Saturday, May 7, 2011

Sam Harris Echoes My Argument On Bin Laden's Burial

I don't always agree with Sam Harris, but we are on the same page regarding the ridiculous pandering to Islam surrounding the burial of Osama bin Laden. Here's Harris.
catering to the doubts of conspiracy theorists wouldn’t have been as craven as the pains we took to bury bin Laden in compliance with shariah law. Apologists for Islam insist that bin Laden was a terrible Muslim who represented no genuine strand of the faith. One wonders, therefore, who would have been offended if we had just kicked his corpse into the sea without a word. Indeed, one might wonder why our government wasn’t afraid to grant this ghoulish man full Muslim honors. Shouldn’t this have offended the true adherents of so peaceful and tolerant a religion?

In any case, it is time we ignored the fathomless depths of Muslim “sensitivity” on such matters. Anyone provoked by our denying bin Laden his last rites would have thereby declared himself an enemy of civilization.
Harris even takes it further than I did, in saying that if bin Laden isn't a "true" Muslim, Muslims should be offended that he was granted a Muslim burial. Good point.

3 comments:

  1. As much as I personally agree, why does it matter at all in practice?

    It costs nothing to mumble nonsense over a corpse and then feed it to the fish as oppose to just feeding it to the fish... and if mumbling non-sense gives one less reason for idiots to riot, then why not? We all know that the religious aren't thinking rationally anyways.

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  2. "As much as I personally agree, why does it matter at all in practice? "

    It wouldn't if it was just this one case. But we seem to have established a precedent whereby we have to bend over backward to appease Muslims. We expect nothing of them and treat them as dangerous, volatile children who have to pacified lest they explode into violence over any perceived insult.

    I think it is both useless and counterproductive. Nothing we do will ever be good enough for many Muslims abroad, and for those that are more reasonable and well-disposed toward the U.S., our actions have to seem like shameless pandering.

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  3. Well, then what should we have done? Drag his body through the streets of New York and take turns bashing his head in with clubs? The government is not trying to avoid offending Muslims out of sensitivity, they are trying to avoid provoking Bin Laden's supporters for security purposes. Nothing is stopping people like you and Sam Harris from offending Muslims from writing books and blogs about how evil Islam is, or burning Korans. It's all perfectly legal in the U.S. By all means, take your best shot! Go buy one of the many books by Robert Spencer or turn on Fox News. There, by no means, seems to be a shortage of Muslim-bashing these days.

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