I find the term “Muslimophobia” preferable to “Islamophobia”. (Obviously, judging people according to their religious identity is reprehensible, while criticizing religious doctrine not only acceptable, but necessary for religious development. Just ask Moses, Jesus, or Mohammed.)

I also think you are polarizing these issues unnecessarily. There is no reason why someone should not speak up for oppressed women merely because the US military uses drones.

And it is perfectly reasonable to note ingrained cultural problems which are embedded in religious doctrines, and to do so without needing to add layers of qualifications about other problems and other cultures which are completely irrelevant to the problem. (Both Australia and New Zealand were complicit in helping Indonesian Muslims commit genocide against East Timorese Catholics, but that does not disqualify either me or Heather from criticizing the Catholic Church.)

Equal rights for women were trampled into the dust as Christianity and then Islam stampeded across the globe. The fact that other religions are as bad as Islam is no excuse for defending it, no religion offers anything worthwhile that any decent human being could not live by without it but most, if not all, force a lot of bad on adherents and abstainers which would not exist without religion. That’s a good enough reason to eliminate religion all on its own.

The Indian government is working on this. This cannot be changed overnight because it is to do with attitudes. You can find plenty of people in the US who believe the husband has complete authority over the wife and give them little or no freedom.

I’ll comment further on the other post.

I wouldn’t object so much to the Islam bashing if the US weren’t actively bombing and droning defenseless Muslims on a daily basis, and providing arms for murderous regimes like Saudi Arabia to commit genocide in Yemen. As the rise of Trump indicates, Islamophobia is rampant in the US, and among its most active practitioners are self-described liberals like Harris and Coyne.

We don’t ignore the barbarities in other cultures. India admits they have a problem and are working on fixing it. The West admits there is still a problem with sexism (though there are plenty who deny it) and are constantly working on it. Islam, on the other hand, denies there is a problem. I’m in the middle of writing a post about the treatment of women in Islam, so you’ll get your chance to vent your disgust with me soon.

Why do anti-religious atheists continually focus on Islam and ignore the barbarities in other cultures? India’s caste system is one of the worst products of religion produced anywhere, and remains vastly influential. Yet certain Islam-bashers vacation with rich Indians, rave about the food, but offer nary a word about the horrible injustices of Hindu culture.

If I’d commented before Yakaru, I would’ve said pretty much exactly what she said.

I do find the climate in the US has become more anti-Muslim and I blame that almost entirely on the GOP primary, especially the hate- and fear-mongering of Trump.

A couple of hours ago I saw an interview Bret Baier (Fox) did with Trump. Trump said, with a completely straight face and total sincerity, that he didn’t think he took the low road and he didn’t like doing it. Then he immediately doubled down on his comments from two days ago linking Rafael Cruz with the assassination of JFK. “There’s a photo,” he said with seriousness.

Yes, one of the problems here in Germany is that as soon as refugees arrive here, the media tends to focus — albeit often well-meaningly — on their religion, assuming that there is a monolithic category “Muslim”. I would be happier though if Germany stood up to the oppressive culture that is very prominent at the moment in the Muslim world, but not because “it’s alien to German culture” but because it’s against universal human rights. Likewise, their oppression should not be tolerated by the left in the name of multiculturalism, but rather opposed for the same reason.

As for Sam, yes, I’ve heard him repeatedly say that he is opposed to Trump’s fascist anti-Muslim ideas. I switch off from him when he keeps banging on about religion, and often I find his political analysis a bit thin, but I think that part of that is because he feels the issue gets too little emphasized. I kinda agree, but I also think it’s good to try slicing a problem a few different ways and see what it looks like, especially if each run at it seems to result in you just banging your head into the wall.

Luckily there are a great many other thinkers, especially reformist- and ex-Muslims who are beginning to get more coverage.

As far as I know, Sam still attempts to focus on the religion rather than Muslims as people, though that’s becoming a harder distinction for him to maintain in the current climate. While he strongly implies that “something needs to be done”, I don’t think he has said much specifically about what, unless I have missed it. I think he is on record opposing pretty much all of what Trump has said about locking out refugees and sending Muslims already here somewhere else. He believes the US has done a better job at integrating Muslims into communities than several European countries have and that they are the ones with a big problem. So I think his rhetoric is quite different than Trump’s in some very important ways, even if it does in broad terms provide support for Trump’s extremism.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/05/04/tennessee-shell-station-advertises-hate-speech-along-with-gas-prices/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=friendlyatheist_050416UTC060505_daily&utm_content=&spMailingID=51301715&spUserID=MTE0MTcwOTgyMzM4S0&spJobID=920505230&spReportId=OTIwNTA1MjMwS0