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Old 06-02-2010, 08:42 AM   #16
ruthmc
Dojo: Wokingham Aikido
Location: Reading, UK
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 393
United Kingdom
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Re: more religious issues

Quote:
Anonymous User wrote: View Post
my difficulty is that i recently found out the dojo has been excluding people of a certain religion, based on certain parts of training that they can't do per religious order (bowing, training with the opposit gender, etc). in fact, they have managed to anger certain people of this religion ( which is very predoninate in this area) to the point they are calling for a boycott of the dojo by all "sypathizers against anti discrimination". the are doing this through local places of worship and giving the dojo a very bad name. my problem is that i don't know if any of what they say is even true and i don't know how to bring it up with the senseis to find out without causing offense. if it is true, i will leave the dojo because i don't believe in discrimination or supporting organizations that do. this is my choice and i see that others feel differently. what i want to now is how to find out if these wonderful senseis really are what is being said about them
Hiya,

You are right to want to find out the truth, and you are right to ask your instructors what their policy is on admission to the dojo.

However, there is a difference between active discrimination (eg The instructors are saying no Jews or Muslims are allowed to train here) and allowing people to self-discriminate (eg The instructors are saying that everyone must bow and train with both genders, and if you're not prepared to acept that then maybe training here is not for you, so you yourself then decide not to train there).

Until you know which one applies, then you can't make a decision, so I'd suggest that you ask your instructors and don't worry about causing offence - their admissions policy is obviously public so why should you worry? If you subsequently decide to leave this dojo, then you can write them a letter explaining why - you don't have to get into a debate with them!

Ruth
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