A postgraduate in philosophy, politics, and jurisprudence, now employed at a small book publishing firm. I have interests in ancient history, cross-cultural dialogue, religion, mysticism, and psychoanalysis.

  • 115 Posts
  • 33 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: June 23rd, 2023
  • Swarming@sh.itjust.worksOPtoworldnews@sh.itjust.works•Supreme Court sets new limits on affirmative action programs in landmark rulingEnglish
    4·
    11 months ago

    The Supreme Court on Thursday set new limits on affirmative action programs in cases involving whether public and private colleges and universities can continue to use race as one factor among many in student admissions.

    The court held, in a 6-3 opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, that Harvard and UNC’s admissions programs violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

    Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

    The blockbuster cases put affirmative action, which has been used for decades by colleges and universities to address inequality and diversify their campuses, in the spotlight. The Supreme Court had repeatedly ruled since 1978 schools may consider the race of applicants in pursuing educational benefits from a diverse student body, so long as they did not use a quota system.

  • Swarming@sh.itjust.workstoEurope@feddit.de•Sweden police grant permit for Qur’an burning protest outside mosqueEnglish
    76·
    11 months ago

    I think we’re all capable of recognising the important differences between burning a flag representing a particular state, or some aspect of its government or policies, and burning a Torah in front of a Synagogue, as happened frequently in Nazi Germany, or in this case burning a Qur’an in front of a Mosque.

    It’s a hateful act designed to encourage hatred with the intention of turning that hatred into acts.

    The person burning the Torah in front of a Synagogue is not saying “I disagree with the Torah’s rulings on x”, they’re saying "those who follow this religion are disgusting and we should do something about it."

    The person who burns a LGBT pride flag is not saying “I think this movement oversteps the legitimate reach of the state”, they’re saying "those who are part of this group are disgusting and we should do something about it."

    Same with the Qur’an.

    It needlessly inflames tensions, encourages hatred and horrible acts towards Muslims, and both makes Muslims feel unsafe and directly contributes to making them unsafe. It’s not the sort of thing a decent, civilized society should tolerate.

  • Swarming@sh.itjust.workstoEurope@feddit.de•Sweden police grant permit for Qur’an burning protest outside mosqueEnglish
    126·
    11 months ago

    They want to burn a Qur’an right outside Stockholm’s main Mosque. How is that not incitement to violence or racial hatred?

    If I burned a copy of the Torah outside a Synagogue, would that just be an expression of ‘free speech’? Or would I not be giving a pretty unambiguous signal of both what I think of the people inside and the way that we should treat them?

    This absolutely should not have been allowed to go ahead. It is incitement to violence and racial hatred.

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