Why is the left so sympathetic to Islam?

[Someone here]

Why are liberals and leftists always defending Islam?

They have nothing but scorn for Christians who oppose the LGBT agenda. But Muslims oppose the LGBT agenda even more. To the point, in many Islamic countries, of killing gays.
Feminists attack Christianity for its alleged mistreatment of women. But Islam treats women far, far worse than anything seen in the West.

Similarly, Muslims in general support traditional sexual morality and oppose abortion. And, unlike Christians, in Islamic countries, they would likely punish the leftists who are agreeing with them for their secularism and unbelief.

When a terrorist turns out to be a Muslim, those on the left make a point of saying that we shouldn’t blame all Muslims, which is true enough. And yet when a Christian does something that offends them, they don’t make the same caution against over-generalization about Christianity. Indeed, they often tar all Christians with the same brush.

................

Why?

[PurpleTree]

because in the west they're often looked at as the victim/underdog

 

[silene]

The left is really trying to attack "Western" culture (meaning white Christian capitalist)  and Islam just happens to be another culture around which they haven't the courage to tackle, perhaps because Muslims tend to defend themselves more than Christians do. But yeah, it's all very embarrassing for the left, considering that Islam is historically guilty of all the same faults (including slavery) as Christianity. 

Edited February 25, 2022 by silene
Grammar.

[How to be wise]

@Someone here Muslims are minorities in the West. Plus, the Right loves to attack Muslims, so it makes Muslims seem like the oppressed ones. Muslims are not powerful in the west, unlike Christians. 

[Someone here]

Is it Very simple?  it's because they live in countries were Christianity is the dominant religion, and many powerful and wealthy people are christian. In other words Christianity is a strong religion with much influence, it should be able to take a punch or two.

Remember that when you are criticizing Islam, no one in Muslim majority countries will hear you. Instead the one who get the criticism are the mostly poor, uneducated muslim minorities in christian-dominated countries.

[silene]

@Someone here  I don't know which country you're in, but judging by this thread you're in the West. Where I live (UK) there's plenty of well educated and prosperous Muslims in business, medicine, academia etc so it's more complicated than making generalisations like most Muslims are poor & uneducated. They go through the same education system as anyone else here. 

Also by your logic, left wingers in Muslim majority countries would be doing the mirror image: vigorously criticising Islam and making allowances for Christian and other minorities. Do you see that in practice? (I don't have much experience of travelling in the Islamic majority world so I'm not sure. I'm genuinely interested, it's not just a rhetorical question).  

[vizual]

Because the left so desperately wants to be seen as tolerant and open minded that they are even willing to be tolerant toward groups and ideologies that are extremely intolerant. Saying that you are tolerant of Christian belief doesn’t score you woke points, so attacking Christianity is free game. It’s even the opposite, attacking Christianity scores you woke points, and you are deemed a ‘free thinker’. While criticizing Islam makes you a ‘bigot’.

[Preety_India]

A couple of points

• The left are afraid of criticizing Islam because of they are scared of the backlash. They have no spine. 
• They want to prove desperately that they are not racist and Islamophobic so they start pandering to Muslims to make a point 
• They view Islam as an exotic religion or culture so they want to appear welcoming to exotic cultures 
• They are mostly ignorant of Islamic beliefs 
• They view Islamic groups as a weak, oppressed, minority and they go into savior mode to protect this minority. 
• They want to appear woke so being critical of their own religion makes them look modern and woke. 
• They view their own men as "lame ass shit" and view Muslim men as "masculine." 
• They think they are not supposed to meddle with the beliefs and affairs of Muslims so they don't pay much attention to Islamic beliefs as it does not impact them in any way. 
• They think that there are extremist Muslims and moderate Muslims. 
• Muslims defend themselves very actively against any racism or Islamophobia so it is difficult to attack them. Christians don't defend themselves like that. So it's easy to attack a beaten horse. 

 

[Someone here]

31 minutes ago, silene said:

@Someone here  I don't know which country you're in, but judging by this thread you're in the West. Where I live (UK) there's plenty of well educated and prosperous Muslims in business, medicine, academia etc so it's more complicated than making generalisations like most Muslims are poor & uneducated. They go through the same education system as anyone else here. 

Also by your logic, left wingers in Muslim majority countries would be doing the mirror image: vigorously criticising Islam and making allowances for Christian and other minorities. Do you see that in practice? (I don't have much experience of travelling in the Islamic majority world so I'm not sure. I'm genuinely interested, it's not just a rhetorical question).  

I live in India. 

