[QUOTE=Valteron]
My contention is that we see very few Muslims jumping into the debates about Islam, and that the principal reason for this may well be that Islamic culture and history are based on authoritarian demands for submission (which is what Islam means).
I believe our western concepts of freedom and democracy, so clearly illustrated by the free-wheeling and passionate debates on this SDMB, are simply weird to a person raised in Islamic culture.
[/QUOTE]
No, actually, I don’t think you want to debate these points. Rather I am quite firmly convinced that you want to use the above as a cover for you to elucidate in great detail as to exactly why you believe Islam is un-western and barbaric. Or in other words I believe airing your talking points are much more important to you than actual debate.
Liberal is far more charitable of your motives than I am. But I guess we all have our personality flaws and one of mine is a suspicious nature.
The reason few Muslims have engaged in religious debate on the SDMB has already been explained:
1.) It is a tiny minority religion in the English speaking countries that make up 99.9% ( or whatever ) of the membership here. Hence there have been few Muslim posters, period.
2.) Not every poster has a burning need to debate/defend their personal faith on a message board. I’m sure there are more than a few devout Christians on the SDMB that have no great interest in participated in Christian-oriented debates either. Others are simply not equipped to do so - they have sincere beliefs, but don’t have a host of cites handy and thus aren’t armed for debate.
3.) Most folks get tired of being in the constant defensive position a Muslim on the SDMB would have to assume in the face of continual attacks and ‘No True Scotsmen’ arguments.
There you have it.
[QUOTE=Liberal]
Islamic culture is different from Western culture. There’s no point in pretending otherwise.
[/quote]
There is no such thing universal “Islamic” or “Western” culture in such broad terms and there is no pretending otherwise. Are Bosnian Muslims “Western” or “Islamic”?
[QUOTE=Liberal]
Knees are jerking so hard that skulls are cracking, and there’s no point in it.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, well, like I said you’re a charitable person in this regard. I’m not. We’ll leave aside the fact that I think the very notion that our few Muslim posters don’t feel called upon to continuously interject themselves in relgious debates on the SDMB because they are inherently different in mindset, what with their notions that freedom and democracy being weird and their inherent submission to authoritarian beliefs, is both ridiculous and insulting as hell. Might as well just spit in the face of every Muslim member of the SDMB, past and present.
The simple fact is that while Valteron may be a perfectly decent person in other respects, IMO this a well-documented blind spot of his. Am I making assumptions about where he is headed with this? Yep. But I feel pretty comfortable doing so.
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