NorthOfNorth wrote on Oct 24^th, 2014 at 2:24pm:

And despite all that, slavery is unacceptable to Western minds today because of the overriding  universal value of human dignity. Not a culturally selective dignity, not a dignity that you can extend or withhold, depending on where you 'choose' to identify on the multiculti rainbow, but a universal value.
Reason trumped religious habit.

Criticism of Islam is NOT Islmophobia or bigotry.



The trend of history is being reversed. In Egypt, for instance, veiling was unheard of 50 years ago and was virtually extinct until the Islamists resurrected the practice in the 70s. Today an estimated 90 per cent of Egyptian women are veiled. In many other countries the veil — originally a tribal norm, not a religious one — is now ubiquitous, as are views on apostasy in countries that were far more progressive 50 years ago.

Many of my fellow Muslims are trying to reform Islam from within. Yet our voices are smothered in the West by Islamist apologists and their well-meaning but unwitting allies on the Left. For instance, if you try to draw attention to the stark correlation between the rise of Islamic religiosity and regressive attitudes towards women, you’re labelled an Islamophobe.

In America (and Australia) , other contemporary ideologies are routinely and openly debated in classrooms, newspapers, on talk shows and in living rooms. But Americans make an exception for Islamism. Criticism of the religion — even in abstraction — is conflated with bigotry towards Muslims. There is no public discourse, much less an ideological response, to Islamism, in academia or on Capitol Hill. This trend is creating an intellectual vacuum, where poisonous ideas are allowed to propagate unchecked.

My own experience as a Muslim in New York bears this out. Socially progressive, self-proclaimed liberals, who would denounce even the slightest injustice committed against women or minorities in America, are appalled when I express a similar criticism about my own community.

Compare the collective response after each harrowing high-school shooting in America. Intellectuals and public figures look for the root cause of the violence and ask: Why? Yet when I ask why after every terrorist attack, the disapproval I get from my non-Muslim peers is visceral: The majority of Muslims are not violent, they insist, the jihadists are a minority who don’t represent Islam, and I am fearmongering by even wondering aloud.

This is delusional thinking. (NB Brain) Even as the world witnesses the barbarity of beheadings, habitual stoning and severe subjugation of women and minorities in the Muslim world, politicians and academics lecture that Islam is a “religion of peace”. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia routinely beheads women for sorcery and witchcraft.

In the US, we Muslims are handled like exotic flowers that will crumble if our faith is criticised — even if we do it ourselves. Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats alike would apparently prefer to drop bombs in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond, because killing Muslims is somehow less offensive than criticising their religion? Unfortunately, you can’t kill an idea with a bomb, and so Islamism will continue to propagate.

Muslims must tolerate civilised public debate of the texts and scripture that inform Islamism. To demand any less of us is to engage in the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Aly Salem is an Egyptian writer based in New York.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/losing-my-religion-...

Read the whole thing.

And the next guy who cries Islamophobe or bigot when responding to criticism of Islam is a rotten egg - OK Brain, Hot Breasts et al?


Gandy, whaddaya reckon? Are you on board with these views?
   

Brian Ross wrote on Oct 30^th, 2014 at 12:13am:



I am not a narrow-minded, dishonest muppet like you, Brain, who will call anyone a bigot and a racist simply because they have a different view.

Telling also that that is the only line you have picked up on.  The main point, identifying the toxic influence of your kind of stance, embarrassed you too much.

Soren wrote on Oct 30^th, 2014 at 8:19am:


No, Soren, I call them a bigot and/or a racist because their views aren't different but because their views are racist and/or bigoted.   Detect the difference?

So, using your logic, what do you call someone who continually posts racism?  Mmmm?  "Oh, you person with a different view!"   

Quote:


Not really, I picked up the contradiction between what you claim and what this person claims.    You appear to have no problems reconciling two opposite viewpoints in your mind at the same time.   Should make an interesting case note.   

Brian Ross wrote on Oct 30^th, 2014 at 5:49pm:

How is criticism of Islam racism, thicko?

Soren wrote on Oct 30^th, 2014 at 10:29pm:


How is criticism of the tinted races racist? We simply won’t have it, old boy.

You should not be victimised simply because you have a different view to the numpties and idiots. This is a form of abuse and should be a criminal offence.

It’s not, old boy. It’s imperative. Racism isn’t racism either.

Correlation, innit.