Freedom of contract. We sell them guns that kill them; they sell us drugs that kill us.
Shooting in France
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior
Freedom of speech, the French way!
"May a commune of gay, Marxist Muslim illegal immigrants use your tax dollars to open a drive-thru abortion clinic in your church."
I lost a lot of respect for Reza after that interview. He clearly didn't do his homework ahead of time and seemed to equate having a woman as head of state as being progressive towards women. You could see he was squirming. Bangladesh? Google that shit Reza. It has a serious extremism problem and I don't have to tell you what religion they follow.
yeah, he stumbled with some of the countries he tried to hold up as good examples, but he was trying to present a counter argument to what that anchorwoman was trying to project. i'd also say that having a female head of state is progressive as it symbolizes what women can achieve. this is especially true if a nations history says that women never or almost never held positions of political power. you can't just wave a magic wand to erase decades or centuries of backwards thinking.
We don't know what our limits are, so to start something with the idea of being limited actually ends up limiting us.
Ellen Langer
i'd also say that having a female head of state is progressive as it symbolizes what women can achieve..
Unless that female head of state is say, Margret Thatcher or, god forbid, Hillary Clinton.
Freedom of contract. We sell them guns that kill them; they sell us drugs that kill us.
yeah, he stumbled with some of the countries he tried to hold up as good examples, but he was trying to present a counter argument to what that anchorwoman was trying to project. i'd also say that having a female head of state is progressive as it symbolizes what women can achieve. this is especially true if a nations history says that women never or almost never held positions of political power. you can't just wave a magic wand to erase decades or centuries of backwards thinking.
Reza was trying to counter what Bill Maher and Sam Harris had argued days before this interview aired, and he made the claim that Maher wasn't very sophisticated on the topic of religion (and noticeably left out Harris), so there was no excuse for his lack of research.
I am not saying voting in a woman to lead your country is not heading in a progressive direction. I am not even saying Islam cannot head in a progressive direction. What I am trying to say is that Islam is currently very fundamentalist, even for the average Muslim. Combining this very strong dedication to faith with a barbaric holy text does not end well IMO. In fact you can take Islam out of the argument and say that taking religion too seriously is the real problem, it just happens to be more prevalent in Muslim countries.
Yeah, I don't fully buy "its never about the religion, its the culture". How do you explain radicalized converts then? How does someone who has lived in Canada their whole life without even seeing a mosque suddenly want to go fight in Syria? They sure aren't going because they are devoted to Syrian culture.
Also, I think the fact that women have led Muslim countries is not so much a sign of progressive thinking but of dynastic succession. Do some research and you will see pretty much all of those women were the daughters or widows of ex-leaders.
Sheikh Hasina - Daughter of president
Khaleda Zia - Wife of president
Megawati Sukarnoputri - Daughter of President
Benazir Bhutto - Daughter of President
Say what you want about Maggie Thatcher - her father was a shopkeeper.
Reza was trying to counter what Bill Maher and Sam Harris had argued days before this interview aired, and he made the claim that Maher wasn't very sophisticated on the topic of religion (and noticeably left out Harris), so there was no excuse for his lack of research.
ahhh…. link?
I am not saying voting in a woman to lead your country is not heading in a progressive direction. I am not even saying Islam cannot head in a progressive direction. What I am trying to say is that Islam is currently very fundamentalist, even for the average Muslim. Combining this very strong dedication to faith with a barbaric holy text does not end well IMO. In fact you can take Islam out of the argument and say that taking religion too seriously is the real problem, it just happens to be more prevalent in Muslim countries.
yeah i see your point on this as well as what Duncan is saying. while there is no doubt a connection with muslim countries being closer to extremism, there are other factors such as imperialism and war that have facilitated the spread of radical ideas. religion is simply a tool being used by some to achieve what they want.
We don't know what our limits are, so to start something with the idea of being limited actually ends up limiting us.
Ellen Langer
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