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aziz
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thabet
While discussing evolution in Muslim countries, Salman Hameed touches on a favourite topic of mine, and rightfully notes that separating the ‘belief’ from the ‘believer’ (a neat distinction often used by liberals) is not always possible:
There is no easy option or solution here. The liberal democratic state clearly has to violate its own guarantee to protect ‘freedom of religion’ where that freedom crosses certain limits (e.g. physical harm to the body). This requires either the state to consider what constitutes ‘true’ religion (e.g. are certain forms of dress or physical symbols compulsory acts of faith or mere ‘extras’?), or for believers to adapt their definition of their own ‘religion’ (the most obvious example I can think of is the aversion to FGM many Western Muslims now have, something fairly non-controversial in Muslim societies in the past*).
What do you think?
*And yes, it seems women’s bodies are always the target of these ‘debates’. Though that may be changing.
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thabet
McDonald’s Wahhabism:
Between Wahhabism and McDonalds [sic] the world is coming to look and feel the same…
It was certainly interesting to meet the Balochis of Oman.
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Matt
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thabet
This is interesting. Anyone care to comment? And by anyone I mean anyone other than Shams who I know will leave 100,000 unreadable comments…!
More controversially, the authors go on to argue that, where there is robust cross-cultural research, WEIRD subjects tend to be outliers on a range of measurable traits that do vary, including visual perception, sense of fairness, cooperation, spatial reasoning, and a host of other basic psychological traits. They don’t ignore universals – discussing them in several places – but they do highlight human variation and its implications for psychological theory.
(Via Andrew Sullivan.)
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Hitch
I’d say this isn’t really new. And it’s not just WEIRD, it’s even more specific. It’s 18-23 year old white US American males who managed to get admission at a research university, which is a highly selected pool.
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thabet
Obviously this demand from the OIC does not apply to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, etc.
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thabet
Poland’s ‘Muslim Tatars hope for cultural revival’:
The 5,000-strong community no longer speaks their Turkic Tatar language, they often celebrate Catholic festivals and mixed marriages with non-Muslims are quite common. Many eat pork and drink alcohol, but Islam remains key to their identity.
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thabet
Robert Fisk has written series of articles (1, 2, 3, 4) on the ‘crime wave that shames the world’:
A 10-month investigation by The Independent in Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank has unearthed terrifying details of murder most foul. Men are also killed for “honour” and, despite its identification by journalists as a largely Muslim practice, Christian and Hindu communities have stooped to the same crimes. Indeed, the “honour” (or ird) of families, communities and tribes transcends religion and human mercy. But voluntary women’s groups, human rights organisations, Amnesty International and news archives suggest that the slaughter of the innocent for “dishonouring” their families is increasing by the year.
Parts three and four look at how ‘honour’ killings are treated in Pakistan and Egypt, and how the courts and the police actively collude in covering up or engaging in these murders.
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thabet
Fisk concludes his series on this, including a depressingly unsurprising revelation about the treatment of women in Abu Ghraib.
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thabet
The taxi driver who ‘doubled as a bounty hunter’, tracking down young women fleeing forced marriages:
While most locals in the tightly knit south Asian community thought Zakir was merely picking up and dropping off passengers each day, his work provided perfect cover to exploit his contacts with fellow drivers and shopkeepers to hunt down runaway teenagers. According to Zakir, some bounty hunters would also befriend officials in housing departments and in the Department for Work and Pensions to get National Insurance numbers – a strategy confirmed by campaigners against forced marriages.
Zakir’s job was never to harm his targets, but to return them home to face their “destiny” of being made to marry someone their parents had chosen. Despite the fact that runaways can be beaten for having escaped, he sides with the families on the issue. The softly spoken driver, speaking to G2 on the condition his real name was not used, insisted: “I did it as a favour to the families, as I knew most of them. It wasn’t about the money. It was about izzat [honour]. I saw the effect it had on them when their daughter ran away. The worry and the shame from the community talking about them. I was part of the ‘taxi driver network’, so we shared information about who we picked up and where they got dropped off.
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thabet
Manan Ahmad writes about the ‘cultural damage’ of the ‘war on terror’.
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thabet
Stanley Fish writes:
If I may:
One hundred people: cult.
One thousand people: movement.
Ten thousand people: community.
One hundred thousand people: culture.
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Hitch
There are myriads of devices to stereotype and brand. But the most important minority remains one. If you look at how “normal” treats “one”, independent who “one” is, you learn a lot about “normal”.
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Matt is discussing. 
Hitch is discussing. 
thabet is discussing. 
I didn’t know that Wahhabism and McDonald’s were the only two choices!! But, the sentiment is very real for me. An interesting article about a place I would someday like to visit.