The Watcher’s Council has announced its picks for the most outstanding posts of the preceding week. The winning Council post was Joshuapundit’s post, “A Cure for ‘Anti-Zionism’â€, Freedom Fighter’s prescription for coping with those who seek the destruction of the state of Israel—standing up to them. Second place honors went to Done With Mirrors’s post, “’No Friend Left Behind (Update)†in which Callimachus returns to a subject that’s been much on his mind lately: assisting the Iraqis who’ve stood with us there in the event of U. S. withdrawal from Iraq before the country is a lot more stable than it is now.
The winning non-Council post was Dr. Sanity’s post, “Sticking to What I Know Best†in which former Council member Pat Santy responds to the comments of some of her male, Muslim commenters. I think there’s a lot of sound observation from Pat here but I’m a little concerned about coming up with a solid definition of something like “misogyny” that holds water on a cross-cultural basis. I completely agree that cultural practices like honor killings of women and female genital mutilation are profoundly misogynistic. They’re un-Islamic, too. Second place honors went to Kobayashi Maru’s post, “From the Mouths of Babes: Climate Analysis That Actually Worksâ€, a report on great analysis from a teenage girl’s science project. Amazing what you can come up with when you’re not seeking rents.
The complete results are here.
Female genital mutilation predates both Islam and Christianity. It is practiced by some Jews and some Christians. It is not practiced in several Muslim countries such as Iran, Turkey and India. It shouldn’t always be mentioned in the same breath.