I can appreciate someone who tries to tread into unfamiliar territory while learning someone else’s culture. We should all stretch a little to expand our knowledge of the greater world around us.
But I have a real problem with using these little bits of knowledge to disparage those cultures.
Ben Carson has learned a new word. Oh, he already fancies himself a keen scholar on ‘Shari’a’. All conservatives shit their pants when the specter of Islamic law looms, threatening to take over our justice system. Believing this is lunacy and reeks of kneejerk bigotry. If you are here, you are bound by our laws, and no court anywhere is going to adjudicate based on the principles of your religion. Just won’t happen(although I do worry about raving Christians like Judge Moore who happily barf their beliefs up into their courtrooms). But try to tell that to a con.
Ben, expert on Islam such as he is, wants to tell us about “taqiyya”.
In an interview with The Hill after his “Meet The Press” appearance, Carson repeatedly brought up the concept of “taqiyya,” a concept in Shia Islamic law that’s historically given dispensation to Muslims to conceal their religion if they’re facing dangerous persecution. Carson defined the word as “a component of Shia that allows, and even encourages you to lie to achieve your goals.”
“Because obviously if a Muslim was running for president, there would be a lot more education about Sharia, about taqiyya,” Carson said.
Obviously. But there it is-Muslims can recant their faith if they are facing persecution. That simply isn’t the same as “lying” to people to serve some sinister purpose. Any sociopath can do this, let alone a Muslim. Hell, our whole foreign policy rests on lies like this. George W. Bush’s war, for example. We lied our asses off to get into Iraq so we could spread utter disorder, sell the country to the highest bidder, and provide oodles of contracts to Dick Cheney’s business associates.
It’s the same kind of bullshit that made “jihad” into a household word. Anyone who has done the slightest bit of research knows that jihad refers mainly to a struggle with oneself to be a good Muslim.
Ben Carson has clearly been instructed by the worst our media has to offer. He may be a good doctor, but he’s a shitty historian and anthropologist. I mean, fuck, why does he have any credibility regarding the mind of a Muslim? Has he even bothered to pick up a Koran? I guess he doesn’t need to, because his type of baseless demagoguery is what brings people in line with him.