One of the mantras of the "diversity" movement in America and the West is that all cultures are equal. The basic idea is that each culture is an adaptation to a particular environment. Therefore no culture is inherently preferable to another. The political significance of this is that all cultures are equally deserving of respect. The goal of education becomes one of inculcating in young people a respect for all the cultures of the world. By learning that our own culture is not superior, we also become less racist and bigoted toward other cultures.
This doctrine of cultural equality--or more precisely cultural relativism--sounds good when we are considering the quaint folkways of other cultures.
Undergraduates at Yale write papers noting "Who is to say that the Western practice of inventing new technologies is superior to the kangaroo-tracking techniques of the Australian aborigines?" Meanwhile the best students at Stanford can be heard opining that "Shakespeare may have had a rich and supple vocabulary, but let's remember that Eskimos have twenty seven words for 'snow.'"
Then comes a report like the one in Canada about the Muslim father who killed his sixteen-year-old daughter because she didn't want to wear a headscarf. Now it should be noted that the Koran does not mandate that Muslims wear the veil or hijab. These head coverings, however, have come to symbolize modesty in the Islamic world. And Muslim immigrants often bring with them their cultural expectations when they come to America.
Apparently the daughter, Aqsa Parvez, could not convince her parents that her head should be uncovered. She would wear Muslim dress out of the house and then change when she was out of her parents' sight. Perhaps this deception was discovered. Apparently the father Muhammad Parvez was enraged. According to police, he beat the girl so badly that she succumbed to injuries and died. Now the father is charged with murder and the older brother is charged with obstructing police.
I'm waiting to hear from the liberal champions of diversity on this one. Will they say, "Sure, we may not approve of beating one's daughter to death over a headscarf but let's remember that in other cultures they see it very differently. Why should we impose our parochial Western morality on others?" In Canada there may be judges crazy enough to let the murderer walk free. In the United States, I suspect we won't hear too much of this. The reason is that the American brand of cultural relativism is basically a fraud. It's a device to undermine and attack Western institutions and practices. Yet cultural relativism is quietly abandoned when it produces results that liberals don't like.
Reader Comments ( Page 7 of 26)
91. #72
"Linda at 1:35PM on Dec 12th 2007"
Linda, thanks, what I was referring to was some article that I had seen somewhere a while back where the term "BCE" was being substituted for B.C. and
"CE" as being substituded for A.D. ,as the orginal two terms (B.C. and A.D.) were out of favor in certain circles. As I remember my ancient history from public school, historical time was either B.C. or A.D. at least using the western calendar.
M2D5 at 2:20PM on Dec 12th 2007
92. ATHEIST
Reply to: Here you people can say anything you want and it is usually bad or stupid or just plain selfish because you haven't even tried to find GOD or anything else in your lives. (end)
____________
Try to pay attention to today's lesson.
A Muslim kills his sixteen year old daughter because she won't follow the rules of his religion.
The father.... had God in his life.
Of course, he called his Imaginary Friend by the name Allah.
But... did having God in his life make this father a better person?
William Hays at 2:13PM on Dec 12th 2007
93. Rita; I'm 34 not that that is important. To be fair, I think RELIGION is responsible for many of our problems in America. Since we are 80% Christian, we should focus on Christianity. Iranians should focus on the problems of Islam. Know what I mean?
Like Linda said, it's nice to hear from you, especially after all that weather.
Ryan Anderson at 2:16PM on Dec 12th 2007
94. Linda,
Live in Missouri and yep have been without electricity since last Sunday. Have a insert and wood an finally made it into work this morning. Thanks for the worry but, will hopefully have power by tonight or tomarrow night if they can find the other half of the electric cable and the transformer is going to have to be replaced. Lived here all my life and never had ice storms except for the last two years. I don't know if it has something to do with global warming if it does I sure wish it would hurry up and get warmer. I hate snow less lone three inches ice. Rita
Rita at 2:16PM on Dec 12th 2007
95. And, in a reference to another important part of our culture - movies, that is - it's Geo. Bush in "It's a Blunderful Life"
http://www.davidkowalski.com/
brandon at 2:18PM on Dec 12th 2007
96. DNA - a great design: Think of how many harmful cultural relics were cast down during the 60s! You've got to take the good with the bad. As a whole, we took a big step forward in the 60s.
Ryan Anderson at 2:21PM on Dec 12th 2007
97. BC / AD and BCE / CE represent the same dates.
BC = Before Christ
AD = Ano Domina (Year of our Lord in Latin)
BCE = Before Common Era
CE = Common Era
I think they adpoted BCE/CE so that the phrases would have a more clear meaning to non-western / non-christian scholars and scientist.
I'm not sure when BCE and CE were introduced.
Ryan Anderson at 2:27PM on Dec 12th 2007
98. To Ryan Anderson at 1:39PM on Dec 12th 20,
I think you missed the point. We are in the USA and not in one of these other cultures. The culture of the USA has been based on the Judea-Christian beliefs. Even the word secularism comes from Christians. Shout out to DD's new book. P.S. Newt's wife has a new DVD on how these beliefs have help found this nation. We are not arguing that there hasn't been bad things in the name of God or Religion, but there also has been bad things in the name of Secularism.
pd at 2:29PM on Dec 12th 2007
99. Sorry, Rita, thought it was Okla.
Missouri was right in the middle of the storm. Glad you're OK.
