Tolerance--he said it better than me.

[catsittingstill]

There is a great essay about freedom and tolerance here.  I wish I had written it.  But I enjoyed reading it, so I forgive the author for making me jealous.

And a stray thought.  19 terrorists who were also Muslims (out of a group of about 10,000 al Quaeda members) destroyed the World Trade Center nine years and a smidge ago.  There's a diagram here

Comments

[pocketnaomi]

Thanks for the link to the article on the difference between tolerance and respect. I love it.

[catsittingstill]

Yeah, I thought it was great and wanted to share it. I'm glad you like it too.

[tigertoy]

I disagree with some of his details rather forcefully (what he says about tattoos makes him a complete ass), but the broad point that we have no business banning things just because we don't love them is certainly something I support.

The burqa issue in particular is a really hard one for me. On the one hand, I see the religious tradition that demands it as a form of oppression that cries out for a forceful response from the state. On the other hand, if someone decides on her own to wear the thing, saying that she's not allowed to is repugnant.

On the one hand, when members of a dominant religious group are allowed to wear their symbols openly, merely wearing those symbols can be oppressive to non-members. On the other hand, not allowing a person to wear the symbols they care about oppresses that person.

It seems like all possible choices are intolerably harmful to someone.

[randwolf]

The Framers, I think, were very wise in the First Amendment. There are very few cases where direct government intervention in family and religion is helpful, and very many when it only makes matters worse, sometimes much worse. Unless actual crimes of abuse are committed, I don't think it wise for the state to intervene.

[tigertoy]

But what constitutes crimes of abuse?

[randwolf]

Violence, the threat of violence, or deprivation. Keeping an independent person in a family or religious group against their will. Gross fraud, especially when large amounts of money are involved. In other words, the sorts of things that are crimes in every other context. I do not think this is in basis complex.

[randwolf]

:-)