I think that the radical left supports Islam because they have an insulated western view of the world whereby the west are actors and all other people are acted upon, Muslim immigrants are minorities and the radical left feels compelled to defend all minorities and the Muslim nations are the result of Western imperialism, radical Islam and etc of which the radical left believes do not represent Islam or the Muslim population of the world. This further pushes the narrative that Muslims are victims, just the same way that feminists say that men are victims of the patriarchy because it restricts their freedom and punishes them for being different ie we are not able to express our feelings and we are expected to behave in a masculine way or conform to masculine ideals, with regards to Islam the radical left seems equally inconsistent about who exactly the state of Islam represents and who is responsible for it. Men are victims, women are victims, refugees are victims and there is nobody left to blame and this is not really exclusive to the west either. Obviously everyone recognises that "radical Islam" is a problem but the question is how does this relate back to the everyday Muslim? Are the majority of Muslims just law abiding people with similar philosophies, ideals and dreams to anybody else or are they hardcore misogynistic, anti-liberal and hateful people who willingly subscribe to a destructive ideology. Is the ideology itself even hateful or has it been hi-jacked by violent extremists. This is the complexity surrounding the issue of Islam and while I think the radical left have gone too far, it is difficult to take a strong stance on Islam without taking it on a case-by-case basis, the religion consists of too many people for a clear cut answer.

[Someone here]

33 minutes ago, vizual said:

Because the left so desperately wants to be seen as tolerant and open minded that they are even willing to be tolerant toward groups and ideologies that are extremely intolerant. Saying that you are tolerant of Christian belief doesn’t score you woke points, so attacking Christianity is free game. It’s even the opposite, attacking Christianity scores you woke points, and you are deemed a ‘free thinker’. While criticizing Islam makes you a ‘bigot’.

 

16 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

A couple of points

• The left are afraid of criticizing Islam because of they are scared of the backlash. They have no spine. 
• They want to prove desperately that they are not racist and Islamophobic so they start pandering to Muslims to make a point 
• They view Islam as an exotic religion or culture so they want to appear welcoming to exotic cultures 
• They are mostly ignorant of Islamic beliefs 
• They view Islamic groups as a weak, oppressed, minority and they go into savior mode to protect this minority. 
• They want to appear woke so being critical of their own religion makes them look modern and woke. 
• They view their own men as "lame ass shit" and view Muslim men as "masculine." 
• They think they are not supposed to meddle with the beliefs and affairs of Muslims so they don't pay much attention to Islamic beliefs as it does not impact them in any way. 
• They think that there are extremist Muslims and moderate Muslims. 
• Muslims defend themselves very actively against any racism or Islamophobia so it is difficult to attack them. Christians don't defend themselves like that. So it's easy to attack a beaten horse. 

 

A characteristic I notice in people in general is defensiveness. It does not matter if you are on the left or right or in the middle. Why are people, generally, defensive? I think people are because they want to be right or righteous. Who does not want to have the superior point of view? We all want to be the top dog in our own estimation. So, the question is what is the best point of view? If you lean left it is probably associated with socialism (in various forms), religious tolerance, economic interdependence, environmentalism, freedom of speech, social welfare, governmental regulation, more egalitarian characteristics, Etc. If you lean to the right your governmental preference is probably more authoritarian – capitalistic sovereignty, prefer authoritarian religions, less government regulation & environmental protection, oppose welfare and gun regulation, more individualistic characteristics, etc. These are generalized characteristics – not hardened fast rules. Most people are a hybrid of these attributes in various combinations – centrist – center right – center left.

So people on the left tend to want freedom of expression, people on the right tend to want a form of censored expression. I think this is generally true – so what does it mean? It means lefties want everyone to have their point of view expressed - even views from the far right. Do people on the right want freedom of expression? No – they do not. Is Islam a tolerant religion? No – it is not.

[Preety_India]

1 minute ago, Someone here said:

So, the question is what is the best point of view? If you lean left it is probably associated with socialism (in various forms), religious tolerance, economic interdependence, environmentalism, freedom of speech, social welfare, governmental regulation, more egalitarian characteristics,

In short that's what we call wokism. 

 

[Porphyry Fedotov]

 

[Leo Gura]

Because the left is sympathetic.

To be unsympathetic is to be on the right.

[Someone here]

 I guess it is because there is one group that is very noisy and aggressive.

This why some of the left are redefining themselves as the Progressive Left as opposed to the very noisy and aggressive 'regressive left'.

What I find disturbing with this regressive left is their drive and desperations to stop all sort of expressions, and critiques of Islam when it is Islam-in-part that would not hesitate to kill and rape them wherever the opportunity arise for SOME Muslims to do it in the name of Islam.

Another point is there are NOT many [except a few] on the left who are condemning the stupidity of these regressive left.

[Gesundheit2]

Because the right isn't.

