Hi One Man Laughing,

I agree that a precondition to being moral is knowledge and awareness that it is possible, and women in the darkest corners of the Middle East may be kept in such ignorance that they can be held relatively blameless. But many of the cases that I cited occur in the West, some from women who have become much more Islamic than their parents (the Canadian case is striking in that regard.) I don’t think you can argue that they weren’t aware of other choices, nor that they were coerced into taking the actions they did. Instead I think you have to say that as soon as someone takes the ideology of Islam seriously, then dire consequences ensue. That is why the battle must be fought primarily on the ideological level, and why it will be impossible to win the so-called “war on terror” if we do not name the ideology animating our enemies (much less go out of our way to assure everyone that it is a “great religion of peace”).

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Posted by Amit Ghate to Thrutch at 7/06/2006 03:46:33 PM