Re: Shubhanallah, Mohammedan men are not only after Hindu/Sikh girls!
Originally Posted by
Shuddhasattva
Namaste
One need not adhere to the exact dogma/teachings to be counted among its ranks and influenced by it. One can miss all the positive teachings - and every system has them, even in pathetic quantities such as Islam; they need some measure of truth and righteousness to convince anyone - and imbibe only the negative teachings and inculcated attitudes stemming therefrom, yet still derive support from the community, and nourish an identity with it.
Consider, for example, Latino gangs in the US. Many of them are devout Christians, or would consider themselves to be such. Yet how do they behave?
Pranams,
Ok, let's take Latino gangs in the US. They engage in gang warfare, male chauvinism, drug-dealing, and all sorts of other unspeakable acts. Yet, these people are nominally Christian and may even wear symbols to indicate their religious affiliation (crucifix earrings, tattoos, etc). The analogous situation would be for a Latino population to begin growing in a non-Christian country, and for journalists to report that the increased tendency towards gang warfare is a problem associated with Christianity. Would you consider that a responsible and defendable conclusion?
This isn't a question of political correctness. I don't care much for Islam or Christianity. To me, these are false religions. But I think one has to be fair, put aside one's inherent biases, and look at the facts. It *might* be that Islam has conditioned these criminals to behave in this way towards women, but the article as written has not made a good case to support that. From the article: "Ella Cockbain, a University College of London crime science specialist, says research shows that mostly Asian men make up the big groups of offenders who work together. She chooses her words carefully because the sample size is small and the topic sensitive." Also of note, the men involved were found guilty of sexual exploitation of non-Muslim women, but strangely, not of their own women. If it were purely a misogyny thing, would they not be guilty of it towards Muslim women also? Finally, there is the fact that these men were using alcohol and other obviously forbidden acts to entice these women. And their motivation, contrary to what was claimed earlier, does not appear to have been "conversion to Islam." All of this makes it difficult to accept that Islam is what inspired them to commit these crimes. Rather, it sounds like they were sexual predators by nature, and they used Islamic arguments to rationalize their crimes after the fact.
The religion of the Koran is abominable. It preaches the willful destruction of non-Muslim places of worship, prejudice against Jews, Christians, and "polytheists," and was spoken by a "prophet" who has a known history of subjugating women (especially the women of conquered tribes). That being said, there are many Muslims today who, despite their claims to fidelity to Islam, don't really subscribe to all of what it teaches. I am hard-pressed to believe that most Muslim men in spite of education and professional standing secretly fantasize about sexually exploiting young girls. I could be made to believe that, if there was objective data to support such a conclusion. Until then, I see serious problems with the idea of projecting child sexual abuse as a problem seen primarily in other ethnic groups. Oh no, it can't happen to us, and so we look the other way when it does...
Philosoraptor
"Wise men speak because they have something to say. Fools speak because they have to say something." - Plato
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