Friday, August 27, 2010
A liberal talks sense (it happens, now and again)
Susan Jacoby is an atheist and a liberal, but she draws the line at the unthinking acceptance of multiculturalism displayed by many of her colleagues on the left. Doubtless I would disagree with Ms. Jacoby on most things, but, for the most part, she gets this issue right.
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Doubtless I would disagree with Ms. Jacoby on most things, but, for the most part, she gets this issue right.
ReplyDeleteYep. Mostly.
========= ranting ============
Especially the idiocy she reports anecdotally Another resident of this community sharply reproved my friend, saying, “We have no right to interfere with her culture, her religion, her family.” Even if it condones murder (honor killing, etc)? This is very nearly the same as the orders given to Lord William Bentinck - do not interfere with Sati/Sutee because it is a religious custom. He left England, returned to his post in India, and promptly outlawed the practice for all India (the Indian rulers had previously banned it but only for Calcutta, with the same "religious custom" argument against further bans).
A later Governor-General (?) would outlaw an entire religion, Thugee, which had perverted the worship of Kali into justification of murder (Kali killed a lot - but as a form of otherwise-unavailable justice against those who had murdered her children, not indiscriminately).
These are not, I think, all that far removed from stoning a thirteen-year-old rape victim to death. Sati was stopped almost overnight by government edict - and with only token adverse reaction. Thugee was stopped, to acclaim. It is time for more to be done, and I do not mean excusing them with an airy "They do not know better, and we do not want to bother."
I'm with you, John.
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