Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Let It Never Be Said: The Western Inability to Decry Muslim Atrocities


More lovely news from our friends in Enlightened Modern [Muslim] Europe:
For Derya, a waiflike girl of 17, the order to kill herself came from an uncle and was delivered in a text message to her cellphone. “You have blackened our name,” it read. “Kill yourself and clean our shame or we will kill you first.” more...
This terrible incident reminds me of a question that I have not understood for some time. I know that no one in the United States would look upon this as anything other than an atrocity. No matter their political stripe, social traditions, background, or upbringing, no one would ever say that this girl did what she ought, or that the uncle in this case was doing right in helping her to choose the right course of action. The conservative Christian would rightly decry the sin against human dignity, and the radical feminist would hold this up as an example of gross misogynism and gender tyranny.

What I do not understand would be the inability of the radical feminist to associate this behavior directly with Islam. Since the vast majority of the feminist crowd would charge Christianity with fundamental misogynist features and denounce orthodox Christian faith as immoral, hateful, and oppressive, why do they not do the same with Islam?

There is a strange reticence in the media and in virtually all public circles that will not decry Islam itself. There is a startling inability to attribute terrorist activity to its roots in various strains of Islamic faith, and a refusal to note the human rights abuses commited by nearly every predominantly Muslim nation on earth. Now, when prodded, no doubt someone would say that not every Muslim would approve of the behavior in the above article. When prodded further with evidence in the form of vast numbers of Muslims that hold these sorts of attitudes and practice these sorts of behaviors, someone might be tempted to say, yes, but that cannot be attributed directly to the Muslim faith, but only to uneducated or unrelated social practices that do not bear on Islam itself. Perhaps one might be tempted to grant this on philosophical grounds, in the interest of not assailing what might be considered a worthy cultural institution and heritage.

Perhaps. But why the reticence on the part of Islam, but never on the part of Christianity. Cannot the same defenses be made concerning the Christian faith? The media and public voices routinely attribute the views and practices of some Christians (i.e., the Crusades) to all Christians. The Christian faith is almost never seen as "a worthy cultural institution", but rather a legacy of oppression and violence. All the while, the beauty of the "Religion of Peace" is never soiled by the usual practices of life under Islamic Sharia.

Why the disparity?

4 comments:

everyday.wonder said...

Fascinating. I used Radical Feminism as a straw man as part of my illustration. Just for fun, I did some searches on feminist commentary in relation to Islam, and came up with this little gem:

Feminism Behind the Veil

Too fun.

Tim Lewis said...

I heard this book might have something to say about it.

Carmen bin Laden

James Wood said...

[sarcasm]Would you want to criticize them? They kill people for that.[/sarcasm]

ted said...

Jason, I just don't see why you feel you need to attack what it obviously a religion of peace.