tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post5211487301101711440..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: A Bit About SwedenAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-64449750642448005512017-02-21T19:46:36.782-05:002017-02-21T19:46:36.782-05:00It's probably a bad combination: a violent cu...It's probably a bad combination: a violent culture, and a religion that too easily can be interpreted to justify the violence. It's not unique to Islam historically, of course, but their culture is really screwed up at the moment, so they get the rap today when they impose themselves on more peaceful cultures. I wonder if they feel as I would if I had to escape an explosively violent gang culture in my own neighborhood by escaping into a snooty gated neighborhood with 24-hour-a-day genteel tea parties and little old ladies constantly sniffing at my behavior? They'd be making the very reasonable point that my own accustomed behavior hadn't stood my old neighborhood in very good stead, and that they had scarcely begged me to come stomping into their tea party for asylum.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-2240758341429330262017-02-21T18:31:26.036-05:002017-02-21T18:31:26.036-05:00I think the discussion of what role Islam plays wi...I think the discussion of what role Islam plays with regard to bad things could use some Aristotelian modification. When we Moderns talk about 'what caused X?' we mean something almost Newtonian -- this ball hit that ball, which then went that way at such-and-such speed. That's only one of Aristotle's four causes, the efficient cause. <br /><br />So when people say that Islam doesn't cause terrorism or radicalism, they mean it doesn't efficiently cause terrorism. And that's true enough. <br /><br />However, it's worthwhile to discuss at least human actions in terms of the other causes: material, formal, and final. Islam doesn't provide much to the material cause explanation either, but it is frequently important to the formal cause, and frequently is itself the final cause. <br /><br />The formal cause is why a thing is organized or structured the way it is. ISIS's opening of sex-slave markets featuring minority women is formally caused by those parts of sharia that clearly endorse the practice. You could have slavery without that aspect, but it wouldn't look quite the same way. Islam often provides information on how to structure radicalism in this way.<br /><br />The final cause is why you went about doing the thing anyway. Here I think is where the real sense of "Islam causing" bad things happens. The Muslim Brotherhood came together in 1928 as a response to Ataturk's purging of Islam from Turkish life -- banning beards, banning hijabs, banning the call to prayer or praying in the streets. It was about restoring Islam to that central role. Al Qaeda was about that. ISIS is about that. Iran's revolution was largely about that, although it has a Marxist side as well.<br /><br />Not everyone -- not most -- who is a Muslim engages in bad things in order to establish Islamic rule or to restore Islam's place at the center of human life. For many who do, though, it really is the final cause. It's not the efficient cause, but it's the point of the exercise for them.Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.com