I'm putting UK on Riots Watch™:
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The recent debate over Muslim women wearing full-face veils could see a return of riots as seen in Barnsley and Oldham in 2001, Britain's race watchdog chief has said.
Trevor Phillips said that sporadic criticism of Muslims and the over-sensitivity of those within Islam could "be the trigger for the grim spiral that produced riots in the north of England five years ago".
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Op-Ed by Sam Harris in the Sunday Boston Globe (today's excuse: I was looking for tire sales) contains this relevant comment:
"We have to realize that we decide what is good in our religious doctrines. We read the Golden Rule, for instance, and judge it to be a brilliant distillation of many of our ethical impulses. And then we come across another of God's teachings on morality: If a man discovers that his bride is not a virgin on their wedding night, he must stone her to death on her father's doorstep (Deut.22-13-21). If we are civilized, we will reject this as utter nonsense." Essentially, this is what we are challenging Muslims to do: jettison the uncivilized aspects of their religion while retaining what is ethical. To which they persist in responding in ways progressively more uncivilized. There is little encouragement to be found in this.
Not a bad op-ed page, with some salient remarks from Jacoby on not losing sight of the goal while criticizing specifics of the effort to achieve it or simply because we are not certaining of winning.
RevereRidesAgain,
Good find, that Bible verse in the Sam Harris column. I have tried to make this point over and over here at IBA. Many of our writers and readers refuse to believe Islam can be reformed. But, I know from having read the Bible that it is full of ideas that I think are trash, and laws which I would not follow if my life depended on it.
My fellow Christians challenge me, for instance, on my rejection of the idea that gay people are evil. My response is, I know what the Bible says, and I know what I see. I will live according to what I see, and God can take it up with me when I die.
The way we Jews and Christians have overcome the violent and crazy passages of the Bible is to mystify them. What I mean by that is, we say that such a law is what ought to happen because the sin is indeed so vile. However, we do not live in a perfect world, therefore, vengeance can only be trusted to God. So, the punishment in such cases shall be left to God.
In other words, the punishment will be a Godly punishment after death, and not an earthly punishment.
I believe Islam is capable of doing such mystification. For instance, in the case of the verses which speak of waging Jihad against the Infidels. If they could only change the interpretion to become an understanding that, in the sense that we are all sinners, we are all outside the will of Allah, and therefore, we are all infidels in some sense. Then, the verse could be interpreted thusly:
Wage Jihad against the Infidel in your heart. Slay him wherever you find him.
See what I mean?
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