(from Ultima Thule, May 2006)
Western and Muslim concepts of honor create an unbridgeable cultural divide
In addition to honor and shame ... comes the Muslim sense of manhood or manliness, which involves being capable of great violence and mayhem in defense of the family name or his religion. Our own concepts of tolerance seem hopelessly weak and pathetic to a culture such as this, and in no way makes us palatable to the Muslim male, who sees only weakness -- probably the weakness of a woman in our attempts to be compassionate and tolerant. So much for winning hearts and minds! ...
We would be wise to take into account these cultural characteristics, and not make the mistake that the compassionate liberal makes -- which is that given enough understanding and tolerance, the other fellow will see your point of view, and come in the end, to be as tolerant as you. In a sense, this is the illogic of tolerance, it assumes that tolerance is the logical endpoint of all understanding and culture. It is not. More ...
