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replacing morals with rules (Read 18719 times)
freediver
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replacing morals with rules
Nov 6th, 2008 at 6:30pm
 
Islam appears to replace morals with rules. Perhaps this is why Muslims tend to blame the absence of Sharia law, or a 'prefect' Islamic state, for mistreatment of women, violence and other social problems that have undermined middle eastern communities since the collapse of the caliphate. Thus the lack of a caliphate can be seen as the proximate cause of these social problems, whereas Islam itself can be seen as the ultimate cause.

Something that would inevitably make this worse is that Islam tends to 'legislate' in favour of immoral activities, while 'moralising' the high ground. This would not normally be a problem in other cultures, but in this context it is a problem because Islam focuses on obedience rather than morals. Plus, it sets the bar very low.

For example, Islam allows slavery - even sex slaves. But it 'promotes' the freeing of slaves as the 'right thing to do' rather than demanding it. Similarly, Islam allows the marriage of an old man to many young (even pre-pubescent) girls. It combines this with medieval dress standards for women, a punishment of death by stoning for adultery, and a view on love based on a woman 'growing to love' her chosen husband, rather than falling in love with him and deciding to spend her life with him.

At least in the case of slaves it appears possible for a caliphate to ban slavery completely when conditions are suitable, though it inevitably becomes open slather if the Caliphate collapses. Even though there is a punishment for having sex with a pre-pubescent girl, the culture of oppression or women would make Sharia law a dream-come-true for paedophiles. They would be married to their victims and would be able to force them to cover up from head to toe on the occasions when they are allowed out. They would be legally allowed to acquire new ones from time to time by exchanging daughters etc with other paedophiles. Paedophile rings are difficult enough to bust at the best of times. Sharia law would make it virtually impossible.

Even behaviour that is (only technically) not paedophilia would still constitute mistreatment of women. Once the child bride hits puberty and the old man consummates the marriage, she would be bound to the old man by law and face the horrendous punishment of death by stoning if she ever cheated on him. While it is not impossible for a woman to grow to love a husband that was imposed on her in this manner, it is almost inevitable that most women would live in misery.

Adding to this problem is the allowance of polygamy. If only 5% of the population have four wives, the remaining men will outnumber women by a ratio of 3:2. Combined with harsh restrictions on the freedom of women and the rejection of romantic views on love, it is inevitable that this would result in the treatment of women as objects. It is not reasonable to expect that polygamy will only happen where it is ‘necessary’, as there will always be men who desire a new young bride as their first one ages, and little to stop them because sharia law specifically allows it. For a time the imbalance caused by polygamy could be compensated with sex slaves obtained through conquest, while at the same time providing motivation for conquest among bride-less men. However expansionism cannot last forever.

It is inevitable that obtaining a wife (or wives) would begin to appear more and more like a business pursuit rather than the pursuit of love.
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abu_rashid
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #1 - Nov 6th, 2008 at 8:34pm
 
Quote:
Islam appears to replace morals with rules.


Rules generally emanate from morals. You've merely not looked for the morals, and instead just seen the rules that emanate from them.

Also morals are subjective. Is adultery immoral? I'd say it is, and so would most other sane humans, and Islam definitely espouses this moral. Is stealing immoral? I'd say it is again, as would most other humans, Islam also espouses this moral.

I think this point is just nonsensical. Is it because Islam actually prescribes a punishment for disregarding the moral, that you consider it to be just based on rules rather than morals? I'm truly at a loss to see your point on this one.

Quote:
Muslims tend to blame the absence of Sharia law, or a 'prefect' Islamic state, for mistreatment of women, violence and other social problems that have undermined middle eastern communities since the collapse of the caliphate.


The collapse of the Caliphate undoubtedly led to a lot of the problems we see today,. because many of them simply didn't exist prior to it. But each inidviidual is responsible before God for his own shortcomings and "There was no caliphate" is not going to be any kind of excuse at all for mistreating anyone.

