The Citadel, a well-known military college in South Carolina, is considering a request from a female student that she be allowed to wear a hijab in keeping with her Muslim faith, a move that would be unprecedented in the school's history.
According to the Washington Post, a spokeswoman for the school said that to her knowledge, in its nearly 175-year history, the school has never granted a religious, or other, accommodation that resulted in a change to the uniform.
One student, who argues against the hijab wearing student, told a story about a cadet with cerebral palsy. “As you can imagine, one with such a physical condition would face challenges meeting the standard for physical fitness. Instead of showing up seeking a different set of rules, he jumped right into a challenge that was a perpetually uphill battle. Instead of saying he shouldn’t have to pass the PT test because of his disability, he failed it time and again and suffered the ramifications of holding himself to the same standard as the rest of the Corps.”
The Citadel has traditions reaching back to the Civil War. In December of 1864 the cadet battalion made up more than a third of the Confederate force that defended a strategic rail line during the Battle of Tulifinny, the only time in U.S. history when the entire student body of a college fought in combat.
Unfortunately, in our current society, we wish to throw our sacred American history away and replace it with Islamic traditions an entire world away.
