First, show me the preaching. Stating simple facts of fundamental religious beliefs that run contrary to fundamental human rights is hardly preaching, particularly when my statement was specifically contextualized by mentioning other religions as also being culpable. If you think that I preach against Muslims, I suggest you come up with some examples in this thread or elsewhere where you believe that I have preached against Muslims. Let’s start with this anti-Muslim discriminatory screed:
Second, you state that my statement is being used as cover for discriminating against one religion in particular. Please note that facts are facts and this is Great Debates, in which arguments are supposed to be built upon that are relevant to the discussion. I call out discrimination when I come across it. Remember that two wrongs do not make a right. A valid question was made, and I correctly answered it. That it goes hard against Islam is up to Islam to deal with, rather than for me to conceal. Don’t go sweeping the facts under the carpet. If you think that a debate should ignore facts that are both relevant and significant, then you and I disagree on what a debate should be and on how arguments should be constructed.
tomndebb has put forward a relevant fact: “that “prohibition” is already being routinely ignored in immigrant communities.” (And yes, I very aware of and glad to see the trend --btw “challenges” not “changes”.) Let’s dig deeper. Is the prohibition ignored by Imams who preside at such marriage ceremonies, or is it that over time families and communities are growing more tolerant of women who have civil marriages to non-Muslim men? I think you’ll find that it is the latter rather than the former. I look forward to the day when there will be no prohibition and no social stigma associated with marriage outside of one’s religion, but with the religions of The Book, the dogma runs deep.
(BTW, if anyone knows a legitimate Sunni Imam (but not a Shia Nizari Ismaili Imam for that runs into something similar to the “Mormons are not Christians” problem) in Canada or the USA who will advise a Sunni woman that marriage to an atheist man is not haram, and who will preside at the marriage ceremony (but not an Imam who is simply willing to turn a blind eye while the man falsely pretends to be a Muslim), please IM me with the Imam’s name and contact info.)
Third, preaching against non-islamic religions would only lead this thread off topic, so don’t complain about my not going into detail about the many great failings of Christianity. I’d be glad to, for I’m an atheist who is greatly troubled by the political impact of the religious right here at home in the Conservative leadership race, and in the USA which has significantly contributed to the most militarily powerful and economically powerful country in the world in the little hands of a narcissistic fascist – but that is not the topic of this thread. If you want, by all means go dig about the SDMB for my posts that are critical of Christianity (I expect that there are quite a few anti-fundie posts) and link them or copy excerpts of them here, despite them not being relevant to this debate.