Is criticizing a different culture as same as being racist?



With everything that has been going on with ISIS and terrorists attacks (I'll use this as an ex. since it's relevant today), let me change the question a little bit: Is it racist to criticize Islam?

No, of course not. It is your right to criticize what you want as long as you try to be open minded. Islam is not a race, it is a religion and people follow it. Racist isn't the right term in this case. I'll just get my view of some differences in this answer.

If you say, "I don't like this or that in Islam and I never will. I don't support it. I think that is this or that and it is wrong because this or that" you are not bigoted. However, there are common misconceptions among people that:

a) All Muslims are Arabs (they aren't).
b) All Arabs are Muslims (they aren't as well).

You can criticize Islam in the same way you criticize Christianity, Judaism or Hinduism. It doesn't matter. Nobody can forbid you to do so. It is freedom of speech after all.

However, there is a very big difference between the first one and saying "Islam makes terrorists. Down Islam. Islam is the biggest threat to the world! Muslims want to take over the world!". If you say this then you are Islamophobic and you are prejudiced not only when it comes to Islam but when it comes to Muslims at the same time. The first one is just your opinion about certain things in Islam and why you disagree with them. It is just critique. The second one is purely bigoted. You automatically label Islam as a terrorist religion, Muslims as bad people.

Islam has flaws. Every religion has them. Criticizing certain parts and downright labeling on religion as a "terrorist" and as a "threat" to everyone are two VERY different things. Islamism is something different in this case.

Conclusion: Racism is clearly wrong, but criticism of culture is not. It should not be equated with racism, and does not make one a bad person.

Check out this excellent article be secular activist Faisal Saeed Al Mutar: Anti-Muslim Bigotry vs. Genuine Criticism of Islam. (2015, November 19). Retrieved July 5, 2017, from https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/7809 

Also check out this article: Criticizing a culture is not racism. (2014, September 14). Retrieved July 5, 2017, from https://clarionproject.org/criticizing-culture-not-racismn/

Melissa

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  1. jodias2017年7月13日 10:31

    I think it is important to distinguish between being _respectfully_ critical of a religion and saying bigoted and hateful things against it. I certainly have criticisms of the religion that I grew up with, Catholicism (it's position on LGBT issues, on birth control, etc.), so I would respect critics of some of the core Catholic tenets. But, for someone to say that Catholicism is evil and a sort of unholy cult (as some fundamentalist Christians in the U.S. do) goes over the line into hate speech.

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