Sheema's Plea

The founder of CAIR-CAN (so you know where her head is really at) writes in the G&M:

We need intelligent, dispassionate discussions of how Western principles, such as gender equality, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and critical inquiry, meld with overarching Islamic principles.

I hate to throw cold water on any dispassionate discussions, but I'm pretty sure that they don't. Meld, that is. Nope, not even a little bit. In fact, not at all.

Here's my letter:

Sheema Khan writes that it's crucial to have a "dispassionate discussion" about how core Western values (gender equality, free speech, etc.) "meld" with "overarching Islamic principles." The problem is, of course, that Western precepts and Islamic ones don't meld. In fact, given that Islamic teachings enshrine inequities (between genders and Muslims and non-Muslims) and abjure free speech as "blasphemy," you could say that our values/principles are entirely at odds.

 

For a discussion--dispassionate or otherwise--to have any value, it should probably center on that.