Dawg knows well enough the difference between a culture and a country. He makes the argument that if the Holocaust wasn’t a German “barbaric practice,” then honor killings aren’t a Muslim one.
Except they are.
The Holocaust was a move by the German state to eliminate Jews. Whereas honor killings and genital mutilation are practiced the world over by Muslims. Doesn’t matter whether they are from Pakistan or Somalia, Germany or Dubai. It isn’t throughout the entire Muslim world, nor is it sponsored by a particular state.
Dawg, I call your bullshit because I know you are smarter. You are simply being disingenuous.
This situation becomes clearer when we recognize Islam for the socio-political ideology that it is.
Yes, it harnesses religious fervour and makes use of the faith of its adherents. However, with its perspective on materialism, territory, a cult like adherence to group-think, and clear avoidance of critical thought, it more closely resembles Nazism than it does judeo-christian and other world religions.
Seen in this way, the best response is to refuse to extend “religious freedom” to what is in fact an ideological cult at war with and determined to destroy western civilization.
You know, few things annoy me as much as the phrase “Islamofascism” or comparing radical Islam to Nazism. On the other hand, it does prove that those who do it know nothing about either, and it’s always nice to be able to pick them out of a crowd.
Fascism generally, and Nazism in particular, were about the primacy of the state. Islamists abhor the state as a construct, dreaming instead of a transnational caplihate. The Nazis also tended to do things build armored divisions and invade Poland with them, something that is well out of reach for your average jihadi.
It should also be pointed out that fascism only ever flourished in Christian countries, such as Germany, Italy and Spain.
Of course, you might be making the case that Islamists, like Nazis, don’t like Jews very much. But neither do most country clubs in the American Midwest.
Disingenuous, hell.
Since when is the state–institutions, practices, forms of governance, and the people involved–not “cultural?” You can’t get folks off the hook by saying “the state did it,” nor can you get the state–which, in the final analysis, is people–off the hook by saying “it’s private.”
The distinction you’re trying to draw is entirely false.
Nor does it make any sense to call this a “Muslim practice,” let alone a “worldwide Muslim” one. First, Sunna circumcision, unlike the butchery one imagines when “FGM” comes up (e.g., clitoridectomy, infibulation), the most common form of the practice among Muslims,is the removal of the prepuce of the clitoris, exactly equivalent to male circumcision. We aren’t talking about this practice (at least I hope not) when we mean the more radical ones. (I’m aware that some believe that male circumcision is “barbaric” as well, but that opens up avenues I suspect you wouldn’t want to address.)
It’s prevalent among non-Muslims throughout Africa.
It is regularly denounced by Islamic authorities as un-Qur’anic, is banned in most Islamic states, and in increasing numbers of African ones.
So just as Germany changed, so too are other countries changing more recently with respect to FGM.
But if you want to confine your notion of “cultural practices” to the private sphere, I’ll play.
What about another item on Kenney’s List, “spousal abuse?” Is that a “cultural practice?” If so, the stats indicate that we should be wagging our fingers at Canadians right here at home. And Americans. And Europeans. Not “cultural?” Not a “practice?” Why not? When do bad acts become a “practice?” When do they become “cultural?”
I detest it when politicians–not to mention their allies, in and out of the blogosphere–blow these damned dogwhistles. We both know what’s going on here. Want to see disingenuousness? Take a look in the mirror.
Can’t the government just give everyone a piece of paper that says “We don’t care about your goofy superstitous nonsense. Obey our goddamned laws!” to everyone that enters the country? And maybe stamp it on the foreheads of those who are born here?
It seems to me that it would save a lot of time and annoyance arguing over semantics.
Hell yeah! What Skippy said!
Your first mistake is assuming Dawg is smarter than what he writes. He isn’t.
Your second mistake was reading that anything that ass-hat writes in the first place.