When Islam Breaks Down (Long but interesting)

City Journal ^ | Spring, 2004 | Theodore Dalrymple

[Diogenesis]

THE REAL DEAL

Role of Pres. Carter in Illegal Financial Demands on Shah of Iran directly led to Iranian terror takeover

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AFGHAN WOMEN FREED BY THE USA

In Kabul, Afghan girls, FREED BY THE CITIZENS OF THE USA,
practice tae kwon do at Kabul stadium on International Women's Day.

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========= Kabul under Clinton, NOW and the Taliban =========

[dennisw]

But Punjabi Sikhs also arrange marriages: they do not, however, force consanguineous marriages of the kind that take place from Madras to Morocco.

Generations of first cousin marriages are the Muslim genetic strategy to make the clan and tribe all powerful. Within the clan an individual can be related to another in more than one way. Harder for nations to form. Rate of first cousin marriages must vary in different Muslim populations. Is supposed to be high in Saudi Arabia and with Palestinians

[dennisw]

Consanguinity rates among Arabs

Among Arabs, consanguineous marriages are customary and constitute 20-50% of all marriages. First cousin marriages constitute almost one third of all marriages in many Arab countries (Table1). The rates of these marriages differ between countries as well as within one country. Marriages between first cousins are favored culturally and socially and considered the “usual” or “expected” pathway in life for first cousins whether they were reared in close proximity or reared far apart.

 Table (1): First Cousin Marriages among Arabs

Country [ Reference]	Average % of 1st cousin marriages
Algeria [3]	10-16
Bahrain [4]	21
Egypt [5]	12.4
Iraq [6]	29.2
Israeli Arabs [7]	22%
Jordan [8]	32
Kuwait [9]	30.2
Lebanon: Muslim [10] Lebanon: Christian [10]	17.3 7.9
Oman [11]	24.1
Palestinian Arabs [12]	22.6
Saudi Arabia [13,14]	25.8 (17.9-40.9)
United Arab Emirates [15]	30
Yemen [16]	36

 
 Reasons for marrying a cousin

Consanguineous marriages are favorably looked upon among Arabs for one or more of the following reasons:

• Consanguineous marriage is more favorable for the women’s status. The wife would have better relationship with her in-laws and could be protected by them in time of need

• There is a general belief that marrying within the family reduces the possibilities of hidden uncertainties.

• Premarital negotiations regarding financial matters of marriage are more easily conducted

• Consanguinity strengthens family ties, and enforces family solidarity.

• Landlords prefer to keep their property within the family

• The husband and wife share the same social relationships after marriage as before marriage.

• Wife’s parents prefer to have their daughter living near them and to enjoy the presence of their grandchildren.

Examples of some common sayings related to consanguinity:

A spouse I know is better than one I do not know
A cousin takes better care of me  
I will have a more understanding mother in law

[dennisw]

http://ambassadors.net/archives/issue14/selected_studies3.htm

[AM2000]

...fundamentalist Islam will be very dangerous for some time to come, and all of us, after all, live only in the short term...

bttt.

[livius]

And the problem is that so many Muslims want both stagnation and power...

Good article, although he doesn't understand the more profound fundamental differences between Christianity and Islam very well (something which he admits). And the Sikhs he praises are not even considered "true" Muslims by most Muslim groups.

However, he does seem to understand that the dynamics of Islam's failure to create workable societies lies in the essence of the religion itself.

[alrea]

These are racist posts hopefully the moderator will remove before someone from NPR, the NY Times, the Washington Post, or a major network hides it.

[alnitak]

Er, Sikhism and Islam are completely different religions...

[dennisw]

Sikh religion is very influenced by Islam. Hinduism too.

http://www.sikhspectrum.com/102002/kapur_si.htm

[maica]

bump for City Journal - to read later

[weegie]

Sikhs are not considered Muslim, "true" or otherwise by anybody, least of all Sikhs

[ovrtaxt]

Muhammad’s power was seamlessly spiritual and secular (although the latter grew ultimately out of the former), and he bequeathed this model to his followers. Since he was, by Islamic definition, the last prophet of God upon earth, his was a political model whose perfection could not be challenged or questioned without the total abandonment of the pretensions of the entire religion.

Very astute observation. We failed to recognize the religious side of Communism, and now we are denying the political aspect of Islam. Terrorism, as we define it, is a natural outgrowth of the proper practice of Muhammad's model.

[livius]

They're different, but there is some influence, and people often lump them together (non-Sikhs only, of course, as another poster pointed out!). There were a number of home-grown Sikhs here in the US in the 1970s - they were members of something called, if I recall correctly, the Happy Healthy Holy movement, and were distinguished by tying up all of the washing machines in the laundromat while they washed their tons of white clothing. Of course, since they wore daggers, nobody complained...

[FreedomPoster]

Can anyone comment on the readership of The City Journal? I hope it's Lefties from the educated class. They need more material like this in their reading diet.

[jalisco555]

Can anyone comment on the readership of The City Journal? I hope it's Lefties from the educated class. They need more material like this in their reading diet.

I'm not sure about the readership but the City Journal has a generally conservative bent to it's articles. This is from it's home page:

City Journal is the nation’s premier urban-policy magazine, “the Bible of the new urbanism,” as London’s Daily Telegraph puts it. During the Giuliani Administration, the magazine served as an idea factory as the then-mayor revivified New York City, quickly becoming, in the words of the New York Post, “the place where Rudy gets his ideas.” The Public Interest goes further, calling City Journal “the magazine that saved the city.”

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

the Sikhs he praises are not even considered "true" Muslims by most Muslim groups.

The impression I got from the piece is that "the Sikhs he praises" are religiously but not racially distinct from some particular population of Muslims - and that their differing prison population representation is therefore due to their culture and not to their race.

Exactly the sort of argument that Thomas Sowell would make, comparing blacks from Jamaica as a group to blacks born in Philadelphia, as a group.

[Freebird Forever]

bttt

[smonk]

index

[Gritty]

This is a pretty good analysis except he equates the inherently liberating theology of Christianity with an entirely different Islam to come to a centuries-long model for a like comparison, as if they were somehow equal rotten branches of the same tree.

He links the nasty political history of Europe to the nature of Christianity rather than in spite of it. The American experience more closely reflects the genuine Christian nature of secular political discourse but he ignores the example - maybe because he is writing from the British and European perspective. There, the State used the Church as the excuse for secular power and vice versa and the two were often locked with each other because of the faults and lusts of the politicians of both. It is not, however, the Biblical model - unlike the Koran which is the model of an inseparable Church, State, Reigning Theology and completely structured society.

Other than that, it is a perceptive article and well worth the read.