May the force

Beating any of the funny stories posted in here from time to time, was the comment from a Tesco management spokesman when he said “He hasn’t been banned. Jedis are very welcome to shop in our stores although we would ask them to remove their hoods; Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side and we are only aware of the Emperor as one who never removed his hood. If Jedi walk around our stores with their hoods on, they’ll miss lots of special offers,” he stated, in response to accusations from Daniel Jones, 23, from Holyhead, who founded the International Church of Jediism, and who claimed he’d been “victimised over his beliefs” by staff at Tesco’s store in Bangor.

He contended that his religion dictated that he should wear the hood in public places after staff approached him to ask that he remove the hood.

Daniel said: “It states in our Jedi doctrination that I can wear headwear. It just covers the back of my head."

This may all sound very amusing to those of us who prefer Star Trek to Star Wars but his protest makes an interesting point.

Quite a few years ago, when the government insisted on passing a law that made Motor cycle helmets compulsory - presumably to save the NHS money, the Sikh faction in the UK refused and several arrests were made, until the Government of the time backed down and allowed those who had a religious belief in hoods to get killed more easily.

Now, although it’s easy to ridicule our young Jedi, there are some important questions we should ask: firstly, do Tesco take the same line with all headwear of the same sort, including in their Birmingham stores? Secondly, is the founding of a Jedi religion any more ridiculous than the founding of or belief in any other religion? Tom Cruise for instance, apparently accepts the tenets of Scientology, a religion started by a rather dodgy Sci-Fi writer.

Thirdly - and perhaps most importantly - is it appropriate that anyone has a legal waiver simply because of their beliefs? Our Jedi said “It was discrimination. They were making a joke against me. I was really upset. Nobody should be treated like that.” and perhaps he has a point. But if people allow religious beliefs and conviction to dictate social policy, then where, one wonders, do we stop?

Perhaps we should heed the words of Jean De la Fontaine (1621 - 1695): Nothing is so dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is worth more.