Also I don't think you've really proved any great amount of mistreatment of women in Muslim societies. All you've done is claim "They don't keep statistics, therefore it must be worse than in our society", or use things like "women have to cover more nakedness, so they must be oppressed".

When you cxan actually bring some concrete evidence on this one, we can look deeper at it, but again as I say, you're confusing apportioning blame to merely recognising that a certain historical event did result in a certain set of conditions.

Like your false claim that Muslims blame the situation of Islam today on the West, just because the decline opened the door for the West, doesn't mean we blame them. We blame ourselves, for our own failures to maintain our strength and unity, and to adapt to the changes in the world.

Quote:
Something that would inevitably make this worse is that Islam tends to 'legislate' in favour of immoral activities


Islam does not legislate immorality at all, this is garbage.

Quote:
For example, Islam allows slavery - even sex slaves.


Islam does not allow 'sex slaves'. It permitted enemies to be captured when they fought against the Caliphate, and they forfeited their freedom by this. All nations of the world did this at the time Islam was revealed, it was the norm. As has been pointed out to you so many times, the Bible also permits this (actually it permitted slavery in many different ways, far beyond what Islam did), as it was the norm. You need to accept this fact. If you'd like to argue it should be stopped in this day and age, then I can see us discussing it. But if you just want to promote the false idea that Islam alone permitted this, and nobody else did, then you're wasting your time,  I'm not interested in debating such fallacies.

The Christian West permitted even capturing of free men, not in times of war only a small number of centuries ago, when Islam abolished this over 14 centuries ago. Obviously the injunctions in the Bible were justification enough for them. Let me guess, the Catohlics did it all? The typical Christian cop-out.

Quote:
Similarly, Islam allows the marriage of an old man to many young (even pre-pubescent) girls.


Again you're not being honest here freediver. Islam does not permit marriage (as it's understood today) to a pre-pubescant girl. It permits people who've attained puberty to be married, again as did all societies up until very recently, and in fact some societies even permitted marriage (as we understand it today) to younger than pubescant people. Islam put clear rules for all these things mentioned so far, in a time when no other nation/religion/civilisation did, and for that you're condemning it? Quite ironic, since those laws were revolutionary. Yes I understand you see them as being outdated, that's fine, but to claim they were legislated out of immorality is just ridiculous.

Quote:
At least in the case of slaves it appears possible for a caliphate to ban slavery completely when conditions are suitable, though it inevitably becomes open slather if the Caliphate collapses


You know full well slavery was only ever permitted for captives of war, and that can't happen without a Caliphate, so this statement was just a waste of your perfectly good typing skills.

Quote:
Sharia law a dream-come-true for paedophiles. They would be married to their victims


Since paedophilia is defined as an unnatural attraction to pre-pubescant children which wanes as the child approaches puberty, and then the paedophile must find a new victim, Shari'ah law does not seem like a dream come true for them at all. As they wouldn't be able to marry a girl until after she passed the age he'd have lost interest in her. Also their behaviour is predatory, and has not been observed to be long term, as marriage obviously is. Again, what another waste of valuable screen real-estate this one was.

Quote:
Paedophile rings are difficult enough to bust at the best of times. Sharia law would make it virtually impossible.


Quite ironic considering most padophiles are from European Christian societies. Yes I know, they're just not reported in Muslim societies, but obviously must be far more endemic...

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freediver
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #2 - Nov 6th, 2008 at 10:52pm
 
Quote:
Is it because Islam actually prescribes a punishment for disregarding the moral, that you consider it to be just based on rules rather than morals?


It's because it (for example) prescribes death by stoning for adultery, arranged marriages for prepubescent girls and a rejection of romantic views on love. I thought I explained this in the opening post. These rules are clearly immoral. Only blindly following rules rather than thinking about morals could lead to people confusing these rules with morals.

Quote:
But each inidviidual is responsible before God for his own shortcomings and "There was no caliphate" is not going to be any kind of excuse at all for mistreating anyone.


