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Muslims and the decadent West
Eurozine ^ | 11/23/2007 | Jörg Lau

Posted on 01/06/2008 11:38:47 AM PST by forkinsocket

Opinion surveys conducted in the UK and Germany report a growing tendency among young Muslims to reject mainstream norms. Their affirmation of Muslim identity and its critique of decadent western culture is an act of dissidence, argues Jörg Lau. The reservations of the non-Muslim majority towards self-segregating practices can be understood as a sign that the Islamic critique of decadence has been understood and its moral presumption rejected. Nevertheless, some commentators maintain that if young Muslims reject society, they have been driven to do so. An act of self-exclusion is thus reinterpreted as the fault of the majority. This alliance between liberalism and religiosity is coming under increasing criticism, not least from Muslim women who know the value of freedom better than most. The origins of modern Islam's critique of decadence go back to a church in the Midwest, or to be more precise, in Greeley, Colorado. In 1948, an Egyptian official called Sayyid Qutb was sent by his ministry of education to the State College there in order to study the American education system. He described the society of the American small town in his letters and articles. One incident, which is still famous in the Islamic world today, concerns a dance night in one of Greeley's many churches. According to Qutb, after the evening service, the minister turned down the lights in the presbytery and put "Baby, it's cold outside" on the record player in order to coax the last wallflowers onto the dance floor: "The dancehall quivered to the sounds of the gramophone and was full of seductively intertwining legs", wrote Qutb. "Arms embraced hips, lips touched lips, chest rubbed on chest, and the atmosphere was full of desire."

(Excerpt) Read more at eurozine.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Germany; Philosophy; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: decadent; islam; muslims; west
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The higher the level of education, the weaker the ties to Germany, and the stronger the conviction that Islam is superior to Christianity and that "people of different beliefs are not equal before God". The women saw their Islamic identity as a sign of their moral superiority over their non-Islamic environment – and the more educated they were, the stronger they believed this. Moreover, the higher the school qualifications, the more often they supported a theocracy.
1 posted on 01/06/2008 11:38:49 AM PST by forkinsocket
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To: forkinsocket

I get flamed every time I say it, but the Christians on Free Republic have more values in common with the moderate non fanatic muslims than the American Left.

The great Satan is Blue....New York , Boston, Detroit and LA (Paris, London). It is not the values loving red states.


2 posted on 01/06/2008 11:42:38 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Moveon is not us...... Moveon is the enemy)
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To: forkinsocket
>report a growing tendency among young Muslims to reject mainstream norms

That is the salient fact and the one good and positive thing about them.

Western Civilization is decadent.

Decadent: adj; fallen from a higher plane or ideal.

3 posted on 01/06/2008 11:42:45 AM PST by bill1952 (The right to buy weapons is the right to be free)
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To: forkinsocket
“Arms embraced hips, lips touched lips, chest rubbed on chest, and the atmosphere was full of desire.”

If slow dancing with my husband is decadent and wrong, I don’t want to be right.

4 posted on 01/06/2008 11:44:27 AM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed less people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: forkinsocket
"The dancehall quivered to the sounds of the gramophone and was full of seductively intertwining legs", wrote Qutb. "Arms embraced hips, lips touched lips, chest rubbed on chest, and the atmosphere was full of desire."

And the thing that most drove Qutb to absolute RAGE, was that none of these young women had any interest in coming anywhere close to HIM (probably due to his lack of hygiene)

5 posted on 01/06/2008 11:45:16 AM PST by SauronOfMordor (When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty)
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To: bert
The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11
6 posted on 01/06/2008 11:49:02 AM PST by forkinsocket
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To: forkinsocket
some commentators maintain that if young Muslims reject society, they have been driven to do so. An act of self-exclusion is thus reinterpreted as the fault of the majority.

Of course it is. Imams, funding and propaganda from the puppetmasters in Saudi Arabia, and the curriculum of hate in their "schools" play no part.

