Letters to the Editor
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Not a defense of communism, but...
"Do we want to condemn Christianity as well?" (Or words to that effect.) Yes, I do! There is no such thing as god.
The governments of China and Vietnam are still very much in command of their economies. They are just doing a better job these days.
Don't forget that the anti-authoritarian Left (of which I am a part) actually does include some communists, such as council communists and admirers of Rosa Luxemburg and such. These people reject all the tyrannies and clueless central economic planning of the regimes you mentioned, just as much as they (we) reject capitalism. We favor giving power to the workers themselves, not the state.
For the record, Cuba's achievements in health and education (and other areas) are such that one has to wonder what the place would look like without the illegal, punitive embargo. And in 1988, if a peasant from Guatemala or Haiti were to find him/herself in the Soviet Bloc, they'd be very impressed with the sight of a modern, developed country. That's not an argument for communism, but it's one against the neoliberal imperialism that people label "capitalism." T
he only people who actually believe in free market capitalism are libertarians. At least they're honest. Ron Paul says that in a truly free market with no subsidies or other kinds of welfare-for-the-rich, you wouldn't have gargantuan tyrannical corporations. Like I said, at least they're honest.
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I second
Can I second this:
BTW I always appreciate your experience and your insight, even if we don't always agree
Canuckistan Bob always keeps his cool, and I know I don't. I kind of want it to come across as conversational, but I know it must not come off that way. I like talking about these issues, and at the risk of gratuitously jumping on tina's coattails (well, I guess that's what I'm doing), I appreciate the discussion.
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here's another black star for tina!
a very interesting discussion indeed!
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Cinnamon Stillwell??
Aw, jeez. She's a right wing crank! Of course you felt like you were being prodded with a stick!
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Islam and women
I never cease to be amazed at the great lengths some fuzzy-thinking, excessively politically correct folks like Tracy hypenated whatever, will go to do defend Islam and Islamists.
It's obvious, long-standing, and widespread that the bad treatment of women in general, and violence in particular, is epidemic in many Islamic countries, and also widely accepted-- or it wouldn't be so longlasting or widespread. It's so obvious and well-known that one wonders what motivations this article's author has to try denying or soft-pedalling it--the old "everyone does some of it", totally obscures the reality that Islamic countries in general often treat their women as chattel, or at best second-class citizens in many ways, completely at variance to what exists in non-Islamic countries today.
And to quote a disingenuous disclaimer from a representative of the Council on Islamic Relations verges on the laughable-- this organization has a long history of mendacious distortion of fact and history to support their radical Islamist agenda, and have been shown to have close ties to terrorist-supporting organizations.
It's time that this type of politically correct nonsense be stopped, in the interest of reality in confronting the menace of violent worldwide jihad, masquerading as reasonable people-- look at the facts, not the claims about radical Islam.
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There is no such thing as an Islamic "culture" or "culture" of Islam
For the bigots who are only too ready to use the issue of women's rights and abuses when Muslims commit them for your own unacknowledged political purposes, you are wrong that there is such a thing as anything being "deeply rooted" in "the culture." There is no such thing as an Islamic "culture," because Muslims practice their religion in different ways in different societies. If there was such a thing as "Muslim" or "Islamic" "culture," then all Muslims would think alike, when clearly they don't. People who call adhere to Islam as a faith or religion do not speak the same language, do not live in the same societies, do not live under the same laws, including criminal and family laws, do not practice the same kind of Islam--even within particularly geographic regions of the world such as the Middle East there are many kinds of Islam that are practiced.
More importantly, the idea that Algeria and Malaysia share the same "culture" is out of this world. Literally. The idea of an "Islamic" anything is a fantasy, but it is one that is useful for those who seek to keep U.S. eyes trained on some scenes while not noticing others, particularly others in which brown Arab bodies die in large numbers on a regular basis.
The idea that C.A.I.R. is some kind of marginal or politically questionable organization is part of this same "training of the eye." The "now we're listening to THEM?" rhetoric is practiced often but not exclusively by politicians and their supporters. These folks have predictable axes to grind in a political world of which they no longer have the last word--anti-immigrant, nativists in a world of globalization and highly flexible and migrant labor patterns; pro-Israeli in a world where the internet and changes outside the U.S. mean that today Israel's "image" no longer belongs solely to the state's considerable public relations apparatus or that of its allies in the U.S.; born again "Christianity" in the U.S. where diversity of religion and secularism mean that it is no longer possible to assume that everyone is part of a "Judeo-Christian" set of practices within that abstract polemical category.
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Calbears
Do you know what the Arabic word "Ummah" is? If you do, can you please define it for me in a way that fits your idiotic thesis?
Do you know what the "Hajj" is, you know, one of the five pillars of Islam? If you do, would you please explain the existence of that ritual in a way that supports your idiotic thesis?
You are either ignorant or being deliberately disengenous. Which is it?
Of course there is something which can be commonly understood as Islam and is instantly recognizable as Islam. Muslims are particularly proud of that fact, and the uniformity of Islam (which they frequently even overstate) is something they trumpet in their promotional literature, a.k.a. da'wa writings.
If Muslims THEMSELVES insist there is a common set of Muslim beliefs and even a common Muslim culture, HOW can somebody like you come along and say there isn't?
Sure Malaysians are different from Nigerians. But they observe the same prayers, learn from the same texts, ideally learn Arabic, and they stand side by side in Mecca, dressed in the same clothing. The sight is actually quite remarkable, if you have ever seen it. Muslims are absolutely "in it together". That's what Ummah is all about.
If Muslims take such pride in their fellowship and unity, they ought to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder and condemn the oppression of women and the terrorism that targets churches and synagogues. Maybe, some day, that will happen. But right now, they are falling far short of that mark and I for one say, let's keep asking them why.