Quote:
Originally Posted by Bronxguyanese
Sufi Islam is a spiritual mystic branch of Islam. It is not religious dogmatic as sunni Islam or rebellious as the Shia. Educated liberal people are not attracted to religious dogma, however such persons embrace spirituality such as Jewish mysticism in kabbalah, the resurgent slow greek Roman faith of antiquity, hare Krishna, and branches of Buddhism and Hinduism. You would probably see lots of yoga types participate in Sufi Islam practices.
I'm no Muslim, but people need to understand their is more to Islam than suicide vests and abstaining from pork. Islam also has other sects that conflict with each other, as well as Islamic culture various from one country to the next. Egypt it is ok to talk about Sex, while across the red sea in Saudia Arabia one will be stoned or whip for talking about Sex.
Egypt's 'Dr. Ruth': Let's talk sex in the Arab world - CNN.com
Who knew eygpt has a sexologist? |
People also need to acknowledge that religions are in fact
ideologies. They are not races, they are voluntary beliefs. Repugnance to a voluntary ideology is in no way comparable to racism, sexism, homophobia or any other bigotry against what a person genetically and inherently is.
Some of the biggest religions have conflicts with universal human rights. So, while it is fine to acknowledge and respect people's
right to believe what they want, that doesn't equate with
respecting the ideology itself.
I think people can see that clearly with religions that died out (eg most people would be aghast at classical period Mayan human sacrificial religions, even though you might respect their right to have that religion....). Similarly, extant religions with patriarchal sexism and homophobia might be entirely repugnant to your own values - or perhaps repugnant to what we might call universal values.
In short, ideologies do not get a free pass on their content just because they have the sticker of "Religion" pasted on.
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