Supporting Muslims sounds intelligent in Canada?
I knew an American living in Canada for 4 years. He kept supporting Muslims while I kept criticizing Muslim sexism.
He said that Muslims he met in Toronto were all nice. In my opinion, many Muslims in Toronto are westernized. Also, many who could immigrate to Canada are most likely to be either economical or educational elites, not typical Muslims in the Middle East. How can he define entire Muslims without knowing real Muslims? Furthermore, he told me that when his girlfriend lived in the Middle East, Muslims men there treated her nicely. In my opinion, those who are allowed to talk to foreigners in the Middle East are most likely privileged people. Also, in some cultures men treat foreign women nicely while they treat their own women like property.
One day he sent me a link to a TED video clip in which an American talked about authorities for judgments. When we meet, he explained about the video and gave me a long speech, “None should judge others.” Just after he finished, he said, “You cannot enjoy Muslims because you are from Japan.” He judged me just after the speech. This is not the first time that he judged me. The other day, he asked me what university I went to in Japan. Additionally, he judged French culture by North American diversity, criticizing that there is only one definition of beauty in French culture. I believe that he did not know what judgment means but because it sounds intelligent to criticize judgment, he mimicked the words in the video. Finally, he said that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is judgmental. Her opinions on Muslims are based on her experience as she was born and grew up in Muslim countries. She is only explaining what she grew up with.
On that same day, he refused reading articles on Muslims in the Economist I brought. He said that it was propaganda. He never explained why he thought so no matter how many times I asked. I believed that this is because I said to him that a good thing about Europeans is that they do not depend on media while many Americans do so. When we started meeting, he used to recommend me Wikipedia to learn historical facts. It is hard for me to believe that a person depending on Wikipedia could have fair reason to criticize the Economist, which is more reliable than Wikipedia.
After this event, I came to feel that some people support Muslims just because it sounds intelligent in Canada.
A Japanese View 
“…some people support Muslims just because it sounds intelligent in Canada.”
No. People tend to do this when they are disappointed with their own culture. I saw the same phenomena rise in Italy (and Europe) as well, shortly after 9/11. To admire Muslim culture was just a form of rebellion. If it wasn’t the Muslims but was the “Martians”, it would have been the same.
Sean
2012/06/05
Sean,
You are saying that people admire Honor killing, which is seen in Muslim culture and some other cultures, when they are disappointed by their own culture?
japaneseview
2012/08/08
Yes, it’s a form of nihilism. What’s astonishing is that these people don’t realize that although their society might have many problems, it is a modern democracy and there is a freedom of opinion. Sometimes I tell these people “If you like the way things work over there, why don’t you just live there!?!”.
Sean
2012/08/11