How the liberal left loses the argument. Ceding criticism of Islam to the Right.

[freshwest]

17. The clip wasn't long enough to get a full context, so I googled and got this:

Former Sunni started a thread:

[–]Yep_its_true 7 points8 points9 points 14 hours ago (7 children)

The Sunni community needs to admit that there is NO universally agreed upon code of conduct in their version of Islam, and they must admit that this is causing problems.

They can't confront the law breakers, when they haven't clearly defined what the laws actually are.

Sunni Muslims hang on to this idea of the 'perfection' of Sharia law, and then they won't admit that it's not even a real thing.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step to solving it. Sunni Muslim leaders haven't admitted that they have a problem, they just say things like 'foreign policy' and 'Wahabis are bad.'

(full disclosure: former Sunni Muslim. Love my friends and family, but I can say without a doubt that they are in denial...)

Replies, excuse me because I'm not signed in, don't see all of their format, and don't see it can't be posted elsewhere, so here goes:

[–]toastymow -1 points0 points1 point 10 hours ago (1 child)

And terrorism is just the most visible manifestation of what is wrong with the system.

I'd like to think the abject poverty and horrible corruption help too. But terrorism is certainly more "in the face" of the West.

[–]Yep_its_true 0 points1 point2 points 10 hours ago (0 children)

Exactly!!!

I live in the Middle East, in Muslim country.

The corruption and frankly, Un-Islamic distribution of wealth are causing horrid problems here, and I am sure that this part of the world will take 100 years to 'catch up' to the west.

As I have worked and lived here, I am shocked to see how often vague and nebulous 'Islamic' ideas are used by Muslims to oppress and harm other Muslims!

The non Muslim world can't really be expected to monitor or even be aware of these types of issues, though.

[–]frmmtl 1 point2 points3 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

I still think this is new for a lot of people. When people get upset at Islam or Muslims, they're more often then not aware that where they should be directing their legitimate anger is towards Salafism and Wahabism. There are still many people in the west who couldn't tell you the difference between Shia vs Sunni beliefs nor could they enunciate the complexities within these communities of interpretation. I think education has to be at the heart of it but the media is doing a horrible job at it and our schools simply don't engage in what is a really important and worthwhile education around the diversity of religious beliefs, and education necessary to good democracies...

http://www.reddit.com/r/religion/comments/2s90pz/reza_aslan_muslims_must_confront_wahhabism/