Odd that you only seem to phrase that in the future tense. You often seem to offer up 'Islam doesn't exist' as an excuse on others' behalf.

http://www.ozpolitic.com/wiki/index.php?title=Deception_of_Non-Muslims#Islam_doe...

This is in part where rules fall short of morals. Rules give you an excuse to not think about morals. Under Islam, they act as an excuse for not thinking about morals. When you say that individuals are responsible before God, you mean they are responsible for not following the rules, not for acting immorally. An ideology that claims rules as a substitute for morals is dangerous. As you said "Rules generally emanate from morals." That is a generalisation. It does not mean that rules are morals.

Quote:
because many of them simply didn't exist prior to it


Like homosexuality? You don't really believe that do you?

Quote:
All you've done is claim "They don't keep statistics, therefore it must be worse


Actually, I don't think I brought that up at all in my post.

Quote:
or use things like "women have to cover more nakedness, so they must be oppressed"
.

See, now that is an example of a strawman.

Quote:
Islam does not allow 'sex slaves'.


Yes it does. You just prefer to call them 'concubines' because it sounds more PC.

Quote:
All nations of the world did this at the time Islam was revealed, it was the norm.


See, this is another example of the dangers of replacing morals with rules.

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As has been pointed out to you so many times, the Bible also permits this (actually it permitted slavery in many different ways, far beyond what Islam did), as it was the norm.


If I want to know what Christianity permits, I will ask a Christian.

Quote:
If you'd like to argue it should be stopped in this day and age, then I can see us discussing it.


I think I already conceded that the last Caliphate at least tried to stamp out slavery, though it was under pressure from Great Britian to do so. It's the other rules relating to treatment of women that have me more concerned. Obviously I'm supportive of any Muslims who tries to stop people using Islam as an excuse for trading in sex slaves. Good luck. But I suppose you're too busy complaining about Israel.

Quote:
But if you just want to promote the false idea that Islam alone permitted this


Where did I say that?

Quote:
Again you're not being honest here freediver. Islam does not permit marriage (as it's understood today) to a pre-pubescant girl.


Didn't you concede that Islam permits the marriage of pre-pubescent girls? I did point out that the old man is 'expected' not to break her in till she is 'ready'.

Quote:
Islam put clear rules for all these things mentioned so far, in a time when no other nation/religion/civilisation did, and for that you're condemning it?


No, I'm condeming it for making the specific rules that seemed like a good idea 1400 years ago (to a bunch of warring tribes with no moral objection to murder or theft) permanent. I condemn it for replacing rules with morals and 'permitting' people to stop thinking about morals.

Quote:
but to claim they were legislated out of immorality is just ridiculous


That isn't exactly what I said. According to you, even Muhammed seemed to recognise that slavery was immoral, yet he still allowed it. He may have thought pedophilia was bad too, but his rules do a good job as assisiting pedophiles.

Quote:
You know full well slavery was only ever permitted for captives of war, and that can't happen without a Caliphate


So catch yourself some slaves and call your tribe a Caliphate.

Quote:
Quite ironic considering most padophiles are from European Christian societies. Yes I know, they're just not reported in Muslim societies, but obviously must be far more endemic...


Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence Abu. Would you expect us to believe the paedophilia did not exist in the church until law enforcement, and later the church, was brace enough to tackle it head on? Why do you set a different standard for Muslims?
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Yadda
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #3 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 11:45am
 
abu_rashid wrote on Nov 6th, 2008 at 8:34pm:
Quote:
Islam appears to replace morals with rules.


Rules generally emanate from morals. You've merely not looked for the morals, and instead just seen the rules that emanate from them.

Also morals are subjective. Is adultery immoral? I'd say it is, and so would most other sane humans, and Islam definitely espouses this moral. Is stealing immoral? I'd say it is again, as would most other humans, Islam also espouses this moral.






Quote:
"Rules generally emanate from morals."


Wrong, i would suggest.

Rules generally emanate from an authority which has the power to enforce them.

Laws are about politics, power.

Laws are not necessarily about justice, or morals.

ISLAM is a system of laws.

