Reply to Sarah, ref married to a Muslim woman

Submitted by M. al-Content (Portugal), Mar 19, 2006 at 15:31

You: You were supporting the mockery of the cartoonists in the name of freedom of speech.

Me: No, there is a fundamental difference between supporting what someone says, and supporting their right to say it. I hear many things on a daily basis which i find offensive to some degree, but I accept that as the price I pay for my own freedom. If I try to silence a voice which I find offensive, what will I say when someone else tries to silence me ?

You: I did not expect you to share our outrage. We expected you to understand that the mockery hurts us.
Me: It depends what you mean by mockery. The only genuine cartoon I saw was the bomb-headgear, which seemed to me to be asking a serious and legitimate question about Islam and violence. I personally did not see it as mockery.

You: We understand that every faith is correct from its own perspective. We respect that. But then we expect that you do the same.
Me: It depends what you mean by respect. To me, respect would mean Muslim countries allowing non-Muslims freedoms such as publicly gathering for worship, or expressing their beliefs in the media. By that standard, some Muslim countries are far from being on a 'level playingfield' of respect.

You: There's no 'womb war' programme. People who have strong family ties, who respect the institution of marriage, grow faster than the races who do the opposite. Muslims are not growing on purpose to conquer your lands. Their growth is natural.
Me: there is very little about modern human life which is natural. 75% infant mortality is natural, but we do not accept it as such, and basic healthcare now enables relatively poor people to see most of their children survive to adulthood. The problem is that not enough people are taking advantage of this. While in the developed world most parents are happy to have a small number of healthy children produce a small number of healthy grandchildren, elsewhere the number of children is still considered more important than the health of the individual child. This problem is reinforced where girls are considered less valuable than boys and get less of the available food than their brothers, impairing their development, and making them less able to bear healthy children of their own in the future. Allowing women more control over their own bodies would help, but too many men do not want that. Basically, this means a future with more people, but less health. Such a wasted opportunity !

You: There is a natural equilibrium in the creations of the Almighty. Can't you see that? If one group increases, others decrease. So there will be a balace in the end.
Me: Maybe, but I am not optimistic about the end. What recent history confirms is that many peoples who were said to have 'moved away' actually only went as far as a mass grave in the forest.

You: So now you have death wish as well ?!! Why? To run away from Muslims??!!
Me: When living in a Muslim country I accepted the constraints that involved, though unwillingly. Now living in a free society, I accept the constraints that involves, willingly, and have no wish to change. If freedom is to die, then I do not wish to live to see it do so.

You: You'd have learnt to respect a woman, who, by nature and by training, was loyal and at the same time equal to you.
Me: It depends what you mean by respect, equal, and just about everything else ! However, I think this takes us back to the question of freedom of speech: you believe that you are equal to a Muslim man. I support your right to express that belief, regardless of whether I agree with it or not ! And if you make some Muslims angry, and some spineless western government says that you should not be 'provocative', then shame on them, I will still support you !

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