Hello VOR,
Originally posted by VOR
I agree with him too, but the sword cuts both ways. Rightie politics don't have a place in universities any more than leftie politics do. If the guy sent a private email to this group, then fine. It's his right. If he's using his podium to "teach" this sort of thing in an engineering classroom, can him. I'd expect no more or less if he were some burned out hippie with a receding hair line, ponytail and reeking of marijuana.
Actually here's where the categories get confused, opposing Islam is not a "rightie" or a "leftie" issue. Technically, it's not political at all, and certainly the Danes are amongst the least likely people on the planet to be accused of having published the cartoons because they are "right-wing" or "conservative." In fact, a cogent argument could be advanced that they published the cartoons precisely because they are left-wing secular humanists opposed to the concept that
any religion should be protected from ridicule or criticism by blasphemy laws ,or even that there really is such a thing as "blasphemy."
Our problem in the West is that we have whole-heartedly embraced the Marxist idea that all of life is a "political struggle" and consequently whether we are conservative or liberal we tend to want to frame any controversy or struggle in political terms. So curiously while Islam is one of the most conservative religions on earth, and European liberals increasingly see it as the religious counterpart to facism, to oppose it, or to speak against it is seen as a "conservative response" especially here in America.
There are reasons for that of course, two in particular stand out. First, Islam is seen as a "third-world" religion and therefore automatically a religion of the oppressed. Those who are oppressed and exploited by the forces of colonialism and captialism are normally always favored by leftists, who expect them to be brothers in the political arena. Unfortunately, this is where the cognitive dissonance really sets in, the idea that thirdworlders would be in favor of a system that desires to oppress others and establish a world-wide theocracy, with an unchanging theocratic legal code, ruled by a single Caliph, that would outlaw all political movements including Communism simply doesn't compute. So often they end up supporting a movement that ultimately wants to eliminate their worldview. Second, Islam is patently not Christianity, therefore it would normally be accorded favored status in that it is not the religion of the perceived Western oppressors, regardless of the actual content of the religion. Curiously, this reasoning also has led the left to support ancient Aztec religion, which at its center exalted monarchs to god-like status and involved the royalty and the priesthood cutting the hearts out of living sacrifices in order to placate angry gods.
What we need to be able to do is think in terms of ideologies and worldviews that involve, but transcend politics. For instance, Islam has some very definite ideas about what should happen to politics, but it is actually a comprehensive world and life view that addresses every aspect of human existence and so we need to ask not is it left or right, but the more basic question "can we coexist with Islam on their terms?" (not ours, because Islam presupposes that their terms will prevail and works to that end as a goal).
But I digress. All of that is to say, this isn't really about a prof. teaching politics.
The real question is, should a prof. be allowed to tell a Muslim students group what he thinks of their worldview? I believe the answer to that is unquestionably, yes. A prof. should also be allowed to tell the Baptist Students Union or the Bi, Gay, Lesbian, Transexual, Student association the same thing. Anyone on Campus should be. This is not a question of partisan politics it is a question of worldview and freedom of speech. Let the Islamic rights group have its way in this case, and you are actually allowing them free-speech while muzzling all other speech, and tacitly accepting the agenda their ideology is promoting.
- SEAGOON
