It is hard to find a more revolting example of cultural relativists cheekiness, and their flawed logic.
AUSTRALIA and the US should be labelled terrorists for their Middle Eastern “invasions”, and pre-teen girls could “morally’’ be married off to adult men, according to reviled radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
The former claim was lobbed a day after the Sydney-based group’s chief propagandist Uthman Badar was stopped from delivering a provoking sermon at an Opera House arts festival that asked whether honour killings were “morally justified”.
In an attempt to deflect from the outrage caused by the sermon topic, set to be preached at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas event, group spokesman Mr Badar said any violence stemming from the Islamic community, such as honour killings, paled into insignificance in light of the atrocities orchestrated by the US and its allies.
And the following gems, in defense of Islam:
While refusing outright to answer questions as to whether his Islamic group believed in the barbaric practise of honour killing – murdering a female if they brought “dishonour” to their family – Mr Badar said “all peoples are willing to justify violence to prevent those (red) lines being crossed”.
“The point of the speech was to question some of the assumptions on the issue of honour killing … and really to show that the issue isn’t about violence towards women but about cultural and political imposition, about imposing liberal values in third world countries,” he said.
“All civilisations, all ideologies, all peoples have red lines. And all peoples are willing to justify violence to prevent those lines being crossed.
Iraq, was a nation laid to waste. But after all that, the United States or its allies are still not terrorists? They are not terrorists even though the Australian government’s, and most western states agree, that their definition of terrorism at its essence is the use of violence for ideological or religious ends. What else was Iraq or Afghanistan other than that?
Well Afghanistan was self defense. As for Iraq, the stupidity of the Bush administration not withstanding, the current violence stems from systematic discrimination by some Iraqis against others, which this Islamist is conveniently ignoring. But man, what would Islamists and their relativist friends do without ad hominems and Tu Quoque? I am beginning to think Allah must have created it for their benefit specifically.
And here is more:
The group also came under fire for an article on its website that suggested the practise of adult men taking child brides could be deemed “morally acceptable” if there was no coercion and the girl was mature. It was a statement in direct response to the charging in January of a 26-year-old Muslim man who married a 12-year-old girl.
I am sure there is “no coercion” involved when a preteen child “consents” to “marry” an adult. As for who decides when a girl is mature, oddly enough, the responsibility often happens to fall on creepy looking old men with long beards. Their job must be really hard!
And let’s not forget Mr Badar’s non-Muslim allies:
The Australian has approached festival co-curator Ann Mossop and St James Ethics Centre executive director Simon Longstaff for comment.
Via Twitter, Dr Longstaff appeared to back Mr Badar by claiming the gig was cancelled because the speaker was Muslim.
“Have not the ‘Islamophobes’ already won the day when a person dare not speak on controversial matters because he is Muslim,” he wrote to one user.
No, not because he is a Muslim but because such reprehensible ideas should not be given a public forum in a civilized society. And cultural relativists accuse others of not being “nuanced“?
