tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31461204.post5406145949552390226..comments2023-12-11T06:11:11.449-05:00Comments on Bruce's MidEast Soundbites: Leading Feminist Explains Boko HaramBrucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09331211089963297411noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31461204.post-70463881747027050712014-05-14T16:48:49.591-04:002014-05-14T16:48:49.591-04:00Thanks for The Daily Beast article link. I read i...Thanks for The Daily Beast article link. I read it. I do, however, disagree. <br /><br />In no way do I "lay...responsibility on the foundations of their religion." <br /><br />Scholars widely agree that Islam has yet to have their reformation, and that there is an important conflict taking place within Islam for its soul. The conflict between moderates and extremists is, G-d willing, the beginning of that reformation. It is vital that moderates win that conflict and that non-Muslims do everything we can to assist them. The outcome is by no means assured. <br /><br />We do moderates no favor [in fact we injure their cause] by pretending that Boko Haram does not have an Islamic flavor or that it does not represent a significant trend within Islam. <br /><br />How can moderates fight extremism within Islam, when we are pretending that it's not a problem within Islam? <br /><br />Respectfully,<br />BBrucehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09331211089963297411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31461204.post-40006047840912619092014-05-14T07:45:18.655-04:002014-05-14T07:45:18.655-04:00Here is a good article on a different point of vie...Here is a good article on a different point of view, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/12/the-boko-haram-terrorists-are-not-islamic.html<br />Also, now the kidnappers are offering a prisoner swap, which makes it look more like kidnapping. Also, as John Stewart noted on the fine "Daily Show", Al Qaeda even felt the need to denounce this act. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/world/africa/abduction-of-girls-an-act-not-even-al-qaeda-can-condone.html?_r=0<br />Phylis Chesler has an admirable body of past work, but this recent stuff is not very academically rigorous or particularly well thought out or reasoned. <br />It is risky to take historical acts, or fringe acts and lay them on the responsibility of the foundations of their religion. No religion or civilization has a clean and pleasant history. Few religions, at their extremes, don't seem barbaric or at least crazed and 2000 years behind the times. I'd rather not cite examples, but every religion has them.LHwriteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15890891351498768757noreply@blogger.com