Quote:
Originally Posted by Lune
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Paul, it's more about culture than it is about race or religion, Kaga just doesn't frame it that way. And a culture is a perfectly valid thing to dislike, because it's an extremely powerful system of guidance for behavior and it's actually possible to identify.
Even 'moderate' muslims are still extremely religious, with cultural idiosyncrasies that are going to be outright offensive to your typical 'neckbearded, fedora-donning atheist' like myself. Every nation gets the government it deserves. Show me a majority-Islamic society that I can respect, and I'll change my mind.
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I agree with all of this, except that Kagatob's statements were anything but flatly racist. As Sam Harris points out, jihadists only account for a small percentage of all Muslims who embody the center of the concentric circle, but it's the Islamists that make up the vast majority and who hold very much the same kind of beliefs as the extremists - beliefs such as killing people for apostacy, or for offending the religion in any way being a good thing. The moderates are only a small fringe element of Islam as a whole - moderates fighting for reform in this day and age is akin to throwing a bucket of water at a cresting tsunami of jihad.
So yes, I completely agree - it's about the cultural ideology of Islam. Culture can either be a very healthy, life-affirming great thing or it can be a toxic, shit-spewing cesspool of hate and bad ideas.