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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAn atheist Muslim on what the left and right get wrong about Islam
by Sean Illing at Vox
https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/7/7/15886862/islam-trump-isis-terrorism-ali-rizvi-religion-sam-harris
"SNIP...........
Ali Rizvi
I grew up in a moderate to liberal Muslim family in three Muslim-majority countries that were culturally very different. I developed certain perspectives about the religion and the Muslim experience that most others didnt have. Im not just talking about Islam itself, but also the Muslim experience, which is more personal and more to do with identity rather than ideology or belief.
Like most issues, in the United States especially, the conversation around this issue about Islam, Muslims, and terrorism eventually diverged into the left and the right. You had the liberals with their view, and the conservatives with their view, and I felt both of them were really missing the mark. They were both conflating Islam the ideology and Muslim the identity. Islam is a religion; its a set of beliefs, a bunch of ideas in a book. It's not human. Muslims are real, living, breathing people, and to me, there's a big difference between criticizing ideas and demonizing human beings.
Sean Illing
And your sense was that both the left and the right were failing to capture this distinction?
Ali Rizvi
Neither side was making that distinction. On the left, people were saying that if you have any criticism against Islam, then you were a bigot against all Muslims. On the right, it was like, there are a lot of problematic things in Islamic scripture, so everyone who is Muslim must be banned, or profiled, or demonized. Both sides weren't making that distinction between challenging ideas, which has historically moved societies forward, and demonizing human beings, which only rips societies apart.
.............SNIP"
JHan
(10,173 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)More people should read him.
NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)UTUSN
(70,640 posts)NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)Being an atheist kind of ruins the equation.
UTUSN
(70,640 posts)Last edited Tue Jul 11, 2017, 11:20 PM - Edit history (2)
applegrove
(118,460 posts)from his childhood.
Nevernose
(13,081 posts)But not a believer in the supernatural. See: 2/3s of the Jews I know or am related to.