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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Victoria L.
Published Letters: 88 Editor's Choice: 2
Ah LeCastor...right on schedule. Read criticism of Islam, respond with criticism of Christianity. Try resisting the immature recourse to moral equivocation at every turn, if Islam can't be defended on its own merits perhaps it is not worth defending. If someone makes a foolish, unnuanced comment call them out on that point, rather than making prejudiced assumptions about the religious background of the writer.
You are not alone in this phenomenon, a number of people at Salon (WeikuBoy comes to mind) either assume critics of Islam are of a Judeo-Christian background and/or are under the sway of neo-conservative (i.e. Zionist Jew) propaganda. I guess it threatens the simplistic view that any enemy of American hegemony must be a friend to consider how Islam might be problematic from a rational, pluralistic, democratic and peace-loving standpoint.
I also liked your 'sharia brought peace to Mogadishu' bit. As far as I've seen only the BBC made that outlandish claim (editorializing in a supposed news piece), where (typically) a male reporter overlooked the sexism, homophobia, religious persecution and legalized brutality (lashings, amputations, stonings) which come with sharia. Why should we accept a medieval solution in the modern world even in a developing nation?
Very nice review. Ik zal het wel kijken.
People discussing Verhoeven's oeuvre always seem to be slightly dismissive of RoboCop (O'Hehir mentions it once in passing). There is a reason it got an early Criterion Collection release on DVD. Beyond the top notch design aspects and action sequences, the film is an excellent piece of low-key science-fiction (as in the fate of the world is not at stake) and a stingingly funny satire on corporate culture and privatization that is still fresh and relevant today. It is a key liberal, humanist film of the 1980's in my mind.
by providing a false sense on invicibility. More thoughtful and educated people will already use condoms or rather practise safe sex in general. People who can be convinced by a policy to have a surgery (on their genitals no less) are not prime candidates to be trusted to make rational decisions afterwards.
As for public health officials, it seems unconscionable to promote an irrevocable surgery when a much more effective and infinitely less invasive means of protection (i.e. condoms) exists (not to mention responsible personal conduct). As always in the circumcision debate I wonder how much greed (money and power for the medical establishment) is at the heart of proponents efforts.
Am I the only one disturbed by the image of Pelosi in a hijab? Let's look at this rationally she is not a Muslim, claims to believe in women's equality and yet voluntarily and likely without protest dons a sign of not just the social submission of women before men but an absurd superstition (to believe that a supposedly omnipotent god cares whether you wear a little peice of cloth over your head), a superstition which in Syria and elsewhere in the world is forced upon girls and women through at best socialization techniques and at worst out-right threats fo violence, includign rape.
But 'she's in a mosque' you'll say. Again why visit a place where sexist practices and likely sex segregation are practised (if women are allowed to attend active services at all)? I was in Indonesia once and they had a sign in English which ostensibly bared women menstruating from enetering a Hindu temple on Bali. I decided a place with rules like that was not worth visiting and am no lesser for it. It is one think to show decorum in a place of worship, but it is another to check your basic human dignity at the door.
Kudos, Nancy. You were there to talk international reations (I guess - I'm not sure why memebers of Congress go abroad) and managed to stab women worldwide in the back. This kind of mindless betrayal of women's equality out of 'respect' is a glaring sign of what is wrong with a modern liberalism dominated by multiculturalism and moral relativism as opposed to universal progressive values.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
