Religions are not equals

[Regina]

It bothers me that every public figure who speaks about Islam being currently more troublesome is labelled a racist and bigot and their reasoned arguments are ignored or misrepresented. Sam Harris, Bill Maher, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Maajid Nawaz, Richard Dawkins, Hitchens etc...  Tolerance of intolerance does not lead to more tolerance.

Compare this to the enlightenment when people like Voltaire, and Thomas Jefferson spoke out against Christianity. They were deemed blasphemers by their religious opponents, not racists and bigots by their own ideological peers. 

How can there be a new enlightenment directed at Islam when Liberals and atheists attack their own peers who are speaking out against Islam?

Although I don't want to act like "The Islam issue" is the only thing going on in the world right now, I think this is a massive contribution to why politics are so skewed and messy in contemporary times tbh. We've had this pathetic weak Left over the past 3 decades, who have completely abandoned their traditional liberal principles to defend multiculturalism and Islam from criticism, even from people who come from Muslim backgrounds. Even someone like Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an "Islamophobe" or a "self-hater" for daring to speak out, and it really is such a patronising racism to tell these people (basically) that secularism and recognition of human rights are exclusively for white people.

It's dangerous as well, because when the Left won't be principled and defend human rights in the face of this Islamist far-Right regressive political movement, you pave the way for The Western Right to come in, and do it in their own way by scape-goating and vilifying everyone who practices Islam.

Donald Trump would not be POTUS right now if The Western Left had spent the last 3 decades combating Islamism, in a principled defense of individual human rights. It's because the Left have so spectacularly dropped the ball on this issue, betraying anyone (Muslim or non-Muslim) who is trampled over by Islamists, and allowing Islamism to fester into the phenomenon it has become today, that people like Trump have been able to exploit things to gain power.





I still think this is an amazing short talk by ex-Muslim Maryam Namazie (I actually quoted a segment of it for my signature on this forum). It's a good critique of The Western "pro-Islamist Left" and I think everyone should hear it.