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In reply to the discussion: Many Liberals Defend Islam the Way Conservatives Defend Guns [View all]Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)The point of the quoted article in the OP is that "Many Liberals Defend Islam the Way Conservatives Defend Guns." This is riddled with problems. First off, the author doesn't ever support this argument. he repeats the statement quite often, but that is not supporting it. The second and most important problem is that it's just not true. Do you consider yourself a progressive? Are you "defending Islam"?
The reality is that progressives will and do and should defend Muslims, because Muslims are people and, very often ,a targeted minority in our societies.
The author conflates the two concepts - to him the reality of progressives standing up for Muslims becomes "Many Liberals Defend Islam the Way Conservatives Defend Guns." The "people" element is removed. Muslims end up dehumanized, and then characterized solely by the most extreme elements of some Islamic philosophies. And then progressives are cast as "defenders" of this faceless, monolithic force of evil, making us evil as well.
it's really no different from homophobes proclaiming "I don't hate gay people, i hate homosexuality." - but of course, the one commonality of gay people is homosexuality, so... yeah, they do hate gay people, don't they? "I don't hate you, I just hate the one thing I know about your entire existence" is an attempt to fig-leaf hating people.