[Preety_India]

1 minute ago, Someone here said:

This why some of the left are redefining themselves as the Progressive Left as opposed to the very noisy and aggressive 'regressive left'.

That is just an illusion. All left is same. 

[Happy Lizard]

2 hours ago, Preety_India said:

A couple of points

• The left are afraid of criticizing Islam because of they are scared of the backlash. They have no spine. 
• They want to prove desperately that they are not racist and Islamophobic so they start pandering to Muslims to make a point 
• They view Islam as an exotic religion or culture so they want to appear welcoming to exotic cultures 
• They are mostly ignorant of Islamic beliefs 
• They view Islamic groups as a weak, oppressed, minority and they go into savior mode to protect this minority. 
• They want to appear woke so being critical of their own religion makes them look modern and woke. 
• They view their own men as "lame ass shit" and view Muslim men as "masculine." 
• They think they are not supposed to meddle with the beliefs and affairs of Muslims so they don't pay much attention to Islamic beliefs as it does not impact them in any way. 
• They think that there are extremist Muslims and moderate Muslims. 
• Muslims defend themselves very actively against any racism or Islamophobia so it is difficult to attack them. Christians don't defend themselves like that. So it's easy to attack a beaten horse. 

 

this is a big shadow/misunderstanding of Green.

here's my perspective: green (healthy educated that have included orange) sees muslim not very different from Christians or jews or hindus. "who's to say who's right, who cares anyways? let people get along, let people go beyond boundries of borders and nations, we are all one humans one kind people!" 

The problem is when the perspective is lost, such as the ignorance of worldviews of underdeveloped tribal and jihadi type people is mixed with the educated and less dogmatic Muslims is lumped all together as one good entity. 
 

2 hours ago, Preety_India said:

•  
• They think that there are extremist Muslims and moderate Muslims. 

is it true that all muslims are extremest ? there's no way a moderate muslim can exist ? where she shares respect/understanding of the difference between religions and people without being too dogmatic ? I don't think green misunderstands this or is ignorant of its existence at all. 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Happy Lizard

[Someone here]

@Preety_India I think that if a group of people are being labelled as X and painted in a bad light then sensible people will speak up and say it is unfair to say that such a statement represents ALL people who associate with that group.

Thankfully I do think the overall public are little more wiser to how political manipulation works and at the moment due to easy access to media sources we are seeing a backlash against the backlash.

Are some people who call themselves Muslims evil? Yes, but not all. Are some people who call themselves Christians evil? Yes, but not all. Are some people who don't claim any religious position evil? Yes, but not all.

That is all we really need to remember. The rest is simply due to religious institutions and governments agendas. As members of the public I think we should try to rise above sweeping statements about groups of peoples. Of course being human we are all going to fall prey to our own views and biases so the best we can do is guard against them and not be willing to either target groups of people or to defend groups of people. People are people, and people are different.

[Preety_India]

Just now, Happy Lizard said:

this is a big shadow/misunderstanding of Green.

here's my perspective: green (healthy educated that have included orange) sees muslim not very different from Christina or jews or hindus. "who's to say who's right, who cares anyways? let people get along, let people go beyond boundries of borders and nations, we are all one humans one kind people!" 

The problem is when the perspectise is lost, such as the ignorance of worldviews of underdeveloped tribal and jihadi type people is mixed with the educated and less dogmatic Muslims is lumped all together as one good entity. 
 

is it true that all muslims are extremest ? there's no way a moderate muslim can exist ? where she shares respect/understanding of the difference between religions and people without being too dogmatic ? I don't think green misunderstands this or is ignorant of its existence at all. 

I don't think all of left is green though. That's a huge error. They're mostly ignorant. A small portion is green. 

 

[Preety_India]

2 minutes ago, Someone here said:

@Preety_India I think that if a group of people are being labelled as X and painted in a bad light then sensible people will speak up and say it is unfair to say that such a statement represents ALL people who associate with that group.

Thankfully I do think the overall public are little more wiser to how political manipulation works and at the moment due to easy access to media sources we are seeing a backlash against the backlash.

Are some people who call themselves Muslims evil? Yes, but not all. Are some people who call themselves Christians evil? Yes, but not all. Are some people who don't claim any religious position evil? Yes, but not all.

That is all we really need to remember. The rest is simply due to religious institutions and governments agendas. As members of the public I think we should try to rise above sweeping statements about groups of peoples. Of course being human we are all going to fall prey to our own views and biases so the best we can do is guard against them and not be willing to either target groups of people or to defend groups of people. People are people, and people are different.

If we go by that logic then Christians shouldn't have to feel like an oppressed minority in Muslim majority countries.