Respect

More wonderful stuff on the Sunday programme this morning. Apparently the church of england is encouraging its schools to accept 25% of pupils who are not members of the church, and as a result of this the government is considering making it compulsory for all 'faith' schools to do likewise. Good news indeed - I am sure there must be thousands of parents queueing up to send their kids to a muslim school where, sharia law being what it is, they are likely to get stoned to death for forgetting their nine-times table.
The principal of a muslim school was interviewed. During the course of the interview she stressed islam was all about respect. I wondered how they square respect for women with being happy to have them walking around with bin-liners over their heads. To be fair, respect for women is not the strong point of many religions. The c of e has only just got around to agreeing to the ordination of women and the pope's lot still seem several centuries away. During a visit to Poland I was taken to a pub in the Jewish quarter of Krakow and was bought a 'kosher' beer. "What makes it kosher?" I enquired, in my innocence thinking it was something to do with the ingredients. "It is made in a brewery where no women are employed," was the answer. Presumably this is because women, like some animals, are 'unclean'. How bloody daft can you get? As my missus says, who, in general, is cleaner, men or women? How often do you hear of women in dirty macks flashing at fellas? Hardly ever. Unfortunately.