by evilgenius » Sun 04 Nov 2018, 11:42:46
There comes a point where discussing the impact of colonialism is pertinent. Britain, for instance, has historical ties with India and Pakistan. Those ties mean that families straddle multiple countries. How much immigration, once a former colony has claimed independence, is proper when a portion of a family resides in the former colonizer? If there is a principle, how deeply into a family should a policy go in addressing it?
I spoke about culture before. I said that it is any country's best line of defense when encountering barbarism. As far as I can tell, the issue with Muslims is whether they adhere to secular law over any sort of religious law or custom. Things like honor killings, as I understand, are a result of custom and not some law, for the most part. They are usually done in reference to family shame. This brings up a principle that has developed under secular law in the West, that of equality. While it used to be in the West that women were considered some form of chattel, this is no longer the case. About a century ago the West, for the most part, gave women the right to vote.
The right to vote seemingly comes with an understanding of personhood that should protect a woman from slander. And not just the slander directed at her from some outsider, but from her own family. Something about it sets her apart from the family group in that she is no longer a possession and insults under the law ought to end with her. She should be free from acting in accordance with the manner that shame would induce in her. If she is slighted she has to take action to defend herself. The law can step in, but mostly matters are considered civil. It requires a person to recognize and stand up for themselves. She also is separated from the family in such a way that she is responsible for her own success or failure as an adult. Whether the right to vote gives her all rights to pursue that success is debatable.
There is a great amount of misogynistic jealousy in every Western country. Mostly, that jealousy is birthed in the chattel centered way of thinking about women. When Muslim men treat women the same way, they are not alone. The mindsets are quite similar. What Christianity and Islam are like without the impact of secular law influencing them is actually somewhat barbaric when viewed from a modern perspective. Yes, Christianity did grow up along with Western Civilization. It was not only an influencer, but was also influenced by the struggles for power as Western Civilization developed.
Inside of Christianity there were debates about whether orthodoxy at the time was really what the religion was about. I don't know how briskly the same sort of thing goes on amongst Muslims who have immigrated to the West, but I do think it goes on. I work with many Muslims, and have done so for years, and can tell you I see it. It's not talked about publicly. But you do get a recognition from some of a secular understanding of the personhood of all people, regardless of their affiliation. Yes, you will also see certain rude behaviors and attitudes no doubt related to an understanding that no Muslim can be inferior to an infidel, therefore any slight they've given to a non-Muslim was not to a person with standing. Oddly, because it suggests a Western influence, they do treat Muslim women better than non-Muslim women. What I'm saying, though, is that the fault here is not with the Muslims. It is with the society they've immigrated into. Not understanding or practicing a distinct culture that makes demands of those who immigrate into a country is like a body without an immune system. Part of that culture, though, is not to root out everyone from a larger collective group, but to concentrate invective upon those individuals who actually do practice and display openly attitudes and creeds that run counter to that culture.
Getting back to families that straddle, I think that individual approach is the sort of yardstick needed. In some cases, it may be better if the parents, uncles, aunties and all sorts of cousins stay back in the home country. Those who can't adopt a Western mode of thought are more the problem than those who can't keep their bodies in check. They are the ones who tell them that it is ok. That if they act out on their impulses they aren't acting out on real people anyway. Otherwise, without those bad influences, those people have the culture to help them understand and conform. They may not pull it off with alacrity, but they could certainly do at least as well as the Christian influenced people in a society have. Like I said, there is a lot of misogyny in Western Culture. It exists amongst the Christians. We need to offer the Muslims the same sort of "understanding" that we give to those people. It might be dangerous to offer them more, though.