On head scarves in France
I refer to a letter written by Suheimi Nurusman in The Jakarta Post on Jan. 10, on head scarves. Liberty and freedom are words that always have limitations because people in general cannot live without rules and regulations. Once you introduce laws, bylaws, legislation and regulations you are immediately restricting people's freedom, which is unavoidable.
As for scarves, crosses or other religious symbols, they have a place in the churches and mosques of this world but not in the schools. One of the reasons why is that young, impressionable children attend such places and cannot be expected to fully understand the problems that religion causes this world. They also ridicule other children over all kinds of things, and as they grow older that ridicule often becomes violent, and religion is one of those subjects that most certainly can provoke violence.
It is, of course, regrettable, but then we live in a world where certain groups (mostly believers in a strict form of Islam) want to destabilize everything we touch and need, and in doing so have driven a larger wedge between other groups of people and countries. There will come a time when people like Osama bin Laden will not exist, and then the world can revisit some of its earlier decisions such as immigration policies and viewpoints on other religions in a more sensible way. Until then, we must all conform to the decisions of our governments, which often do things that they personally find distasteful.
It is not a case of being afraid of symbols but of doing something that allows children to concentrate on academic studies which, believe it or not, is far more progressive than spending countless hours studying religion. As a small example, if you travel from Aceh to Medan, you will note that many women remove their scarves at the earliest opportunity, because their personal liberty or freedom is abused by a religion that forces them to wear the scarf. You can't win in this world unless you are 100 percent flexible, and none of us are that. It is better to concentrate on what drives the decision rather than the decision itself, so there is no reason for despair.
DAVID WALLIS Medan, North Sumatra