
Oh wait. I used the word 'Honest' in relation to the LLL. We may get flooded with answers here. Come on democratic underground!
In all fairness, the allergic people have a good case, although not clear-cut; one disability vs. another. As to people with religious objections: they can easily leave the classroom. I'm sure the university could come up with a way for them to tele-immerse, or something, all in the name of diversity, of course.
It is unclear if any of the students have actually complained and/or displayed any symptoms of allergy/unholy contamination. Could be the university is in pre-emptive dhimmi mode, in which case everyone really should give the students a pass.
The real kicker in the article quoted is this, IMHO:
Controlling a seeing-eye dog = people falling off bridges? (Well, if they are blind, and the dog won't understand english...) Can you believe an actual person saying this with a straight face? It may or may not be a case of dhimmitude. It most certainly is utterly, ridiculously hyperbolic, bureaucratic you-know-what.
The most idiotic thing about this is that Susan Meshau. Her silly explanation about "lowering standards" when a blind person speaks to their dog in French in an ESL class is just too stupid to believe.
I agree that this may be another of those cases where some silly busy-body dhimmi tries to appease each and every possible minority concern, and in doing so ends up pissing everybody off, and looking like an idiot. We had some of these silly busy-body dhimmis here in Oz who decided in advance, for everybody, that there would be no Anzac Day celebrations at a primary school because it might offend some Iraqi kids. Nobody had asked them to do this, especially the Iraqi parents. Yet they felt so self-important and smart in doing this. The education minister stepped in and said there WOULD be Anzac Day celebrations because that's what we do here. No complaints from the Iraqi families, only from the bruised self-important little egos of the busy-bodies. This NB case could be a similar instance.
There should never be discrimination against the blind. Especially not for backward religious beliefs. Wonder if the guide dog in question is black? Seems they're especially evil, if I'm not mistaken.
Her decision was reversed.
UNB reverses guide-dog decision
Last Updated Thu, 08 Jul 2004 5:18:27
FREDERICTON - The University of New Brunswick Wednesday reversed a controversial decision to bar a blind man and his guide dog from an English immersion program.
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/07/07/canada/french_dog040707 Here is the link.
There was no mention of the 'religious element' on the news this morning on this story. This is so typical of cbc (Al-jazerra canada) news services.
Yes, it is a black lab type dog.