a simple visual example

[Hazel]

Iran 1979



Iran now

[James]

I think this adds a lot of weight to Salman Rushdie's claim that the current regressive picture we see in the Islamic theocracies is more a picture of politically motivated Islamic extremism than a picture of what Muslims will do if not motivated by ultra-conservative psychopaths.

On the other hand, if you saw where Rushdie talked this point over with Bill Maher, you might have noticed that he openly concedes that if these people didn't believe the tenets of Islam, then they wouldn't be so politically useful to the tyrants that oppress them. That's part of why I think it's rather outrageous that the press is insisting that Rushdie is saying that Sam Harris is wrong. Indeed, I expect that Rushdie mostly agrees with Harris but is making a different point that is probably more consequential and, surprisingly, easier to tackle than Islam is directly.