From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Tue Oct 09 2001 - 20:15:07 MDT
"Alex F. Bokov" wrote:
>
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>
> Okay, so maybe it is about Islam. Perhaps it's time for our cherished cultural
> relativism to be relative itself.
At the least, we better hope it is NOT about Islam. If it is
then and if it is public spoken of and fault on that basis then
we have opened the gates of hell.
>
> Samantha, if you could choose, and other things being equal, would you prefer
> to live in an Islamic fundamentalist country or one that is not? Would you
> prefer that the country you reside in currently be more or less secular?
>
This is an utterly off-the-wall question. Nothing in the very
legitimate points I raised justifies any raising of "cultural
relativism" at all. I am amazed that such would be raised in
response. I would prefer that the country I live in have a
greater
percentage of people who can actually think and are willing to
look
at sides of an issue objectively without knee-jerk positioning.
> If you suddenly found yourself living in one of the Shariya countries, would
> you prefer to take your chances with being exploited by a secular imperialist
> world power or your local theocracy?
>
I would prefer not to be exploited at all. And I would prefer
that world powers keep their hands off of my own country in any
case. I would especially prefer they not undermine its
government (if legitimately elected at least) and not bomb its
territory any time they believe it might be in their interest to
do so without due process.
> Why is it that it's okay to criticize the excesses of Christianity, but not
> those of Islam? Religion is religion is a crutch for the weak at best a
> virulent meme disease at worst.
It is always ok to criticize. It is not OK to conflate the
actions of some extremist elements with the entire religion and
all of its practictioners. The latter is prejudice and sloppy
(and very dangerous) thinking.
- samantha
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