Another day, another Prince Charles Silly Hat story

I really must stop this self-indulgence. But how can I resist the urge to spread this image around? After all, it does come from his very own web site.

This time, HRH has donned what looks like a leftover peg bag to show his respect for Sikhism in the course of their visit to the Gurdwara at Anandpur Sahib, India, the second holiest site to Sikhs after Amritsar.

It seems to be the way with the Prince of Wales to conduct a tour of a couple of key Islamic countries, making speeches advising Muslims how to develop their religion, before jetting off to India. No doubt demonstrating his thoroughly green and carbon-emission reducing credentials.

Daniel Pipes' running log of the Prince's pronouncements on Islam drew my attention to an extraordinary statement, made in the course of a speech he gave in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. HRH seems to be suggesting that Islam is the Abrahamic religion which really understands the interpretation of texts, for which it sets an example to the other two Abrahamic faiths, Christianity and Judaism.

I think we need to recover the depth, the subtlety, the generosity of imagination, the respect for wisdom that so marked Islam in its great ages. Islam called Jews and Christians the peoples of the book, because they, like Muslims are a part of a religion of sacred texts.

And what was so distinctive of the great ages of faith surely was that they understood that, as well as sacred texts, there is the art of interpretation of sacred texts – between the meaning of God’s word for all time and its meaning for this time.

And I feel – and you must forgive me for I am no scholar – it was Islam’s greatness to understand this in its full depth and challenge. And this is what you gentlemen, if I may say so, at this great and historic institution, can give not only to Islam, but, by example, to all the other children of Abraham.

As Daniel Pipes points out, the use of "we" is particularly interesting.

Comments

[Lynne]

Wot an idiot! Does Charles not understand that Islam is the Johnny-come-lately of monotheism so it's only natural that it has to acknowledge the other two older "Abrahamic" faiths.

I say we let Wafa Sultan at Charlie for five minutes to point out how the teachings from the Qu'ran have created terrorists and that to refer to the Jews as the "People of the Book" is pathetic given that they are treated with scorn by Muslims and despite all the tragedies they have endured, are actually the "People of Many Books" who have given much to the world, past and present.

[Jack]

Oh my.

[Rick]

Prince Charles fell under the baleful influence of Laurens Van der Post and seems to be into the "mystical" and the "spiritual" rather than the religious and theological.

I am reading an interesting book by Josef Ratzinger on "Values in A World of Change" - Prince Charles should read it.

Islam is a Fatalistic Cult built around the political exigencies of one man in the Arabian Peninsula.

Judaism is the Original Covenant and Christianity is the access point for non-Jews to graft themselves onto the Olive Tree. Islam is like the serpent in the Garden of Eden trying to overturn the whole applecart if you forgive the allusion and supplant the beauty of Judaeo-Christian theology with the simplistic chanted recitations of Islam and its cultish devotions

[Sunny]

That's not a hat Judy, it's a handkerchief. When entering Sikh places of worship you either cover your head with a turban or a piece of cloth (for men), or with a 'chunni' for women, which is a thin shawl like Camilla is wearing.

[Judy]

Sunny, I did realise it was a possibly a version of the non-turban headwear I've seen a few Sikh men wearing (particularly in a marvellous Sikh school I've visited). But I've never previously seen a red one. All the ones I've seen were black. And it does look utterly ridiculous on HRH. Which I have never thought it does on any Sikh man I've seen wearing it. I suppose it's like Goodness Gracious Me showing the "Coopers" (ie Kapoors) strutting around in bowler hats etc. Or any of the Royal Family males Wandering around in kilts.
I doubt we'll ever see HRH wearing a Chassidic streimel, though he has worn a kipa at Jewish charity events. Something to be immensely grateful for, but it's only because he doesn't see Chassidic Jews as a group who embody the equivalent role of noble bearers of timeless religious truths. Even though in my book they are, just as much as any other religious group he chooses to cuddle up to.

