Calm down, everyone

Submitted by Sadhbh (Ireland), Apr 2, 2009 at 07:10

People can get so abusive when it comes to religious debate. This 'dhimmi no more' character is clearly intelligent and very widely-read, but I don't find him/her to be nearly objective enough to be taken very seriously as an academic and theological commentator. There is no point insulting people for their beliefs - if it makes you feel superior to degrade a person because they believe something you don't, then there is surely something absent in your life. I think perhaps that atheists begin to feel a little left out, jealous of people who have faith in what the atheist simply cannot believe. I say this as an atheist myself.

The article that has turned into a venting ground for 'dhimmi no more' should not have prompted a mass battle of atheism vs. Islam. It was simply a very interesting and, I think, accurate portrayal of Islamic gender identity as it has developed, and as it is today. People have protested that Islam does not promote sexual inequality and that Muslim women are perfectly happy to wear the headdress of their tradition. That is all fine and dandy, BUT the fact is that the headdress is restrictive and does not give much room for a woman to express herself, and it undoubtedly stems from a desire to lessen women's sexual appeal. It follows, then, that those who have the most input into religious culture - that is to say, the MEN - found the passion and sexuality of the famously smouldering Arabic women so threatening that they had to lessen it somehow. And this is all in accordance with Islam's desire to promote morality, clean-living, purity, etc etc etc, and so cannot be called oppression of the second sex...!

if Muslim women are genuinely delighted with their lot in life, well, wonderful! But I find it to be a little silly for Reema to claim that their way of living is all their own doing and is absolutely their own choice. See how (overly) sexualised the Western world - and most especially the Western women - has become with the decline of religion in societies? I'm not saying I promote this manner of behaviour, exactly, but I wonder how Muslim men would react if their women suddenly began acting so sexually liberated.. In the light of all the 'honour killings' we read about, and probably the ones we don't read about, I wouldn't think they'd be too happy about it...

People compare the 9/11 attacks to the Americans attacking the Middle East, as though it somehow lessens the importance of it and makes it alright to a certain degree. Can we not just agree that both are absolute atrocities, and should be condemned absolutely? They are NOT the same, though: America is a global superpower, with a rich, greedy and power-hungry government, and it persuaded its people through the most deceitful propaganda to attack countries a lot of them couldn't find on a map, never mind knowing what these nations were supposed to have done to them. Those who flew the planes into the trade centres and Pentagon were disgusting fanatics and should not be the standard by which people judge Muslims - these were individuals who made a collective, awful decision; it's hardly as though the Qur'an has a passage which reads 'Oh by the way, I want you, you and you to take this plane and fly it into these buildings as retribution on those bastards'. SURELY people are intelligent enough to see that..

Dhimmi no more, check out Zeitgeist. It'll blow your mind.

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".