The_Mac wrote:
KEN-JENNINGS wrote:
I just searched for about 10 minutes for my response to the original post of this video here but couldn't find it.
Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" theory wouldn't be the proper way I would describe Islam's relationship with the Western World. Plenty of people are Muslim and wholly embrace Western values and ideology. There are plenty of advanced Muslim societies as well. Clearly she has a bone to pick with Islam, but making ill-formed generalizations about an entire religion is ignorant in my opinion.
Well, you might realize she is rather well versed in Qua'ran scripture considering she is a former Muslim woman. But then again, I'm sure you know a lot more than she does, right?
She is a secular Muslim, not a former Muslim. I never said I knew more about the Qu'ran than her, simply that her sociological generalizations are ill-formed. Then again, I doubt you even watched the video longer than to hear her say that Islam is barbaric and backwards.
Hey, I was a practicing Catholic for 16 years, does that mean what I say about Christianity or Catholicism has more weight? The fact of the matter is that Islam and modern society is already integrated throughout the world. People like you and her who make brash generalizations because you take what an extremist element promotes instead of looking at the whole picture do nothing to help the idea of integration.
Personally, I agree with the idea of secular institutions. It took Christianity at least 1000 years to come to the point of reform, then another 500 or so to actually stop many barbaric and backwards practices - the same type of thing that certain elements of Islam are going through. The difference is that there is no central Islamic Institution to constantly evolve the way of Islamic teachings, like the Catholic Church did over those 1500 years. It is up to the people practicing and preaching the religion of Islam to constantly reevaluate their beliefs and teachings for a modern society - something many Muslim practitioners and preachers are continuously doing around the globe. However, as long as people like you and her generalize a group of 1 billion people into a simple category of barbaric and backwards, the progress already made will take a back-burner to the extremists. The ironic conclusion is that this type of mentality actually gives their goals and teachings a sense of legitimacy, regardless of it is justified or not.