Your Thoughts On This Please- an exploration of culture clash

[Phanerothyme]

...snivelling little apologists for everything we stand for such as democracy, equality and humanity ...

 

 

 

Is that good or bad? Being an apologist for democracy, humanity, equality? Or is it just the snivelling that gets on your tits?

[CockneyMafia]

This woman (and Ayaan Hirsi Ali) have been heroines of mine for some time. As I've said time and again, the culture clash is not between Christianity and Islam, it is between patriarchal dogma and secular Enlightenment values. As I've also said, there are people from within those countries and cultures who are prepared to speak out and push for reformation, but we hardly hear about them because the liberal left are firmly protective of the religious conservatives. Any reasonable call for the same freedoms within Islam as those the left take for granted themselves, is branded racism.

 

Is there a difference between Islam and Patriarchal Dogma??

 

I fully support the Liberal Islam movement, which, from what I have read, is Islam stripped of its hiddeously antiquated ideals.

[upinwath]

I was thinking more along the lines of her dislike of religion. Im surprised that shes allowed airtime because of it.

 

I'm not supprised. That bunch use an excuse to have a pop at the west in the same way as meny here do with Islam.

Just makes all westerners look like rabid anti islamics.

[purdyamos]

Is there a difference between Islam and Patriarchal Dogma??

 

I fully support the Liberal Islam movement, which, from what I have read, is Islam stripped of its hiddeously antiquated ideals.

 

Indeed, Mike, I've regularly said on other threads that there are campaigners for reform in the Islamic world, but we hardly get to hear from them, The authorities, government and media however, cosy up to appease the conservative wing which is why I specifically described it the way I did. Leftists and those who set themselves up as pro-equality and pro-rights refuse to support the liberal progressive groups, and refuse to condemn even the worst and most extreme of the conservatives.

 

I saw Yasmin Alibai Brown on TV the other day. She does a lot of work campaigning and helping oppressed women in the Islamic community, and she was accused of being a racist - by a right-on white woman, who was as in denial as many are on SF.

[donkey]

Leftists and those who set themselves up as pro-equality and pro-rights refuse to support the liberal progressive groups, and refuse to condemn even the worst and most extreme of the conservatives.

 

I saw Yasmin Alibai Brown on TV the other day. She does a lot of work campaigning and helping oppressed women in the Islamic community, and she was accused of being a racist - by a right-on white woman, who was as in denial as many are on SF.

 

I strongly oppose the cowardly line the West has taken in confronting these hypocritical fundamentalists.

 

Let's put it in context though, our main ally is strongly influenced by Christian fundamentalists and Zionists with equally extreme views as any Muslims. We have began an ongoing bloodbath in the Muslim world by invading Iraq. We armed Saddam, then turned on him when he was no longer our poodle (it had nothing to do with his tyranny).

 

Our allies armed the Mujahedeen, which later mutated into the Taleban and Al Quaeda. The US has supported the ongoing injustice perpetrated against the whole Palestinian nation, and yet we now support their plans for the Middle East.

 

This is why we have come to the situation we are at now. A situation brought about entirely by right wing policies. If we are to solve this problem, we need consensus between the left and right. A small minority of relatively powerless leftists need to be convinced that facist fundamentalists should be faced head on.

 

The greater task, however, will be persuading our own zealots that we have been implicit in the rise of Muslim fundamentalism, and that if we are to defuse this powder keg, it will be neccessary to pursue justice for the Palestinians with the same vigour and expense as we pursued the invasion of Iraq.

 

Only such an action can lead the younger generation of Muslims away from the radicalisation which feeds on the blatant hypocrisy of current policy towards the Middle East. Without getting a significant number of Muslims on our side, it will be impossible to stop the rise of International Jihad, or the resurgence of Medieval Islam.