Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: October 15, 2017 10:18PM
G3gnp Wrote:
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> There seems to be a liberal fantasy that Islam and
> Gays are tight.
Assuming that "tight" means something like "in warm accord with each other," I don't know where you get this idea...everything I know is that gays within Islamic societies are often targets of cruel police methods, tortures, and executions (whether legally, or extra-legally).
> No one hesitates to mock or attact Christians (btw
> I am agnostic), yet same people who attack
> Christian are afraid to criticize Islam for same
> or even more extreme beliefs.
In relatively recent "times past" (such as: up to, and through, the twentieth century), Christians (in general) were often treated with politeness and enormous outer respect, while Muslims were often referred to in less-than-human terms, or by modifications of vile characterizations which had more often been used, in the popular culture, to refer to people of color. (The exception to the general "good manners" towards Christians would be Catholics, because in the historical, larger American culture, and outside of specific "Catholic" geographical areas, Catholics were often the target of great prejudice which came from non-Catholic Christians, to the point where intermarriage was often considered either totally impossible, or a scandal if it actually occurred.)
I think the misapprehension here is to think that this is primarily a matter of "beliefs." I know of one particular case where this is actually true (formerly common, before Vatican II, non-Catholic beliefs about the Catholic Pope), but in most instances, "beliefs" has nothing to do with it. (If beliefs did, then no one would be prejudiced against Muslims because they are also part of the Abrahamic religions, with the same ancient religious ancestry and, overall, general theological beliefs as Jews and Christians.)
I think the real problem here is that there used to be a widespread assumption that a "REAL" American, by practical definition, was a Protestant Christian, and everyone else (even when accepted, usually grudgingly) was "not QUITE as American"...
...certainly not QUITE as American as was a Protestant Christian (especially a Protestant Christian male).
We are in the midst of a national transition now, an era when we are trying to transform our inner beliefs (and what we can now clearly see are our inner prejudices) to accord with the shining words of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America.
A time, in other words, when our national goal is to make those words not just ideals, but reality.
Some people, who were of the opinion that God Himself had selected them to be the elect of this nation, are going to feel, during this time of transition, that they are losing what they always just assumed was their Divine birthright of being at the tippy-top of the American social pyramid.
This is going to be, and IS, a painful process for those who are being asked to become more inclusive, and this time of our national life is likely to feel to them that they are "being bullied" when they, in their own private lives, realize that they must accept "the others" [also Americans] as being on the same level as they themselves have always been proud to occupy.
As we work through this national challenge, our past, generally-national prejudices regarding Islam, and also sexual orientation, are front and center, and it is "this" part of the national historical filmstrip that you are "seeing" right now.
In ten or twenty years or fifty years, we will be able to look back at this period, and events now current will clearly show how we got from "now" (second decade of the twenty-first century) to "there" (wherever we wind up, when these tasks have been completed).
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2017 10:27PM by Tevai.