Yet many ppl, including many ex-muslims [who have intimate knowledge of ISLAM], insist that ISLAM is an immoral philosophy.





Quote:
"....Also morals are subjective. Is adultery immoral?"


Is the rape of a woman who is an 'unbeliever' moral abu?

Why is it that some muslims believe that it is moral????





As i have asserted previously....

All things are permitted if they are permitted by Sharia......

Rape victims were harangued as 'sluts' by attackers...
"The brothers, Muslims from Pakistan, targeted mostly Anglo-Saxon Australian girls whom they would later call "sluts" as they attacked them."

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/27/1069825922999.html

"....attacks on girls as young as 13.... they had no right to say “no.” They were not covering their face or wearing a headscarf, and therefore, the rapist proclaimed: “I’m not doing anything wrong.”"
http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/readarticle.asp?ID=20535&p=1



++++++++



ISLAM is always dualistic in how it approaches the issue of morality, and the behaviour of muslims.

Fellow muslims must be treated one way, under ISLAMIC morality.

'Unbelievers' are treated in a separate, different way, because of what the Koran instructs,

"....those who reject Allah have no protector."
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/047.qmt.html#047.008
v. 8 - 11



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« Last Edit: Nov 7th, 2008 at 12:01pm by Yadda »  

"....And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
Luke 16:31
 
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #4 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:21pm
 
rape is not permitted in shariah full stop

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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #5 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:23pm
 
So if a concubine doesn't want to be a concubine she can just wlak away from her position of slavery? Or does rape not count when it is done to a non-Muslim war captive - it's just 'spoiles of war'?
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Gaybriel
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #6 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:25pm
 
freediver wrote on Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:23pm:
So if a concubine doesn't want to be a concubine she can just wlak away from her position of slavery? Or does rape not count when it is done to a non-Muslim war captive - it's just 'spoiles of war'?


that I do not know about- I'll try and find out
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #7 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:26pm
 
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #8 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:53pm
 
Gaybriel wrote on Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:21pm:
rape is not permitted in shariah full stop




Gaybriel,

You are mistaken.

A muslim must not rape, a muslim woman - full stop.



Muslims also, can 'take' those women their hand possess [women who are war booty, or considered war booty, or slaves].


All morality stated within muslim texts APPLY's TO FELLOW MUSLIMS - full stop.


++++++++


Who may muslim men have sex with?

"Also (prohibited are) women already married, except THOSE WHOM YOUR RIGHT HANDS POSSESS:......"
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/004.qmt.html#004.024

"women.....whom your right hands possess" ???
= = war booty, i.e. captive women slaves.
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« Last Edit: Nov 7th, 2008 at 2:06pm by Yadda »  

"....And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #9 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 2:27pm
 
I think that Islam's rules reflect to a large extent the conditions under which Arab tribes lived on the Arabian peninsula during Muhammed's time. They were laregly nomadic tribesmen and lead a harsh, survivalist lifestyle. Morality only extended to fellow tribesmen. Raiding other tribes was something of a 'national sport'. There was no immorality assigned to stealing from or killing those you weren't related to. There were some settled regions, which were also plundered. The nomadic tribes could easily escape into the desert where settled people could not follow them. People sometimes shifted between settled and nomadic lifestyles as conditions changed.

Muhammed seems to have adopted this amorality and extended the concept of the clan to all who adopted his ideology. He even incorporated pre-existing 'holy sites' where tradition forbade bloodshed. He thus converted them from warring tribes to a warring, expansionist empire able to take on neighbouring empires. His rules seem to be geared towards fueling this war machine, rather than correcting the amorality of the violent nomadic lifestyle.

Sex and material wealth seem to have been his main motivational tools. His social structure ensured that huge numbers of young men were denied love, or wives. So, off to battle the infidels they went. If they were killed, 72 dark eyed virgins would tickle their every fantasy in heaven. If they were unfortunate enough to survive, they had to make do with whatever infidel women they could capture, along with all of their land, farm animals and material posessions. But there was no rest for the wicked. The slaves were eventually freed and the cycle started again, except this time the battlefield was even further away.

