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Post by sandwiches on Apr 25, 2009 21:52:35 GMT
Terry Eagleton is bashing Dawkins et al (again) but they deserve it. www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/25/liberal-islamIf the test of liberalism is how it confronts its illiberal adversaries, some of the liberal intelligentsia seem to have fallen at the first hurdle. Writers such as Martin Amis and Hitchens do not just want to lock terrorists away. They also tout a brand of western cultural supremacism. Dawkins strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq, but preaches a self-satisfied, old-fashioned Whiggish rationalism that can be wielded against a benighted Islam. The philosopher AC Grayling has an equally starry-eyed view of the stately march of Western Progress.
Liberals are supposed to value nuanced analysis and moral complexity, neither of which are apparent in the slanderous reduction of Islam to a barbarous blood cult. They are noted for their judicious discriminations, rather than the airy dismissal of all religion as so much garbage
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Post by eckadimmock on Apr 25, 2009 23:11:24 GMT
In a sense, the most worrying trend in this sort of "liberalism" is that there seems to be a new orthodoxy with which it can be unwise to disagree. There is now public pressure to remove scientists or academics who hold some kind of religious faith or even urge tolerance.
Without being alarmist, I hope it is possible to prevent only 'approved" points of view from being aired in public.
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