To DNA (deluded, naturally, always):
I was there in the 60's. Death rate from LSD very low. Some had bad trips, most didn't.
Pretty harmless stuff compared to the PTSD suffered by Vietnam vets returning from Nam.
I can vouch for many who did fine.
Linda at 2:27PM on Dec 12th 2007
100. Ryan,
Are you saying that we are 80% christian or that religion is a 80% level? Where do you get your information? I really don't give a hoot about your problem with my spelling, I care what you say about my LORD and I will go with you the bitter end of your arguement about being a Christian. I have told you people so many times that being a Christian has nothing to do with religion, so maybe instead of worrying about my spelling you might understand that a lot of horrible stupid things have been done in the name of religion and I don't practice religion but, I am a Christian and when you start running down someone who died for me to inherit eternal life then we will have words. Rita
Rita at 2:31PM on Dec 12th 2007
101. ATHEIST
Here's a report from Canadian TV:
Muhammad Parvez, 57, made a brief appearance in a Brampton court on Wednesday morning and has been remanded into custody until Jan. 29.
"The details of the court appearance are subject to a publication ban so we can't talk about them," CTV's John Vennavally-Rao said from outside the courthouse.
Friends of the girl have told CTV News that she had been involved in a family dispute over her choice not to wear traditional Muslim clothing.
Police had been considering a first-degree murder charge against Parvez, reports the Toronto Star.
Parvez no longer wanted to wear a hijab, a shoulder-length head scarf worn by some Muslim women. They also said Parvez would often change her clothing once she got to school and then would change back before going home.
"People said her brothers and sisters followed her to see if she was wearing her headscarf or not," one student said.
"Her dad was threatening her and she was getting scared and she just didn't want to live there anymore," a student said.
Parvez's death has again raised the issue of so-called honour killings.
'Honour killings'
The United Nations estimates at least 5,000 women a year are killed for committing adultery, defying tradition, or for simply talking to the wrong man and thereby bringing shame upon relatives.
(How many of them have God in their lives?)
United Muslim Women of Canada's Anisa Ali said the public shouldn't assume that honour killings only happen in the Muslim community.
"It's not an Islamic practice," Ali told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday. "There's nowhere in the Quran where it talks about honour killings. It's more of a cultural phenomenon."
She said honour killings are not limited to Islamic countries like Pakistan, Jordan, Syria and Afghanistan.
"There's Latin American countries, it has taken place in Germany, in Britain," she said. "A lot of it is under the guise of family honour or religious values." (end)
___________
As I said, I'm not really big on "the equality of all cultures."
I see no reason to give respect to any culture or society based on religious beliefs.... because the concept of "Imaginary Friend" is NOT credible.
If a Christian's rules come from their Imaginary Friend, or someone else's.... you're the victim of a scam. Might not look like a scam, but it is, just the same.
William Hays at 2:30PM on Dec 12th 2007
102. "Bottom line is many people enjoy Dinesh's blog or they wouldn't read it let alone post a comment."
--------------------------
Actually, DD's blogs are stupid and inane and childish.
I enjoy reading what posters have to say.
It's the company, not the DumDum.
Linda at 2:30PM on Dec 12th 2007
103. there goes Rita (a/k/a dinesh) :)
threatening again!!!
random name made up to make dd a dupe at 3:19PM on Dec 12th 2007
104. ATHEIST
Reply to: 96. Hey, when you blog most every day it's not easy to come up with Pulitzer prize material. Bottom line is many people enjoy Dinesh's blog or they wouldn't read it let alone post a comment.
___________
Again, you've got to read ALL the class material or you won't keep up.
80% of the posters here think Dinesh is a fine example of a Jesuit education, which means he thinks Atheists are his enemies.
He's not a very good scholar... and we have no trouble finding examples to prove that.
Is religion a Force for good or evil? Dinesh needs to take a refresher course in "how to admit I was wrong."
The guy in Canada beat his own daughter to death. Don't you GET it?
William Hays at 2:36PM on Dec 12th 2007
105. Rita, like Dinesh, you seem very angry to me. I'm sure most of the people you are conversing with on this board are over the age of 30, so isn't calling us "bad and stupid" a little immature? Does your "can't decide what god" statement imply you believe in more than one god? Very un-christian. And strangely, you want death for those who kill, while David, also a Christian, told me earlier that Christians no longer follow these practices due to "Enlightenment." Wow, you guys are so confusing. Maybe you should agree among yourselves before trying to push this whole god thing on the rest of us.
And David, you responded to statements I never made. My point was that religion can be an extremely negative, even traumatic experience. Think about the scary biblical stories told to small children. So maybe Andrea Yates' mental ilness would never exist without her deeply religious background. Or maybe she would have handled it differently, had she grown up without its influence. We'll never know. That doesn't mean Islam is any BETTER. I didn't use Andrea Yates as a Christianity vs Islam argument, but rather as an additional example to show how the warped traditions of organized religions can end up in murderous acts. Even Hitler grew up in a strict, catholic household. So did the church shooter. Religion is illogical, so it's no surprise that illogical acts arise from it.
emma at 2:38PM on Dec 12th 2007