[8:53 AM] Nicholas Kristoff writes a nice piece titled “Bigotry in Islam -- And Here” in the New York Times today admonishing against anti-Islamic prejudice. He particularly takes to task those who claim Islam is inherently violent and evil like the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham and the Rev. Jerry Vines, past president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
I have a couple of criticisms though. Kristoff begins the piece writing “The Islamic world represses women, spawns terrorism, is prone to war, resists democracy and has contributed remarkably few great scientists or writers to modern civilization. So it's time to defend Islam.”
The subsequent paragraphs make it clear that he means Arab, Islamic states. This is a common tendency of many American journalists—to equate Arab, Islamic, and Middle Eastern. For that matter, what is the Islamic world? Is India, which has large Muslim population, part of the Islamic world? What about Bangladesh?
Here’s another weak spot. Playing devil’s advocate Kristoff writes “Of the 26 countries torn by conflict in the year 2000, 14 have large Muslim populations.” Now come on. Any graduate student in the social sciences can tell you that correlation doesn’t imply causation.
“In times of stress, even smart and sophisticated people tend to be swept up in prejudice,” Kristoff writes in conclusion. Then he writes that “[h]istory suggests that focusing on the moral deficiencies of other peoples simply underscores our own.” I don’t buy the former assertion that lets individuals off the hook for bigotry because of certain circumstances. The latter sentence gets it right. Bigotry is bigotry under any circumstances and that does indeed reflect moral deficiencies that are not excusable because of “stress.”
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posted 9:19 AM
I have a couple of criticisms though. Kristoff begins the piece writing “The Islamic world represses women, spawns terrorism, is prone to war, resists democracy and has contributed remarkably few great scientists or writers to modern civilization. So it's time to defend Islam.”
The subsequent paragraphs make it clear that he means Arab, Islamic states. This is a common tendency of many American journalists—to equate Arab, Islamic, and Middle Eastern. For that matter, what is the Islamic world? Is India, which has large Muslim population, part of the Islamic world? What about Bangladesh?
Here’s another weak spot. Playing devil’s advocate Kristoff writes “Of the 26 countries torn by conflict in the year 2000, 14 have large Muslim populations.” Now come on. Any graduate student in the social sciences can tell you that correlation doesn’t imply causation.
“In times of stress, even smart and sophisticated people tend to be swept up in prejudice,” Kristoff writes in conclusion. Then he writes that “[h]istory suggests that focusing on the moral deficiencies of other peoples simply underscores our own.” I don’t buy the former assertion that lets individuals off the hook for bigotry because of certain circumstances. The latter sentence gets it right. Bigotry is bigotry under any circumstances and that does indeed reflect moral deficiencies that are not excusable because of “stress.”
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