In the course of an hour-long conversation that touched deeply
on many topics relating to science, the scientific method, evolutionary biology,
and the future of humanity, one questioner from the audience asked him, “Are
liberals afraid of Islam?”
In his answer, Dawkins questioned the moral
authority of “liberals” who decry misogyny, homophobia, and the like but yet “give
a free pass” to Islam with respect to these forms of hate in preference to
supporting Muslims as “victims of oppression from the West.” In his view, however,
it is not the West that has victimized Muslims but rather Islam itself, implying
that it is Islam that requires its followers to practice hateful behavior
against women and gays and thus that Islam is in need of reform.
In my opinion, Dawkins’ is an overly simplistic view of the
origins of misogyny and homophobia among Muslims. With no data to back me up (so let the comments begin!), I would
nevertheless “guess” that many if not most practicing and even devout Muslims, particularly
those in the West, are not misogynists or homophobes, at least no more than the
general population at large. Rather, I would posit that misogyny and homophobia
arise much more from cultural norms of society at large and just plain ignorance-based
fear of people who are “different” rather than from the dictates of religion.
Further, it is a common practice, particularly among
religious fundamentalists not only of Islam but of Christianity and Judaism, as
well, to cherry-pick passages from their respective religious texts to justify misogyny,
homophobia, racism, slavery, and other expressions of hateful and hurtful
behavior in the name of eradicating sin and apostasy. Of course, those same texts
could also be, and often are, cherry-picked to instead demand love and
brotherhood and inclusion.
So, it’s not so much Islam or other religions themselves
that are at fault but rather some practitioners of those religions who have a
particular cultural, social, or political agenda they want to “sell” by saying,
in effect, to paraphrase comic Flip Wilson’s character Geraldine, “I didn’t want to hate all those folks. The
Lord made me do it!” Actually,
Geraldine’s original wording is right: “The Devil
made me do it!”
If you’d like to hear a recording of the Commonwealth Club’s
full interview with Richard Dawkins, click here.
I agree that the society dictates more than the religion.
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ReplyDeleteI concur with you completely. We ought not carefully select things from a book or discussion and should regard different religions and others perspective.
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