{"id":3969,"date":"2010-03-13T22:26:22","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T06:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/wordpress\/?p=3969"},"modified":"2010-03-13T22:26:22","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T06:26:22","slug":"the-islamic-exception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/the-islamic-exception\/","title":{"rendered":"The Islamic Exception"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Scandinavian countries are generally pretty keen on mandating tolerance, but there are, it seems, some exceptions. <a href=\"http:\/\/reason.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/12\/noted-homophobe-named-norways\" target=\"_blank\">Writing<\/a> for <em>Reason<\/em>\u2019s <em>Hit<\/em> <em>and Run,<\/em> Michael Moynihan\u00a0has the details:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u2026There <em>was<\/em>\u00a0a time when the Scandinavian countries could reasonably boast that it was in the grim, cold north of Europe that the most liberal, socially tolerant societies were to be found. But something, it seems, is stirring; a disturbing acquiescence to the rising tide of religious fundamentalism. While criticism of the (American) Christian right are still regularly found in Stockholm and Oslo&#8217;s &#8220;quality&#8221; dailies (most of it overdrawn, but often entirely justified), the increasing fundamentalism of their fellow citizens is either ignored or excused. Take this most recent example, detailed here by Norwegian journalist\u00a0Rita Karlsen, of the &#8220;Role Model of the Year&#8221; gong, awarded by Norway&#8217;s Ministry of Children, Equality, and Social Inclusion. (And yes, having a ministry with such a silly title is itself a problem.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>According the government, Mahdi Hassan won plaudits for his tireless work on behalf on indigent local youths:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We know that good role models mean a lot when it comes to creating opportunities for children and teenagers.\u00a0\u00a0Mahdi Hassan is such a role model.\u00a0\u00a0He is visible, he has knowledge and a strong sense of commitment and makes use of these things to create a better day-to-day life for young people in Tynset. People like Mahdi Hassan make a difference and his award for \u201d2009 Role Model of the Year\u201d is highly deserved.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Well, huzzah for Hassan. The only problem, though, is that <em>Hassan the Role Model<\/em> has a wee problem with the gays; typically something that disqualifies one from being publicly celebrated in Scandinavia. According to Karlsen, &#8220;Hassan told the newspaper <em>Arbeidets Rett<\/em> that he wants a ban on homosexuality, based on the Koran.&#8221; Does he support the death penalty for gays? That&#8217;s &#8220;up to each individual country to decide.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Scandinavian countries are generally pretty keen on mandating tolerance, but there are, it seems, some exceptions. Writing for Reason\u2019s Hit and Run, Michael Moynihan\u00a0has the details: \u2026There was\u00a0a time when the Scandinavian countries could reasonably boast that it was &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/the-islamic-exception\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[50,493],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3969"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3971,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions\/3971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}