You said this: "In a truly free society, it should be illegal to indoctrinate children into any single religion."
Pakistan? Sure. I've lived there. However, citing one country as a way to make an absolute assertion is disingenuous. Pakistan is basically a hellhole for women, yet you don't call out the misogyny there. If you want to discuss Islam's misogyny, I suggest Mona el-Tahawy's blog, Feminist Giant. Stop the fixation on insisting Islam is violent, and focus on its misogyny. And don't include Saudi Arabia in your list of evil Muslims - what they practice is not true Islam but a malevolent bastardization based on a screwball extremism that began in the 1920's. In fact, neither Pakistan nor KSA practice true Islam but have found that it's a convenient way to practice political and social violence against those who refuse to comply with social norms, especially women.
"One reason for the rapid growth of Islam is that it is the only major faith that spreads itself using violence and coercion."
Bullshit. I'm so sorry that you have revealed yourself to be an Islamophobic bore. You're happy to spread the "violent religion" crap to entertain your audience.
As for your request to interview me for a podcast, forget it. It's one thing to discuss religion, but quite another to spew ignorance and untruths and call it knowledge.
Wow, less than 24 hours after subscribing, I am cancelling.
Up to you of course. Islam is the newest, and most violent currently of the Abrahamic faiths. That's statistical, not Islamophobic. As I said, I hold no ill will towards Muslims, but towards the cultures it has spawned, I do.
I checked out the link you sent. Not impressed. This doesn't sound like tolerance to me: "This year on May 17, Canada’s International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, a poster, promoted under the auspices of a Canadian university, depicted two Muslim women in headscarves on the verge of kissing. A number of other Canadian universities and high schools allowed the poster to circulate as a way of promoting “diversity in love.” The poster also featured a biracial homosexual couple, a black heterosexual couple, and a couple consisting of a fully-abled and a disabled person, alongside the two Muslim women, with each couple engaging in a romantic act. Many Canadian Muslims were enraged after the release of this poster, and rightfully so considering the appropriation of a patent Muslim symbol (i.e., the hijab) for a cause that is explicitly prohibited in Islam. The Muslim community organized collectively and submitted a petition signed by thousands of individuals, from young students in high school to leaders of Muslim organizations, demanding that the university take down the poster. One Muslim wrote to the university, “Shame on you [...] for such an insulting mockery post to my religion.”
Enraged because someone insulted their beliefs? That's why I don't want to live in a world dominated by theists, especially the thin-skinned Islamic kind.
You "checked out" a link, didn't read it and do not have an open mind. I have been infuriated by people like you for 20 years who profess to have "knowledge" yet spew garbage. It is one thing to not believe in a god or the teachings of religion, but another to lie about what the religion represents. You're young and not very bright because you don't seem open to anything other than using anecdotal "evidence" to support your prejudices. People have the right to their beliefs, yet you want to outlaw religion, and I suspect that is because it makes you uncomfortable. Thinking you can put lipstick on a pig by banning religion and say you're not oppressing the basic human right enshrined in democracy makes you simply ignorant of the complexities of both political and philosophical thought.
I have never heard of a country in modern times that forces its people to convert to Islam, so you can stop spreading that silly shit right now.
Who said anything about banning religion? As to your other points:
On 26th November 2021, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Pakistani Minorities published a report after an inquiry into abduction, forced conversions and marriages in Pakistan. The report has found around 1,000 girls between the ages of 12-25 from minorities are forcibly converted to Islam in Pakistan every year and married to their abductors, which described the situation as a “human-rights catastrophe”.
"The report also highlighted the practice of forced conversions and marriages have amplified steadily in recent years that hints at the calamitous handling of the government to reinforce much-needed legislation to curb this inhuman crime. Similarly, the government has been unsuccessful to implement the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 and the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, which raised the legal minimum age of marriage 18 in Sindh province. Regrettably, these laws have not been implemented properly in Sindh and other provinces of Pakistan."
I believe you are engaging in the sunk cost fallacy at this point. I could come up with thousands of other examples of the inequities and needless, pointless human suffering caused by the three Abrahamic religions. I am one of them, which is why I write as I do. Yes, religion makes me uncomfortable, and specifically the one true god trope, because those are the people who like to force their one true god on others.
Culturally, Islam has added many positive social features, but they are outweighed by the fundamentalists that you are being an apologist and denier for.
I don't want to ban anyone from believing as they wish. I refuse to submit to their made up nonsense, however. Pretty simple. I did say I would support a legal system that forbids childhood religious indoctrination, but that's an entirely different discussion. Children should be taught reality-based subject matter and critical thinking so they know when they are being conned.
So you are OK with forced child marriages that include forced conversion to Islam? I am asking because, while that doesn't represent the whole of Islam, it is happening Inshallah.
Liberalism isn’t just about tolerance of dissent. It is also about an intolerance of those that don’t tolerate dissent. While many of us accept the first, we fall short on the second. This oversight can unwittingly have the devastating effect of empowering the very fundamentalists who are persecuting our own liberal counterparts in the Muslim world. This must stop.
Rizvi, Ali A., The Atheist Muslim, St. Martin's Press.
I really enjoy reading your writing.
Thank you for letting me know Tony-Francis.
You said this: "In a truly free society, it should be illegal to indoctrinate children into any single religion."
