Thursday, February 09, 2006
Where did radical come from?
A Boston Globe columnist takes off on the protests around the world against the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper to paint a scary picture of what's to come.
"...Hindus may consider it odious to use cows as food, but they do not resort to boycotts, threats, and violence when non-Hindus eat hamburger or steak. They do not demand that everyone abide by the strictures of Hinduism and avoid words and deeds that Hindus might find upsetting. The same is true of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Mormons: They don't lash out in violence when their religious sensibilities are offended. They certainly don't expect their beliefs to be immune from criticism, mockery, or dissent.
"But radical Muslims do."
Wonder why the author added the adjective radical to Muslims but left it out of Hindus, Christians, Jews etc?
"...Hindus may consider it odious to use cows as food, but they do not resort to boycotts, threats, and violence when non-Hindus eat hamburger or steak. They do not demand that everyone abide by the strictures of Hinduism and avoid words and deeds that Hindus might find upsetting. The same is true of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Mormons: They don't lash out in violence when their religious sensibilities are offended. They certainly don't expect their beliefs to be immune from criticism, mockery, or dissent.
"But radical Muslims do."
Wonder why the author added the adjective radical to Muslims but left it out of Hindus, Christians, Jews etc?
# posted by Ashok @ 4:58 AM 
Comments:
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I see your point. There is actually no good way to write that article.
If the author had said:
The same is true of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Mormons; they don't lash out in violence ... But Muslims do.
then that would look like broad-brush stereotyping. All Muslims are not brainwashed medieval troglodytes.
On the other hand, if the author had said:
The same is true of radical Christians, radical Jews, radical Buddhists, radical Mormons; they don't lash out in violence ... But radical Muslims do.
then that's just plain retarded because it gives a contrary meaning to "radical" as applied to Christians/Jews/others. Lashing out is what radicals do, regardless of religion. Radical Christians/Jews/others are not exempt from this rule somehow.
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If the author had said:
The same is true of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Mormons; they don't lash out in violence ... But Muslims do.
then that would look like broad-brush stereotyping. All Muslims are not brainwashed medieval troglodytes.
On the other hand, if the author had said:
The same is true of radical Christians, radical Jews, radical Buddhists, radical Mormons; they don't lash out in violence ... But radical Muslims do.
then that's just plain retarded because it gives a contrary meaning to "radical" as applied to Christians/Jews/others. Lashing out is what radicals do, regardless of religion. Radical Christians/Jews/others are not exempt from this rule somehow.
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