It is a touchy subject @pressfortruth and lines can be very fine indeed. What I find strange is the base line you lay out as fact (and not opinion) for the third item in your presentation: "Islam is at odds with Western Christian standards, morals and values" Please consider what you are saying here! You have made a general and sweeping statement that I find almost incredible coming from a journalist purporting to be neutral. Perhaps I have just misunderstood your position on some fundamental political lines, and perhaps there is no 'true' neutrality! Either way, you refer to a world of permanent divisions (and therefore contribute to division yourself) by presenting as fact an 'us' and 'them' scenario. Sure you can build a case for this, and many will agree - but it is a cheap, easy shot, and it dehumanises and exludes the 'other' -in this case the followers of the religion that is at odds with Western standards, morals and values! Laying it out this way IMO, also implies the superiority of one of those sets of standards - to be different is not to be better or worse; one's familiarity with say English as a language does not make it superior to a language one is not as familiar with - to suggest superiority is entirely subjective, it is a perception, a preference, a prejudice! To state what you have as fact - and you do it twice, repeated and thought through - is definitely noteworthy! You do appear to course-correct and start applying this to Islam as a political system, and you refer to Islamic fundamentalism in the West. Perhaps this is more what you intended to say - dunno. However, the connection is clearly made, religion and politics are lumped together in a neat conceptual continuum. I see what you are saying about trying to clear up the stage for this discussion, but the position you have taken seems to lead in a counter direction and engages with the same old energies - the myths of consensus reality. Do you see what I am trying to point out? It tastes of prejudice and double-standards to me; perhaps an unconscious vestige of Matrix-double-think, perhaps not.
Regards
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