A quick thought - I was listening to this interview with Chris Hedges on the Point of Inquiry Podcast:

Hedges was on criticizing the New Atheists and calling them - among other things - “racists” for their ardent criticism of Islam. The obvious incongruity of that aside, his argument is that we as Westerners can’t be critical of Islam without risking calls of racism, because Islam is foreign.

It’s a common belief - that you have to hold your tongue when it comes to outsider groups. I’m sure we’ve all heard or even said something similar: “It’s ok I can criticize them, I’m Irish - or I’m black - or I’m Jewish etc…”

But does this ‘outsider’ belief apply to Islam any more than it would for Scientology?

Like Christianity, Islam is an import from the near east. But while Christianity has so thoroughly immersed itself in the west that it can be taken as native, Islam is still often considered foreign. But is it? What has Christianity done to be considered western? And what does Islam need to do?

Islam has been in the west longer than capitalism and democracy have - both thoroughly western. Islam is a European religion - with 5 Muslim majority nations in Europe (Turkey, Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Cyprus and Albania) and millions of native born Muslims in France, Britain, Germany and the low countries. So if it’s been there for a long time, if Muslim nations are integral to Europe, if Europeans are born into Islam - why is it considered foreign?

I think the ‘progressive’ stance would be to say that Islam is western - as western as capitalism and Mormonism. So if ‘they’ are part of ‘us’ then the same rules should apply. Just as we don’t hold back from criticizing other minority western religions (the above mentioned Mormonism, or Scientology), we should not hold back from criticizing Islam. It is no more racist to tear apart the ‘Prophet’ than it is to lay into Tom Cruise for his Scientology, or the Rabbis of New York for fellating babies.

Muslims are wrong if they think their faith, alone amongst the Western beliefs, holds a special immunity from criticism. And Hedges is wrong for calling the New Atheists ‘racists’ for treating Islam equally.