tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025359433700710612.post-29890832123769796052008-05-12T17:40:00.000-07:002008-05-12T19:17:31.836-07:00A disgusting story of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/11/iraq.humanrights">honor killing in Iraq</a> has received deservedly outraged commentary from <a href="http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/notesarchive.php?id=2298">Ophelia Benson</a>, <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/05/true_monsters.php">PZ Myers</a>, and <a href="http://secularoutpost.blogspot.com/2008/05/honor-killings.html">Taner Edis</a>, although the latter's outrage comes qualified with a rather too generous wish to find ways to spare Islam: <blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">If</span> we want to make a case that most of us would be better off without supernatural religion, we cannot just make lists of religious outrages. It is not even enough to point out that the outrages are directly and organically linked to particular religious views. (Remember, I think this linkage holds true with honor killings.) We need something more comprehensive, and I'm honestly not sure this is available. If we really are concerned about honor killings, maybe we should shut up about the evils perpetrated by religion and just support gentler interpretations of belief. We may even have to knowingly promote a false belief, that there is such a thing as True Islam and that it endorses our moral convictions.</blockquote>What would the "gentler interpretations" indicate by way of behavior and belief? Just cracking a few ribs and blackening the eyes instead of outright killing? <br /><br />No. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing">Honor killing</a> is an inexcusable barbarity that exemplifies the larger barbarity of Islam. We should eagerly await the day when people are embarrassed to have ever taken such barbarities seriously; we should speak clearly and unambiguously with the goal of bringing such obervances to the disrepute they deserve. <br /><br />At least Edis refuses to pretend Islam has nothing to do with it; not so <a href="http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/log-in-our-own-eye-by-tristero-pz-myers.html">Tristero</a>: <blockquote>I would imagine that there are proportionally about as many Muslim fathers capable of psychotic rage who would stomp their daughter to death as there are Christian and Jewish ones - that is, not many at all. So obviously, something is seriously twisted about any community, religious or otherwise, that condones such insanity.</blockquote>If there are Jewish fathers and Christian fathers gathering male relatives to stomp the lives out of daughters for the sake of their favorite gods, we should condemn them. Where are they? What is the basis for these imaginings of Tristero?<br /><br />The point is not that Christianity and Judaism and 'the west' are blameless. They're not. The point is that the idiotic excuse-making needs to stop.Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10523307255698594696noreply@blogger.com