Quote:
Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Indeed.
The point made by the panelist that I wish more Westerners could grasp is that by bringing certain negative cultural realities into religious law, the behavior does not become "sanctioned by" the religion so much as it is controlled, by comparison to silence of religion in the face of those realities. The New Testament is silent on domestic violence, so when a Christian commits domestic violence we consider it largely irrelevant to his religion. By contrast, numerous passages of the Bible condone --- nay, compel --- beating your children, without proscribing limits, and somehow we consider ourselves a more civilized religion.
Resorting to violence against women is a cultural phenomenon that tends to become more and more limited with women's economic and romantic freedom. I think we all can agree that marriage prospects work better under a free market model.
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In some parts of the world, the middle east being one of them, culture and religion are so intertwined that they are one.
Islam, like most religions, is not a static religion. It is not simply the koran and the various interpretations of the koran, which change with time. Islamic clerics reinterpret Islam every time they issue a fatwah. Islam is not what the religious scholars say it should be. It is the relgion that is actually practiced by the people who claim it to be their faith. There are several sects and subsects because different groups tweak their beliefs to be a bit or substantially different from other groups within Islam.
The culture influences the religion as it is practiced and the religion influences the culture. Because it is not politically correct to assail a religious belief, many people blame Arab culture for the discrimination and hatred and abuse of women that occurs in muslim countries. But islam is as much to blame for this horror as Arab culture is. You cannot separate the two as easily as that.
Like the bible, the koran has it good parts and its bad parts. Parts preach a message of violence and hate. And some of the practitioners of this religion hear that message and implement it. Others interpret it differently and say their interpretation is the true interpretation. Whatever. The fact is that the religion is what the people practice, not what you or anyone else says it should be. Islam as practiced by many is a hateful and violent religion. Hateful toward women, hateful toward gays, hateful toward non-muslims.
This is not just a cultural problem. It stems from their religious beliefs, too.
