DiscoGary wrote:
Jeff Wigand wrote:The Qur'an explicitly states that there's to be no compulsion of religion. And I know what you're going to say: no everyone follows that, and you're right. And the Bible also says you're not supposed to murder anyone and yet Bible believing Christians do it daily. Not everyone follows their own rules.
Here's what I don't understand about you: in the 1940s, the Ustase killed over 300,000 Serbs and forcibly converted many thousands more to Catholicism. I don't know how old you are, but if you had been alive then, would you have had the same fear of Catholicism as you do of Islam today? Or would you have understood that the Ustase were a bunch of lunatics and not representative of Catholics as a larger group?
Everyone needs to know what Wigand is doing here. It's basic Moral Equivalence, and it happens a thousand times a day in political discussions. Whenever someone is forced to defend their side on something that's indefensible, they redirect the blame by finding a similar offense committed by the other side, no matter how far back they have to go in history, and then say everyone is morally equivalent because we're ALL guilty of committing the crime so one has the moral authority to judge the indefensible acts they are trying to defend.
The moral equivalence breaks down when we don't accept the premise and refuse to accept blame for a crime committed under our side's name decades or hundreds of years ago. The son should not be made to answer for the sins of the father. Pretty basic stuff.
When we look at the picture as it stands today Islam compels its followers to commit heinous acts around the globe, while no other religion is doing anything near that. That's it. That's what we have to work with today.
The primary problem with moral equivalence is that it makes excuses for the atrocities committed by Muslims while it silences any criticism of it, which is one of the foundations of PC speech codes. If we are not allowed to identify the underlying problem, fundamental Islam in this case, then we will never be able to address the problem. For example, if we think that OUR ACTIONS are causing the murder and butchery coming out of Islam, then we will never put an end to it.
Wigand is either intentionally or unwittingly keeping us from solving the problem, and he is helping to extend the oppression and death caused by the people he thinks he's protecting from bigots.
This is really good stuff. 300 level political science class for sure.