The Truth Perspective: Libya Ruined: Interview with Sheikh Khalid Tantoush

[Niall]

Well, speaking for myself, I think Islam should be reformed. So should Judaism, Christianity, and the Democratic and Republican parties. They're all relics with plenty wrong with them. Who should reform them? Muslims, Jews, Christians, Democrats and Republicans. The problem is when criticism is tied to egotism, which leads to imposing "reforms", which are usually coercive. And they don't work for that very reason.

Westerners point out some valid problems in other cultures. Other cultures point out some valid problems in the West. The problem is that the West is arrogant and doesn't accept any outside criticism and thinks it has the right to impose its will on others. And other cultures perhaps tend not to listen to Western criticism because the West is so arrogant and hypocritical - but also because of arrogance on their part. Doesn't change the fact that both sides still have problems worth pointing out.

Take female genital mutilation, for example. It's a cultural, Central African (not religious per se) practice that should be eradicated. That doesn't mean anyone should bomb Guinea back to the Stone Age in order to stop it. But moral/cultural relativism isn't the answer either.

Totally agree. "In an ideal world..."

Thing is, if one thing could be different, everything would be different.

In my ideal world, these reforms would occur via the natural cultural exchange that comes with trade. Today you learn this from here, tomorrow that from there... soon enough, you're 'syncretizing' things into new, ever-more-improved forms and they trickle down and across populations, no matter how aware/ignorant those populations are of 'the other'. This way, free will is respected, and the 'hundredth monkey syndrome' can do its thing without overweening (and, usually, false) 'correction' from one centralized power.

That can't happen while there's this Beast in the way telling people what to do, or else.