Pakistan? Sure. I've lived there. However, citing one country as a way to make an absolute assertion is disingenuous. Pakistan is basically a hellhole for women, yet you don't call out the misogyny there. If you want to discuss Islam's misogyny, I suggest Mona el-Tahawy's blog, Feminist Giant. Stop the fixation on insisting Islam is violent, and focus on its misogyny. And don't include Saudi Arabia in your list of evil Muslims - what they practice is not true Islam but a malevolent bastardization based on a screwball extremism that began in the 1920's. In fact, neither Pakistan nor KSA practice true Islam but have found that it's a convenient way to practice political and social violence against those who refuse to comply with social norms, especially women.
"One reason for the rapid growth of Islam is that it is the only major faith that spreads itself using violence and coercion."
Bullshit. I'm so sorry that you have revealed yourself to be an Islamophobic bore. You're happy to spread the "violent religion" crap to entertain your audience.
Get started on learning instead of spreading rubbish. https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam
As for your request to interview me for a podcast, forget it. It's one thing to discuss religion, but quite another to spew ignorance and untruths and call it knowledge.
Wow, less than 24 hours after subscribing, I am cancelling.
Up to you of course. Islam is the newest, and most violent currently of the Abrahamic faiths. That's statistical, not Islamophobic. As I said, I hold no ill will towards Muslims, but towards the cultures it has spawned, I do.
I checked out the link you sent. Not impressed. This doesn't sound like tolerance to me: "This year on May 17, Canada’s International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, a poster, promoted under the auspices of a Canadian university, depicted two Muslim women in headscarves on the verge of kissing. A number of other Canadian universities and high schools allowed the poster to circulate as a way of promoting “diversity in love.” The poster also featured a biracial homosexual couple, a black heterosexual couple, and a couple consisting of a fully-abled and a disabled person, alongside the two Muslim women, with each couple engaging in a romantic act. Many Canadian Muslims were enraged after the release of this poster, and rightfully so considering the appropriation of a patent Muslim symbol (i.e., the hijab) for a cause that is explicitly prohibited in Islam. The Muslim community organized collectively and submitted a petition signed by thousands of individuals, from young students in high school to leaders of Muslim organizations, demanding that the university take down the poster. One Muslim wrote to the university, “Shame on you [...] for such an insulting mockery post to my religion.”
Enraged because someone insulted their beliefs? That's why I don't want to live in a world dominated by theists, especially the thin-skinned Islamic kind.
You "checked out" a link, didn't read it and do not have an open mind. I have been infuriated by people like you for 20 years who profess to have "knowledge" yet spew garbage. It is one thing to not believe in a god or the teachings of religion, but another to lie about what the religion represents. You're young and not very bright because you don't seem open to anything other than using anecdotal "evidence" to support your prejudices. People have the right to their beliefs, yet you want to outlaw religion, and I suspect that is because it makes you uncomfortable. Thinking you can put lipstick on a pig by banning religion and say you're not oppressing the basic human right enshrined in democracy makes you simply ignorant of the complexities of both political and philosophical thought.
I have never heard of a country in modern times that forces its people to convert to Islam, so you can stop spreading that silly shit right now.
Who said anything about banning religion? As to your other points:
On 26th November 2021, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Pakistani Minorities published a report after an inquiry into abduction, forced conversions and marriages in Pakistan. The report has found around 1,000 girls between the ages of 12-25 from minorities are forcibly converted to Islam in Pakistan every year and married to their abductors, which described the situation as a “human-rights catastrophe”.
"The report also highlighted the practice of forced conversions and marriages have amplified steadily in recent years that hints at the calamitous handling of the government to reinforce much-needed legislation to curb this inhuman crime. Similarly, the government has been unsuccessful to implement the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 and the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, which raised the legal minimum age of marriage 18 in Sindh province. Regrettably, these laws have not been implemented properly in Sindh and other provinces of Pakistan."
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/01/pakistans-dilemma-of-forced-conversions-and-marriages-put-minority-women-at-risk/
I believe you are engaging in the sunk cost fallacy at this point. I could come up with thousands of other examples of the inequities and needless, pointless human suffering caused by the three Abrahamic religions. I am one of them, which is why I write as I do. Yes, religion makes me uncomfortable, and specifically the one true god trope, because those are the people who like to force their one true god on others.
Culturally, Islam has added many positive social features, but they are outweighed by the fundamentalists that you are being an apologist and denier for.
I don't want to ban anyone from believing as they wish. I refuse to submit to their made up nonsense, however. Pretty simple. I did say I would support a legal system that forbids childhood religious indoctrination, but that's an entirely different discussion. Children should be taught reality-based subject matter and critical thinking so they know when they are being conned.
And I am not an apologist. You have no idea of the life I have lived or why I left all religion behind.
So you are OK with forced child marriages that include forced conversion to Islam? I am asking because, while that doesn't represent the whole of Islam, it is happening Inshallah.
You really are a child. And "inshallah" is Arabic for "God willing."
Grow up.
Liberalism isn’t just about tolerance of dissent. It is also about an intolerance of those that don’t tolerate dissent. While many of us accept the first, we fall short on the second. This oversight can unwittingly have the devastating effect of empowering the very fundamentalists who are persecuting our own liberal counterparts in the Muslim world. This must stop.
Rizvi, Ali A., The Atheist Muslim, St. Martin's Press.