Daniel Katz's 3rd: Judging Religions, Cultures, and Ideologies

As our group was making it’s way into the northern regions of Israel, our guide was discussing Islam. He claimed that their ideology was essentially one that taught violence and intolerance towards non-Muslims. Our professor refuted by saying that it depends on one’s interpretation of the religious texts, and that most Muslims lead normal lives.

This in part contributed to a debate on the bus- are some cultures better than others? Some would argue that you cannot judge certain aspects of a culture by Western standards because we are looking at the culture through a lens of Western bias. Others would argue we have the right and responsibility to refute certain aspects of a culture because these practices take away people’s rights and/or sovereignty (ie female circumcision).

I feel ambivalent when I hear this argument, especially in regards to Islam. On one hand, I do not think of Muslims as bad people. If anything, the Muslims I have encountered at Michigan State University are some of the kindest and most intelligent people I have met. On the other, Islam has had a history of marginalizing religious minorities through the dhimmi system and the Quran and Hadiths do have certain passages which incite hatred of the Jews and other peoples such as Sahih Bukhari 4:56:791.

In my opinion, a careful balance must be struck. Muslims as individuals are people just like you and me and should not be demonized because of their culture and religion. However, I believe that people have the right to refute and criticize certain cultures and ideologies, especially those that squander human rights. Islam is no exception. I firmly believe we should not judge individuals, but certainly cultures should be judged because they greatly influence a person’s practices and ideology and the society at large. If a group, society, or civilization were to espouse a culture and/or ideology such as Al Qaeda’s, one of hatred, malicious violence, and abrogation of fundamental human rights, should be condemned.

Unfortunately, I think political correctness often plays into criticism of cultures. Many would argue that by saying we should judge cultures, I am being unfairly judgmental and chauvinistic. They would also perhaps go on to argue that culture is a relative value. I would refute such thinking by asking them if it was acceptable in a modern society to have practices such as human sacrifice.

In a society such as Israel, which has various ethnic and religious groups, there must tolerance and equality for different cultures and ideologies, even if there is much disagreement over how these ideology are and should be interpreted.