Tony Abbott on Islam: ‘Not All Cultures Are Equal’

I picked this article because many here in the states would agree with Abbott. He's absolutely right about one thing. The west can't remain in denial about the massive problem within Islam. He's absolutely right about it never having a reformation of between the church, and state. We got it. They don't.

But that DOES NOT mean we are more EQUAL than them. It flies in the face of supposed western values of equality. The very foundation of liberty, and freedoms.

The West is not superior. We are actually the same. We here in the west justify our killing in the name of the people through a proxy called government.

Different means SAME end, and much like within Islam our proxies tell us 'it's the right thing to do'.

“Islam never had its own version of the Reformation and the Enlightenment or a consequent acceptance of pluralism and the separation of church and state,” he wrote in a letter published in a Sydney tabloid last week.

It’s not culturally insensitive to demand loyalty to Australia and respect for Western civilization. Cultures are not all equal. We should be ready to proclaim the clear superiority of our culture to one that justifies killing people in the name of God.”

Nannna nanna we're 'better' than you! Er not really!

I actually believe the big guy up in the sky is looking down on us, and giving us all the triple three stooge face palm.

The meek shall inherit the earth.

Cultures are not all equal.
Take a long look at the art and science every culture has contributed to society. It varies widely.

a reply to: neo96

Aussies call him the mad monk for a reason.

His sister is a lesbian, he's a catholic. I wonder who's side he took...

a reply to: neo96

Our own country has a long history of anti-Catholicism and central to the fear mongering about Catholics was the idea that they could never be loyal Americans. Anti-Catholicism persisted despite (in fact, because) immigration trends starting in the mid-19th century led to Catholicism becoming the largest denomination of Christians in the US.

There was an interesting (though brief) article about a period of particularly intense anti-Catholicism in the first quarter of the 20th century that I read the other day.

Portland Press Herald - A century ago, the anti-Catholics raged

The year was 1915, and the strange new newspaper in Aurora, Missouri, had grown so quickly in its first four years that rail officials had to build extra tracks for all the paper and printing materials suddenly rolling into town.

The Aurora post office, according to one account, more than tripled its staff to handle mail to and from the publication’s astonishing 1.5 million weekly subscribers – a circulation that dwarfed the largest daily newspapers in New York and Chicago.

Hatred had become big business in southwestern Missouri, and its name was the Menace, a weekly anti-Catholic newspaper whose headlines screamed to readers around the nation about predatory priests, women enslaved in convents and a dangerous Roman Catholic plot to take over America.

“The cowardice of a Roman thug has no parallel in either the human or animal kingdom,” the newspaper frothed in one 1914 edition, calling for “men with red blood in their veins” to defend women and children from Catholics. “If we are compelled to live in this county with Romanists, as our weak-kneed Protestant critics say we are, the Romanists will have to be taught their place in society.”

While anti-Catholicism doesn't have anywhere the popularity it once did, it lives on to this day, particularly in the Midwest and South where protestants are by far the majority. Much of the rhetoric is indistinguishable from that of the anti-Islam rhetoric of today.

- They can never be loyal
- They can't/won't assimilate
- They are plotting to take over
- They're criminals ("who will rape our women!")

In a larger sense these sorts of nativist movements have been popular from the colonial days; anti-Chinese, anti-Irish*, anti-Italian*, anti-Polish*, anti-German*, anti-Native American (ironic isn't it?), anti-Hispanic*, anti-Semetic and now we have anti-Islam.

* anti-Catholicism has been a component of all of these

What I find particularly ironic is that the descendants of many of these groups are so assimilated (and not mindful of history) that they're caught up in the same sort of irrationality. Also ironic is that the separation of church and state was once a very big deal among certain protestant groups, particularly the Baptists.

The target changes, the claims stay the same.

No, he is right. A culture that started two world wars, committed a genocide with industrial efficiency, dropped two nuclear bombs on peasants and teachers is not equal to, say, Native American culture.

Austrailia is hardly a cultural hotspot now is it? I imagine aboriginal native culture is interesting from an anthropological point of view but modern day Austrailia is just a cross of uk and us culture on a hot island with lots of animals that want to sting or bite you. Kylie minogue has been your best export along with neighbors and home and away.

a reply to: gosseyn


You should read up on the native americans warring against each other.
Then ask the Chinese about the innocent Japanese during ww2.
Plenty of blood to spread around.

Where, anyone would get the idea that Abbot supports the separation of state and religion, I have no idea...

Å99

I agree. My culture changes through time. Women have equality, for example.

I live in a culture that is both religiously tolerant and religion is tolerated.

Muslim counties, on the whole, are religiously intolerant and alternative religion (to the dominant denomination) is not tolerated.

In my culture, social change happens as part of progression. In many Muslim countries society is fixed in time, because that's what the Quran says. Shariah law anyone?

I agree. My secular culture is better than Islamic culture.

a reply to: gosseyn


The USA did not start either world war.

We ended them.

a reply to: Deny Arrogance

I believe he was referring to white culture.

Really.....neighbours and home and away......?

You don't like that rubbish do you ....damn I hope you being facetious

The West is inferior in one way.

Many of it's people are so caught up in Idealism they wont bother to win a war and care about all these silly issues.

You can't be superior if you think your hoighty toighty intellectualism will matter when you and your culture are eliminated.

800 Million people with overrated liberal arts educations and internet is not superior to guys who will kill you, impregnate your women, take over your legal system and eliminate your way of life. That's actually a "failed culture"

Sit around and list the people you have defeated and feel bad about it... because all those people who lost to you in the past wouldn't have done it to you. Wars happen all the time, the only actual superiority is winning.

I've always liked crazy old Abbott, probably because of an old family connection (he shagged my aunt while they were at uni together, she's got a whole bunch of stories about him and one of his daughters has her name lol).

He's absolutely right about Islam needing a reformation. Back in the day, Christians were militant buggers, as per the Crusades. But they grew, evolved with the times.

The thing about Islam, is that it is absolutely prohibited to alter the text of the Quran in any way. Muslims are supposed to follow it to the letter. That's all well and good, until you remember that it was written hundreds of years ago. Times have changed. Cutting off people's hands and stoning women to death has no place in modern society. But because altering the text or adapting it to modern times is prohibited, a reformation or enlightenment is prevented.

This is a big reason why I loathe Islam (not the individual Muslims, I mean the actual religion itself). It's resistant to change, and proclaims ancient, barbaric practices, which believers are expected to follow for all time.

The western tradition is far superior on philosophical grounds. But humans are the same type of animal everywhere.

originally posted by: woodwardjnr
Austrailia is hardly a cultural hotspot now is it? I imagine aboriginal native culture is interesting from an anthropological point of view but modern day Austrailia is just a cross of uk and us culture on a hot island with lots of animals that want to sting or bite you. Kylie minogue has been your best export along with neighbors and home and away.

Oh come on, Nick Cave has got to be up there even if these days he lives in Brighton.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
The western tradition is far superior on philosophical grounds. But humans are the same type of animal everywhere.

In terms of quantity I agree, but in terms of quality that's open for debate.