Thanks Luigi

Submitted by Heidi (United Arab Emirates), Jun 29, 2008 at 04:00

Thank you so much for your comments Luigi. Actually, I read the headline when I was half done typing my comments and decided to post them regardless of the divergent subject.

Well I suppose you got sense of my 'utopian' or I suppose 'oversimplistic' worldview with reference to the reproductive behaviour of plants!! Yes, if only human behaviour and social structures were that simple!

I am not well educated on Islam. I am seeing its influence in the behaviour and attitudes of my partner, as well as the traditions I have witnessed living in an Arab country. I was raised Christian but most of my life I have rejected institutionalized religion and kept my beliefs private. Islam's power and pervasiveness in both private and public realms is ....for lack of a better word....frightening. Having been raised in a secular part of the world that prizes liberal-democratic values I cherish independent thinking and appreciate freedom of expression in its many forms.

Thoughts...

1) TRUTH - My partner has spoken of a search for 'truth'. I am a skeptic when it comes to 'absolute truth'. Reality, as I see it, is not packaged into dichotomous values: truth/untruth; right/wrong; good/bad. Social institutions try and serve it up as simple and uniform as this. You made reference to the hegemonic tendencies of Islam which made me evaluate my partner's interpretation of truth, which I believe he is essentially refering to Islam. I believe in tolerance and acceptance of beliefs and views that are divergent of my own so far as they are not destructive (and yes I am well aware of the subjectivity of what is deemed destructive).

2) FEAR - It appears that Islam indoctrinates its members with this fear of sexuality. This is most apparent in the covering of women. We are sexual beings. However, the human body is not just a vessle for sex/procreation and therefore I believe we should not perceive it as such. I do not understand how the repression of such expressions as dance, sport, and art that require an appreciation of the human form can be beneficial to culture. Female circumcision (still practiced in Egypt where my partner is from) is absolutely appalling to me and epitomizes fear and rejection of femininity and sexuality (Is this sanctioned by Islam?)

Certainly there has to be some middle ground between the Western world's hypersexuality that breeds its own social ills and the overtly oppressive East. In both worlds I perceive patriarchal values that limit the defining and expression of what is feminine by exploiting sexuality in form or another.

Oh boy....can you tell I am starved for some intense conversation! I have so much to say. Well, Luigi I welcome your insight. You appear to be a well-educated. Please enlighten me!

Heidi

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".