Monday, October 14, 2013

Sam Harris is still a xenophobic bigot

He praises Malala Yousafzai while claiming that the religion that she believes in turns people into vicious killers.

In his standard simplistic way he calls those who understand that there is a complex web of politics, religion, social conditions and history that drives people to become jihadists "obscurantists." Because if you don't believe, as Sam Harris does, that the words of the Koran have a super-special woo power that the words of the Bible do not, you are an "apologist" for Islam.
Her (Nobel Prize) nomination is said to have noticeably increased anti-Western sentiment in Pakistan—a fact that deserves some honest reflection on the part of Islam’s apologists. If for nothing else, we can be grateful to the Taliban for reminding us of what so many civilized people seem eager to forget: This is both a war of ideas and a very bloody war—and we must win it.
Malala made it clear on her Daily Show interview that in her opinion the Taliban is distorting Islam. Is she an "apologist" too? She was the one who was shot in the face - not Sam Harris. Doesn't her opinion of the religion count too?

Most people don't care what Sam Harris says - or even know who he is. But since I am a member of atheist groups on Facebook, the right-wing ravings of the holy trinity of  Hitchens, Dawkins and Harris are in my face on a regular basis, and I have to respond. But it's this worship of simplistic bigots that prevents me from joining any atheist groups in "real life."