Is Sam Harris Really a White Supremacist?, Part Two
Several supposed free thinkers have fallen prey to the clash of civilizations agitprop machine, and regurgitate their centuries old mantras without much thought, refection, or critical analysis. Instead they use their atheism as a shield, pretending that they are just biased towards all religion, and not just a few in particular.
While we’re glad to hear that some of Sam’s best friends are Muslim, we don’t see how that makes his arguments any more or less bigoted. Our case is that, no matter who his friends are, whom he works with, or whom he praises, Harris makes dubious arguments about Islam based on a flawed and prejudicial Clash of Civilizations ideology.
We’ll frame the real issue here in a simple binary, in order to make it easier for some people to understand. Is Islam:
(A) A dynamic tradition that is practiced, interpreted, adapted, and lived out in a global patchwork of cultures and communities, across the lives of 1.6 billion people?
or:
(B) A belief system that’s at war with other ideas?
Though they make a nod to option (A), Harris’ and Mehta’s writings both incline sharply toward option (B). This Us versus Them approach can yield some ugly thinking.
For example, Mehta writes that, “Harris has been trying to address the matter of how Islam, more than any other faith, is a threat to our civilization.”
