Whenever I mention anything critical of Islam to left-wing
people they tend to spring to Islam’s defense. Not through any logical defense
of Islam’s merits (they know nearly nothing about Islam) but by means of
illogical refutations (what about the Crusades; what about the Inquisition;
what about colonialism), all of which have no logical bearing on the merits of
Islam.
There is an immediate labeling process that takes place
before you can even blink. Their minds instantly apply the labels of racist,
bigot, Islamophobe; and, henceforth, anything I say is framed by these labels
and marked as intolerant, bigoted, and invalidated. They have fallen into the poisoning the well fallacy. What a
person does in this situation is to infer that nothing a person of a certain
character says can be true. They set themselves up to commit the ad hominem fallacy.
So, they know next to nothing about Islam and yet they
defend it.
They may acknowledge that they don’t like certain aspects of
Islam but they will defend Muslims’ right to hold their beliefs.
Would they defend the right of Nazis to hold their beliefs?
This may seem provocative but Islam shares many characteristics
with Nazism, as I’ve pointed out before.
In a previous post I identified eight key features of far
right thinking (Authoritarianism; the subjection of women; hostility to
out-groups; hatred and distrust of Jews; general hostility to minorities;
intolerance of non-conformity; intolerance of homosexuality; resort to violence
to impose their will).
I could also have mentioned that far-right ideologies like Nazism do not respect freedom of speech.
I could also have mentioned that far-right ideologies like Nazism do not respect freedom of speech.
On all of these points Islam is in agreement. By
any logical definition it is “far right”.
And yet, in their blind, illogical muddle the Left defends
it.