Religion

cbayer

(146,218 posts) Sat Oct 19, 2013, 01:41 PM Oct 2013

Sam Harris slurs Malala: Famed atheist wrongly co-opts teenager’s views

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/19/sam_harris_slurs_malala_famed_atheist_wrongly_co_opts_teenagers_views/singleton/

SATURDAY, OCT 19, 2013 08:00 AM PDT

With disregard for Malala's faith and actual opinions, the atheist thinker uses her to continue his anti-Muslim war

BY MURTAZA HUSSAIN

Malala Yousafzai, Sam Harris (Credit: Reuters/Hoda Emam/AP/Sara Allen)
In an era of narcissistic self-obsession, there’s something to be said for the value of self-awareness. This week, atheist philosopher Sam Harris leapt forward to claim Malala Yousafzai as another trophy in his one-man jihad against Muslims and the weak-kneed “Muslim-apologists” he perceives on the left.

That Harris has been denounced as a crude, pseudo-intellectual bigot for his various tirades about the monolithic evil of Muslims didn’t do much to deter him; but what was most interesting about his latest missive was its complete disregard for Malala’s actual words and opinions. Either he didn’t listen to her words at all before plastering her face on his website or he was too contemptuous of her to think it necessary.

According to Harris:

Given the requisite beliefs…. an entire culture will support such evil. Malala is the best thing to come out of the Muslim world in a thousand years. She is an extraordinarily brave and eloquent girl who is doing what millions of Muslim men and women are too terrified to do—stand up to the misogyny of traditional Islam

It’s worth pausing here to listen to whether Malala thinks that she is standing up to her own evil culture and the misogyny of “traditional Islam”:

“The Taliban think we are not Muslims, but we are. We believe in God more than they do, and we trust him to protect us…..I’m still following my own culture, Pashtun culture….Islam says that it is not only each child’s right to get education, rather it is their duty and responsibility.”

jollyreaper2112

(1,941 posts)

1. What do you think of Harris?

Reply to cbayer (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 01:56 PM

Oct 2013

I agree with about 90% of what I've read. End of faith was excellent. Strongly disagree with the torture angle.

cbayer

(146,218 posts)

2. I think he's islamophobic and dislike him on that basis.

Reply to jollyreaper2112 (Reply #1)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 02:23 PM

Oct 2013

Promoting atheism is fine with me, but attacking religious believers as a part of that is not.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,321 posts)

6. So religious believers should be exempt from all criticism, according to you?

Reply to cbayer (Reply #2)

Mon Oct 21, 2013, 09:15 AM

Oct 2013

We just have to turn a blind eye to religious violence, and hope the perpetrators will get bored with it, without trying to persuade anyone else to take it up?

rrneck

(17,671 posts)

3. I'm trying to plow through

Reply to cbayer (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 03:06 PM

Oct 2013

The Moral Landscape, but sheesh.

struggle4progress

(118,295 posts)

4. He's in the same intellectual class as Ann Coulter: his comments are simply for attention

Reply to cbayer (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 03:43 PM

Oct 2013

When (for example) he says "Malala is the best thing to come out of the Muslim world in a thousand years," the proper translation is "I, Sam Harris, really just don't know jackshit about the history of the region and culture that produced Malala"

dimbear

(6,271 posts)

5. Muslim terrorists shot a young girl for the crime of trying to get an education.

Reply to cbayer (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 06:24 PM

Oct 2013

That action put arguments in the hands of people who stand up to terror. It's understandable that defenders of Islam would try to deflect away from the basic facts.

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