7 posted on 01/06/2008 11:49:15 AM PST by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: forkinsocket
---Qutb, who was executed by Nasser in 1966, was one of the most influential intellectuals of the last century.--

--Nassar had at leat one good idea--

8 posted on 01/06/2008 11:51:23 AM PST by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the MSM tells you about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
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To: rellimpank

—arggh—”leat”=”least”—


9 posted on 01/06/2008 11:52:06 AM PST by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the MSM tells you about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
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To: bert
Sorry, can't agree. Moslems ALL have a problem with hypocrisy ~ not "real hypocrisy" but what they perceive to be hypocrisy on the part of others.

Their religion authorizes the murder of hypocrites.

Liberals adhere to the same standard, and where they've gotten into power (Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Red China) they've murdered those they perceive to not quite fit into their image of correct behavior.

So, no, Red State folks don't share any Islamic standards, but Blue State folks can't be differentiated from even the worst Islmanic fanatics.

10 posted on 01/06/2008 11:52:39 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: FARS

Ping to you

a long read and not perfect, but a decent article.


11 posted on 01/06/2008 11:54:06 AM PST by Ouderkirk (Hillary = Senator Incitatus, Clintigula's whore...er, horse.)
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To: rellimpank

Note, send cudoes to Gamel Abdel ~


12 posted on 01/06/2008 11:54:45 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: forkinsocket

The veil, sexual mutilation, forced marriage, wife beating, honor killings, yep woman find freedom and respect in islam.


13 posted on 01/06/2008 11:56:37 AM PST by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
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To: bill1952

Yep, I would think that among even the most gentle and caring peoples of the various Islamic Republics, BET, VH1, and MTV — not to mention our abortion, co-habitation, and illigitimacy rates — are the best arguments on the face of the earth to avoid Western mores and morals like the plague.


14 posted on 01/06/2008 11:58:01 AM PST by lapster
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To: muawiyah

You are of course wrong and denying many Christian virtues and values.


15 posted on 01/06/2008 11:58:02 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Moveon is not us...... Moveon is the enemy)
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To: bert

“I get flamed every time I say it, but the Christians on Free Republic have more values in common with the moderate non fanatic muslims than the American Left.”

Granted.

BUT, much of their leadership are just plain NUTS and are perfectly willing to put guns to the heads of members of their religion who don’t goose step to the party line.

Bottom line: Don’t put somebody in the WH who has a middle name like “Hussein”.

;^)


16 posted on 01/06/2008 12:05:33 PM PST by Mrs.Z ("...you're a Democrat. You're expected to complain and offer no solutions." Denny Crane)
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To: bert
Quick, who said "He who is without sin cast the first stone".

The focus is not on you and I wandering the streets identifying hypocrisy in others ~ it's on you and I focusing on our own hypocrisy and other sins.

In Islam the focus is on calling others hypocrites and then killing them. Same with the Liberals.

17 posted on 01/06/2008 12:05:53 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: forkinsocket

Rich Muslims and rich Muslim nations are plenty decadent and degenerate. Muslim societies would much more decadent if they weren’t mostly impoverished


18 posted on 01/06/2008 12:06:01 PM PST by dennisw (Like that HuckaMoron has a clue)
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To: forkinsocket

But this is a serious problem and has to be seriously addressed.

In Europe ads at bus stops often feature full-front nudity, and our culture has gone seriously downhill with much of our institutions in the hands of cultural Marxists.

Even those young people at the dance in Colorado back in ‘48 would be horrified by the homosexual indoctrination in elementary schools, Miller beer sponsoring the Folsom Street Fair, and on and on.

So there is some reason for fining some retreat from the incessant onslaught of Cultural Marxism at every level, from every television screen and movie and suddenly finding that your local police force is hiring lesbians with tasers.

To retreat back into a culture that demands burkhas and genital mutilation is of course no answer but it adds up to a.) port b.) storm. A gesture of adolescent fright and desperation.

No wonder they think Islam is superior. I have little or not outlet for my sheer disgust at the culture I see around me other than venting on FR.


19 posted on 01/06/2008 12:06:01 PM PST by squarebarb
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To: bert
So the Navy Seal from Long Island that died and was awarded the Medal Of Honor has n Morals? I mean he’s from a blue state. Nothing like painting everyone with the same color brush. Just like the jhadists, blame everyone. Getting really old. Sarc./
20 posted on 01/06/2008 12:06:05 PM PST by JimC214
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