When the idea of family is more important than people
While the linked article is about Doncaster UK, it is a striking example of the way rhetoric and social agenda can take precedence over real people and real lives. Â In short, the mayor of Doncaster suggested that the Taliban has more to offer society because it offers an “ordered system of family life.”
Defending the remarks, Davies said: “The point I was making was that even a regime as hideous as the Taliban at least appears to have some sort of decent sort of family affairs. In fact, probably… they have an ordered society.
He was speaking following recent child abuse scandals in Doncaster.
Referring to recent child abuse scandals in the town, he added: “The one thing that can be said about the Taliban is that they do have an ordered society of some sort and that they don’t have hundreds of cases of children under threat of abuse from violent parents as we do in Doncaster.”
Really? Does he honestly believe that children are better cared for? Â I have a feeling that child welfare may not be that much different, except that in a more open and free country, there is publicity and a push for the rights of children, whereas under a more restrictive theocratic regime, these concerns would not be raised or hidden intentionally.
In fact, probably… they have an ordered society.
My favorite part of that quote is the “maybe.” Maybe they do, and maybe they don’t, although he is on the side of “they do.” But the more important quest is not if it is ordered or not, but rather, what is it ordered upon?
While not in Afganistan, an episode of child control last year speaks to the false claim of “abuse from violent parents” Google for “Father burns daughter” and see what you find. While most of the press it received, has a anti-muslim/ pro-christian stance, the bottom line is that a daughter had her tongue cut out and burned to death.
Davies isn’t really interested in facts however. He merely wants to use rhetoric that spins his own message. That message, here in the US comes under the guise of Christian Family Values, where the image of “family” is more important that the reality of real lives.
Interestingly, the first part of the abuse of the daughter could be justified with Christian scripture. Even Jesus preached that he offending body part should be cut off. Better to live without it than to sin again. To meet the Christian Bible, the burning should have been a stoning, but why get bogged down in these details…
This push by many, that we called the radical right, may use a religious basis, but Religion itself isn’t the problem. The problem is placing ideas and concepts of Family as more important than real lives, real people.
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