No Ordinary Violence | Hacker News Reader

No Ordinary Violence

samharris.org

2 pointstokenadult3 comments

Islam is one of those things that is really hard to pigeonhole, due to the fact that since the 13th century, it has really ceased to be one brand. Muslims seem to all have their own ideas about what "Islam" is, but everyone still treats it as if it were a monolithic entity that can be characterized consistently as thus or so.

It can't. It's just too decentralized and scattered. I can argue that the actions of a mob in India that stones a young girl to death for having the audacity to report being raped are due to their culture, not Islam itself, while the same mob will be more than willing to ascribe their own actions completely to Islam.

In the meantime, the rest of us really have no choice but to regard all Muslims with some suspicion. And I think that a lot of us need to come to terms with the truth of the matter that, until "Muslim" becomes, at the very least, something of a known quantity, there really is nothing racist, prejudicial, or wrong with doing so.

While, from an outsider's perspective, Islam has had its share of splinters and factionalism in its past, Islam has not yet suffered its great upheaval, denial, disillusionment, search for meaning, angst and ultimately abandonment that Christianity suffered through the age of enlightenment.

Seriously, all the horror that is perpetuated in the name of Islam reminds me of the crusades. And all that nonsense should have rightfully ended in the middle ages.

Excellent point. You don't see an awful lot of introspection, do you? I would wonder, though, if this was something that might have happened during Islam's golden age, before the 13th century. "Muslim" society was much more moderate and secular then, but it went through a change that is eerily similar to what it seems a good portion of American Christians would like to see Christianity go through - a shift towards greater subjugation of women, absolute control over adherents' sexuality, and emphasis on tradition over innovation. Makes me wonder who, exactly, is behind this curve?

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