The standard response to this is that other empires behaved the same way. This is of course true, but kind of misses the point. No-one takes the example of an ancient plundering empire and assigns it divine justification. Except of course Muslims.
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abu_rashid
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #10 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 8:41pm
 
Yadda,

Quote:
The two best friends were handed a Jim Beam and Coke.


Yeh really good practising Muslims weren't they... They were living according to the Australian lifestyle, not the Islamic one. Like most of the other garbage you cut and paste, this is just nonsense that has nothing to do with Islam.
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #11 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 10:22pm
 

Anyway I think I'm going to go back to the core of this argument, that morality and rules are completely seperate things.

Quote:
Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behavior") has three principal meanings.

In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong. Morals are created by and define society, philosophy, religion, or individual conscience.

In its second, normative and universal sense, morality refers to an ideal code of conduct, one which would be espoused in preference to alternatives by all rational people, under specified conditions. To deny 'morality' in this sense is a position known as moral skepticism.

In its third usage, 'morality' is synonymous with ethics, the systematic philosophical study of the moral domain.

...

Codified morality is generally distinguished from custom, another way for a community to define appropriate activity, by the former's derivation from natural or universal principles. In certain religious communities, the Divine is said to provide these principles through revelation, sometimes in great detail. Such codes may be called laws, as in the Law of Moses, or community morality may be defined through commentary on the texts of revelation, as in Islamic law.

...

Moral codes are often complex definitions of right and wrong that are based upon well-defined value systems. Although some people might think that a moral code is simple, rarely is there anything simple about one's values, ethics, etc. or, for that matter, the judgment of those of others. The difficulty lies in the fact that morals are often part of a religion and more often than not about culture codes. Sometimes, moral codes give way to legal codes, which couple penalties or corrective actions with particular practices. Note that while many legal codes are merely built on a foundation of religious and/or cultural moral codes, ofttimes they are one and the same.

Wikipedia

Now if you ask me, that all sounds a lot like what the Islamic system is about, is it not?

Also Roget's Thesaurus lists moral as a synonym of rule.
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #12 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 10:30pm
 
abu_rashid wrote on Nov 7th, 2008 at 8:41pm:
Yadda,

Quote:
The two best friends were handed a Jim Beam and Coke.


Yeh really good practising Muslims weren't they... They were living according to the Australian lifestyle, not the Islamic one. Like most of the other garbage you cut and paste, this is just nonsense that has nothing to do with Islam.


doesn't sound to me like they were living to any particular lifestyle- just living by their own sick and twisted desires
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #13 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 10:43pm
 
Well the drinking of alcohol they were doing (which is actually associated with a lot of rapes) is a staple part of the Australian lifestyle, for that reason I mentioned that they seemed to be quite obviously more engulfed in the Australian lifestyle, than the Islamic one.

But unlike Yadda, I'm not going to goto the extreme of blaming it on that lifestyle, though in this case, I think I'd have much more right to than Yadda does, since these guys were obviously closer to Australian culture than to Islamic culture.
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Re: replacing morals with rules
Reply #14 - Nov 7th, 2008 at 10:48pm
 
Quote:
that morality and rules are completely seperate things


Not quite. Otherwise you couldn't replace one with the other.

Quote:
Sometimes, moral codes give way to legal codes, which couple penalties or corrective actions with particular practices. Note that while many legal codes are merely built on a foundation of religious and/or cultural moral codes, ofttimes they are one and the same.


For example Islam, which replaces morals with rules, then leaves them unchanged for 1400 years.

What exactly are you trying to argue here Abu? That they are in fact the same thing? That's what I thought at first, but I notice you didn't actually say that. Rather, you appear to be arguing that they are not 'completely separate'. But this is nothing more than the slaying of a straw man. Two things do not have to be completely separate in order to replace one with the other. The difference can seem subtle. Or it can hit you over the head like a pelted stone.
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