Ben Affleck Slams Bill Maher for "Racist," "Ugly" Views in Heated Islam Debate

[Humanist_Activist]

48. That's the issue, wasn't it, you had nations created after generations of very little...

if any self rule, with whatever educated elite that existed fleeing before the transition, with infrastructures that were built to service empires, not local concerns, and then those same empires are all like, "you guys are too expensive to keep, you are free now, after we extracted all we could from your land!". So you have deprived local resources, poorly constructed and maintained infrastructures, hardly any historical backdrop for self governance much less democracy. This is simply unstable from the outset.

That's why, in much of the mid 20th century, you had so many wars and revolutions in these new countries, some of them having governments form and collapse in months, and this being continual. Tribalism took the place of the nationalism before it, and other loyalties, to religions, etc. also take precedence.

But, and I think this is were are disagreement comes from, I don't see this as an excuse for atrocious behavior, there is no excuse for Muslims in ISIL or whatever they call themselves to attack and kill Christians and Yazidis, along with other Muslims. Saudi Arabia has no excuses for have a completely arbitrary justice system built on a book that is itself filled with atrocities and injustices.

Its an explanation for how our current world looks geo-politically, and should serve as cautionary tales when trying to assist those who advocate for human rights worldwide.

We should move beyond the provincial and think globally.

I don't believe that our concern for human rights should stop at the border of our towns, counties, states or nations. Human rights, civil rights, and political rights are a global concern.

As such, while today I work towards the goal of having same sex marriage legalized in my own state, I also look forward to hoping it will happen in Riyadh, sometime in my lifetime as well, and helping to work towards that goal in the future. While fighting against efforts to restrict voting rights in my state, and making the process more accountable, verifiable and transparent, I also hope that voting rights will be extended in Beijing someday, with multi-party elections that are transparent and democratic.