Posted on 01/15/2014 3:59:48 PM PST by rickmichaels
HALIFAX -- Politicians are scrambling to put a brave face on an ugly situation at a Halifax recreation centre.
Sonja Power, 17, was on the cusp of earning her black belt in Aikido at a Halifax dojo when a new man joined the class. He refused to be in contact with women or to spar with any of the female students.
Power and the other women were told to stay on one side of the room and not to approach the Muslim man to respect his faith.
"I felt like a second class citizen, that I was so disgusting and unworthy that this man doesn't even want to interact with me," Power told QMI Agency. "It doesn't make any sense, why would something you choose, your religion, trump something I'm born with, my gender, we wouldn't let a religion trump someone's race."
The incident happened more than a year ago and Power's mother, Michele Walsh, said she has contacted every level of government but was ignored. She said the sensei told her to "get used to" the gender separation.
A similar situation at York University reignited the issue.
"I don't think anybody's rights should be trampled, so as a person of faith and as a woman I would be offended by this on both sides," said Candice Bergen, minister of state for Social Development speaking in Halifax. "We've seen organizations across the country for decades being able to (compromise) there's no reason this organization and this individual not to be able to do that."
Religion and gender are both protected human rights.
The City of Halifax, which owns the recreation centre, refused to comment citing privacy concerns, but said the city tries to work out human rights concerns between the parties.
“I don’t think anybody’s rights should be trampled, so as a person of faith and as a woman I would be offended by this on both sides,”
Sorry, lady. Seems the rights of a muslim are slightly higher on the priority list than those of everyone else.
touch or spar with a female is very very different than giving him his own half the dojo
She doesn't like being dumped!!!
There is no right to make someone else fight you
“I don’t think anybody’s rights should be trampled, so as a person of faith and as a woman I would be offended by this on both sides,” said Candice Bergen, minister of state for Social Development speaking in Halifax.
So that’s what happened to “Murphy Brown”!
he didn’t have to fight them or anything, but having his own section of the place seems out of bounds
She’s got a bit of a “fivehead”, but I’d spar with her.
Muslims shouldn’t be taught martial arts.
I enjoying sparring with the women. I feel it is my responsibility (as an assistant instructor) to hone their skills. Fact is, if they are ever attacked, it will likely be by a male and they need to learn how to defend themselves in a controlled situation where no-one is going to get hurt so that if it every comes down to a street attack, they have some strategies to defend themselves.
You just pull the punches and kicks.
We had one woman at one of the school wide belt tests that only knew one way to spar and that was 100% effort. She had been chastised for hurting people. When we started picking partners, no-one could see her standing right there in the midst of everyone.
I sparred her several rounds just merely defending against her kicks and punches and I did not throw anything. That is very tiring on the attackers part. She learned something that day. The next folks that sparred her did not get hit nearly as hard.
In our program, one does not begin actual contact sparring until orange belt. Either way, there is not a problem with upper belts and lower belts sparring. One is learning and the other is teaching. Hopefully the upper belt is responsible enough to not just beat the lower belt to a pulp. That would be stopped immediately in or program.
That said, I am a blue belt (about half way to black) and my most favorite time is sparring people getting their black belts at the tests. The soreness wears off after a month or so. (^;
I lived in Halifax for more than 10 years. It’s a small Canadian city with a total population of about 350,000, with a mix of urban, suburban and rural (mostly fishing villages and coastal properties). 15 years ago the muslim population was barely visible. Those muslims that did live in Halifax were quite secular in their dress and habits and they mingled quite freely with the local population (a mix of Scottish, Irish, English and French - with a smattering of immigrants and some descendants of freed American slaves). 15 years later, the muslim population has exploded and the newcomers are coming from hardcore middle eastern countries and bringing their strident islamic views with them. It is very common now in Halifax to see women with the Niqjab or full Burka, men with long beards and multiple “wives”.
Does anyone really think that several thousand hardcore muslims from hot, dry middle eastern countries chose to settle in a coastal Canadian city that is cold and damp in winter and which has nothing to offer them in terms of food markets, restaurants or mosques?
The powers that be in the middle east are colonizing western countries and they are doing so in a way that will ensure that muslims populate every town, village and city in North America, as they have in Europe. They want to make it politically impractical for politicians to criticize islam and they have no intention of blending into Canadian or American society. Although still relatively small in terms of the overall population of Halifax, they already have a couple of muslim private schools and have plans to build a mosque. The Trojan Horse of immigration has ensured that the enemy is already within the city gates.
Yours is the first comment I've seen on that track, and that was my initial thought. The recreation center may have a non-discrimination policy, but any martial arts instructor must discriminate, or subsequently could be held liable for the mis-use of what he/she teaches.
One solution would be to teach completely separate classes, by skill level, at the approval of the instructor(s).
Personally, I would never (these days) teach anything above beginner level techniques to a muslim, or a communist, on an inner-city yute, or any other person of questionable character -- and the only way to determine their character is to observe their behavior in the beginning classes and their interactions with other beginning students.
Many Japanese martial arts schools have done this to American students since the USA dropped the boomers on a couple of their cities. American students in Karate classes generally get ten or fifteen years of horribly disfiguring calisthenics, with very little useful martial arts skills beyond the horribly taught poor forms of basic punches, blocks, and kicks (along with a whole lot of totally useless Japanese yells for "soy sauce" and "saki").
A good instructor would save the aikido (or hapkido) skills for the "advanced" classes, and have the muslim new-comers square off against a concrete wall for ten or fifteen years of straight-toe kicks, finger spears, head-butts, etc.
Given the protected status Muslims have in Canada I’m surprised this woman wasn’t thrown in jail for a hate crime..
I wouldn’t teach a muzzie how to shoot a rubber band gun. ;-)
Let there be no doubt, it’s an invasion.
The government’s real position is “Tough luck lady. You’re lucky he didn’t cat your head off. He can do that because he’s a Muslim and you would be discriminating against him if you didn’t let him practice his religion/culture”.
Signed “Eric ‘My policies are effective in Canada too’ Holder
If you are learning a martial art, you need to learn how to engage with people of all shapes, sizes and strengths. This is especially true if you are a woman or are the opposite of being built like a brick s**thouse.
Two hallowed “victim” groups at odds. Which to favor? Oh, such difficult times we live in.
Had it pegged as muzzy before the article finally got around to identifying it. Sorry, you join an established group then you abide by it. You do not come in and demand the group be changed to suit you. The women have a good basis for a suit.
Back in my younger more naive days before I understood muzzies, out department got a new muzzy boss. The first day, he walked into my office and announced he didn't like me. I was shocked as he'd never met me before. A short time later, a client gave me some watermelons (this is the South) to pass out at the office. When I held one out to the muzzy, he jumped back like it was a rattlesnake and literally ran out - ewwww, a left handed woman touched his food! He eventually ran off all the workers under him except me and the only man. We wanted to outlast him but he was screwing up my work so much that no amount of documentation was going to save me so I cut my loses.
She’s not a man, true, but your lack of knowledge of Aikido in this matter has denied you credibility. An 18 year old female black belt in this art can throw a guy trained in traditional fighting techniques through a wall. That’s why they ended up adding it to SPECOPS training.
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