Foxy, "When people find themselves confused, threatened, or even appalled at changing conditions, they look for solutions elsewhere"

Leftist wrong and crooked thinking, that 'the end justifies the means'.

Or as some selfish, egocentric and damned misled union heavy recently asserted in Australia, that where she didn't like laws she could and would break them.

Banjo Paterson,

That was a lot of personal marketing, but the fact remains that you made no attempt whatsoever to address the issues I raised that were pertinent to the thread topic. You were also most willing to further the hijack of the thread onto some author that another poster has found but hasn't even bothered to read before extolling her virtues. I posted a review of that, which has of course been ignored, although the factual inconsistencies picked up in that review should be easily checked by any who are at all interested.

Here again is my post, Monday, 24 April 2017 7:04:02 PM,
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=7733&page=21

tbc..

contd..
So what about leaving the over-done and largely irrelevant (to this thread) terrorism for another thread that you and ors can contribute to and address the issues raised by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. For instance,

Womens rights campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali has said many times that the reformation of Islam is not solely concerned with terrorism but mainly the treatment of women.

On an earlier Q&A that all here would surely know about, Ayaan Hirsi Ali said she had Muslim friends who had been subjected to forced marriages and female genital mutilation, and who had been forced to wear a veil. Ali herself was subjected to female genital mutilation as a child. She urged people not to be “squeamish” about criticising those practices.

“This is what is happening to Muslim women,” she said. “If you have young girls who are subjected to forced marriage, it is not a marriage, it’s an arranged rape. It is a forced rape and I wish we were not squeamish about it. We were not squeamish about slavery, we were not squeamish about eradicating apartheid, and I wish that is one thing we would not be squeamish about.”

leoj,

Yous reaction to my post -

"Leftist wrong and crooked thinking - the end justifies
the means?"

Where on earth did you come up with that one from.
Seriously? And to what are you refering exactly?

My post was directed to Banjo Paterson's experiences in
France and what was happening there. My comments were
taken from the observations made by sociologists
concerning some of the reasons for
fundamentalist revivals. I was not promoting this sort of
behaviour of condoning it in any way. I even stated that
the situation in France was frightening. Which I am
sure you will agree with.

Nobody is stopping you from discussing whatever you wish
regarding any of the issues concerning Islam. There are so
many aspects that need to be debated, and
that is precisely what some of us trying to do here.

Foxy wrote: “I was not promoting this sort of behaviour of condoning it in any way.”

And even if you were, ‘the ends justify the means’ would still be the wrong adage.

Maybe if it were flipped around to read ‘the means justifies the ends’, but even then, there was no discernible condoning of the behaviour.

Criminologists get this a lot. Conservative folk don’t seem to understand the difference between an explanation and a justification. To them, the two are the same. Then they get all fired up over nothing because they think offenders are being excused at the expense of their victims.

Speaking of ends justifying means, though, the Left aren’t the only ones to adopt this mentality. The Right do it, too, with their Devil-take-the-hindmost approach to economics. Especially Libertarians.

Dear AJ,

It is annoying when people are more interested in
condemnation than in explanation. I've said this
previously that to them explanations seem tantamount
to sympathizing and excusing. This of course all too
easily leads onto the questionable practice of
stereotyping which can encourage "counter-stereotyping,"
and the result is usually a complete breakdown in
communication.

.

Dear Leoj,

.

You wrote :

« That was a lot of personal marketing … »

It was intended as an explanation as to why I had not replied in greater detail to your previous post, Leoj, but, in view of your insistence …

Please be assured that I have read all the articles for which links have been provided on this thread, including those that you provided, Leoj.

In particular, I read the extensive critical review of Karen Armstrong’s article entitled “Root out this sinister cultural flaw” in The Guardian of April 2005 that Hugh Fitzgerald published in the New English Review originally in April 2005 and republished in May 2007, as well as Melissa Davey’s article on Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s participation on the ABC’s Q&A program in May 2016.

I’m afraid I am at a loss to judge the pertinence or otherwise of Hugh Fitzgerald’s critical review. I tried to find out who Hugh Fitzgerald is, but to no avail. I see that he has written extensively for a blog called “Jihad Watch” which has been accused of promoting an Islamophobic worldview and conspiracy theories. It is funded by a conservative organisation, “The David Horowitz Freedom Center”, a foundation founded in 1988 by political activist David Horowitz and by various donors supporting the Israeli right :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad_Watch

Hugh Fitzgerald is Jihad Watch’s mystery man, no one knows who he is, his Wiki page is one sentence long. Alongside Robert Spencer, Fitzgerald is a co-administrator and contributor to Jihad Watch.

Here is a link to the mystery surrounding Hugh Fitzgerald, the author of the critical review of Karen Armstrong’s article :

http://spencerwatch.com/who-is-hugh-fitzgerald/

To sum up: Armstrong’s article and Fitzgerald’s critique of it were written twelve years ago. They are of historical interest but may not necessarily represent those authors’ current opinions. Also, we know who Karen Armstrong is but we ignore who is hiding behind the signature of Hugh Fitzgerald – apparently, somebody suspected of promoting an Islamophobic worldview and conspiracy theories supported by the Israeli right.

Not all that palatable, I’m afraid.
.

(Continued …)

.