Members of the public are welcome to attend a free panel discussion tonight about recent revolutions in the Middle East.
The Technocultural Studies Building is playing host to the event – the discussion will take place from 5 to 7 p.m., refreshments will follow and the ASWAT Bay Area Music Ensemble will perform from 7:30 to 8 p.m.
Paul Amar, associate professor of global and international studies at UC Santa Barbara, will discuss the youth movements in Egypt’s revolution as well as police-military contentions. Beshara Doumani, professor of history at UC Berkeley, will reflect on the revolutions’ slogan, “The People Want.” Susan Miller, associate professor of history at UC Davis, will discuss the revolution in Libya.
With this panel, the Middle East/South Asia studies program (MESA) launches its Faris Saeed Lecture Series in Arab Studies – made possible by a $250,000 grant by Faris Saeed, a Dubai resident supportive of MESA at UC Davis.
– Janelle Bitker
I’m betting they did not talk about the following. Anyone want to take the other side of this bet?
Here are some reasons Islam and democracy are incompatible.
• Inimical to ‘social freedoms’, demanding that all people obey their 7th century moral codes without question or criticism, under penalty of death.
• Inimical to ‘man made’ laws, claiming that their laws are given to them by God/Allah and all must obey them, in submission, under penalty of death.
• Inimical to the ‘social contract’ that is democratic constitutional government, for the people and by the people, in pursuit of ‘life, liberty, and happiness’, as these are ‘man made’ ideas, and to submit to them over Allah’s laws is apostasy, punishable by death.
• Inimical to the ‘rights of individuals’ to pursue their own ideals and beliefs, freedom of worship, freedom of inquiry of truth, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of artistic expression, freedom of loving other human beings, freedom of choice, freedom of pursuing one’s life with reciprocal respect for others regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity, or sex, as these are our ‘inalienable’ rights; to pursue these may be punishable by death.
• Inimical to ‘democratic freedoms’ as protected by (man made) constitutional laws agreed upon by social contract to protect the rights of individuals, but in favor of ‘dictatorship’ politics supported by the Ulama with the ultimate goal of imposing a universal Caliphate dictating all society according to (Allah/Mohammad’s) Sharia, where submissive obedience is rigorously mandatory, under penalty of death.
• Inimical to intellectual ‘secularism’ in all its forms, in education, in philosophical inquiry and discourse, in the sciences, in religious studies, in history studies, in sociological studies, in anthropological studies, in archeology studies, if these are not in concordance with the ‘religious’ teachings of the Koran, except as studies of ‘infidel’ societies to be subdued, conquered for conversion, to pay the jizyah, or be put to death.
• Inimical to social ‘equality’ of all human beings, especially of the female sex, women kept in oppression as chattel for procreation and sexual gratification of males; as submissively obedient house slaves in violation of the sanctity of their personal humanity, unfree to seek life as they desire but must live in fear of their male masters who will punish them if they disobey, for violating their ‘honor’, with death.