[yankev]

Is it too much to ask HRH to recognize that this is a Jewish contribution to the world that predates Islam by millennia? And that since the time of Moshe Rabbeinu (a"h), an unbroken chain of teachers and students -- from Moses to Joshua to the prophets to the men of the Great Assembly (see Avos 1:1, tracing this line through the end of the era of the Tannaim), to the Tannaim, the Amoraim, to the Savoarim, on to the Rishonim, then the Acharonim, on to the leading rabbinic scholars of today -- do exactly that? When our detractors refer disparagingly to "Talmudism", does HRH set them straight?

[Ripper]

Is there still Hapsburg like inbreeding in the dwindling Royal Houses of Europe? That might explain Chuck being stuck on stupid when it comes to the Religion of Peace.

[The Daughter]

The funny thing is, he probably chose the red handkerchief to match his tie! This is partly what makes the whole get-up so comic, it looks like someone's photoshopped Camilla and HRH into a different shot.

[Sunny]

Judy - you get them in all colours =)
Orange and blue are most common, though maroon is also quite popular. It only looks ridiculous because we tie it with experience....

[CM]

You seem to have the wrong picture. On my browser I have a picture of Papa Smurf surrounded by some people trying hard not to snigger

[chevalier de st george]

"and you must forgive me for I am no scholar ".

that says it all, does it not?
Perhaps this might be added to ALL his rantings about Islam.

[Robert]

In Charles defence, I don't think he chose to wear the hanky himself. As Sunny says, you have to wear one when you enter a Gudwara, and the helpful folk at the temple have provided him with one. This is in contrast to the earlier picture, where Charles has clearly gone out and had the full kit tailor made.

If I was a Sikh, and I knew how much Charles loved dressing up in traditional costumes, I would be feeling pretty insulted he didn't bother with the a full throttle turban.

[Judy]

Robert, HRH doesn't go on tours and visits like this without being fully prepared. It would have been perfectly appropriate for him to wear headgear normally worn by non-Sikh men when they visit holy places. He didn't need spontaneously helping out on the spot. This is a decision he makes-- it's clearly not his staff forcing him into.

[Bob Doney]

Maybe it's not PC who's being silly. Why is it necessary to wear a hat to go indoors?

[Jay Singh]

Judy

I remember seeing Charles wearing a Jewish head covering (is it called a kipa?) when there was a picture of him in the newspaper visiting a Jewish cemetery once.

I don't think this is him being trendy or wearing 'Sikh' clothes for the sake of it - I just think he has tied it wrong and it has flapped up at the back. It's obligatory to cover your head when you enter a gurdwara, and the tradition is for non turbanned Sikh men to wear a bandana of sorts. You get some pretty cool looking ones actually.

[Jay Singh]

Maybe it's not PC who's being silly. Why is it necessary to wear a hat to go indoors?

Bob, it is tradition (and obligatory) to take off your shoes and cover your head when you enter a gurdwara (Sikh temple). That's just the way it is. I suppose you can say that is silly, but only in the way that any tradition of worship in any religion is silly.

[Judy]

Jay, I think what Charles is doing here is more akin to if he were to put on a streimel (ie the round fur hats worn by the Chassidic Jews) rather than a kipa. It just looks as if he is trying to assume an ethnic identity he doesn't possess. A kipa on the other hand is very like the skullcaps worn by the Christian clergy. In the context of a Jewish gathering, it would anyway be just as acceptable for him to wear any headcovering of his choice.

His donning of an ethnic Sikh bandana is also rather like William Hague donning a baseball cap when he went to visit the Notting Hill Carnival. It just looks utterly fake and ridiculous. Would Charles don a beanie or one of those knitted caps when he meets Rastas? I doubt it....

[Bob Doney]

"That's just the way it is."

That sounds like a perfectly good reason for doing things. And it sort of explains what Prince Charles is for.