Response to Devin

Devin posted this in response to Cait's post about the never-to-happen Quran burning in Florida. I have refrained from commenting on this event and the so-called Ground Zero Mosque because I think most people have a good idea of what I would say, and because I think they might be talked about too much already. However, Devin's response was good enough and made me think enough that I thought I would respond to it here. He said:

"I agree with you that the guy that wants to burn the Quran is a nut, but nauseated? No. However, I do feel nauseated when I hear about a husband raping his wife and being ruled innocent by a judge because he was just obeying sharia law (luckily it was overturned), or a woman being stoned to death because of sharia law, or non-Muslims not being permitted in Mecca being they are unclean.

"It's funny though because there is a double standard. If a Muslim were to burn Bibles everyone would be like "well that's okay, at least they are not hurting anyone this time." So true"

This is a nuanced issue and I wanted to get my thoughts out about it, so here's what I think:

There will always be a double-standard in the majority vs. the minority. When a perceived attack is made on a minority it should always get a lot more of a response than an attack on a majority.  Majorities almost always oppress minorities, whether consciously or not, and so the minorities should be extra protected. That's why we don't talk about the "white civil rights movement" or have a "white history month" and why we don't have "straight pride parades." Our rights as white, middle-class, heterosexual, Christians in the US are about as unassailable as any rights in the world. The only minority we worry about oppressing us are the super-rich and the super-powerful because they are a majority when it comes to resources or influence. We have no need to fear systematic oppression by Muslim-Americans. But they have a very legitimate fear of systematic oppression by us.

This holds the world over. Women in all of the world are a minority when it comes to resources and political influence, and so we should work to uphold their rights at the cost of men. Wealthy Jews oppress the poorer Muslims in Israel, numerically superior Muslims oppress all non-Muslims throughout the Middle East and in some parts of South-East Asia. In my view it is always ethical to demand equal rights for minorities, whether we agree with them or not. Human rights are measured by comparing what the majority has to what the minority doesn't.

The only minority I belong to is Mormons so I'll get upset when my rights as a Mormon are oppressed, which they almost never are. But, for the most part, I and almost everyone who reads this blog are the majority and that's why it's our obligation to stand up for the minority and not the other way around.