European belief in sexual equality trumped by European belief in cultural equality

According to Ilkka Kokkarinen writing at his blog, Sixteen Volts Per Minute, two Muslim men in Finland brutally beat their sister for dating a man they don’t approve of; the judge gives them light sentences because such beatings are a part of their culture. No sign of an uprising by Finnish feminists. (Kokkarinen doesn’t actually say that the perpetrators are Muslims; instead, he just speaks ironically of how bad “Finnish patriarchy” is for women these days, but it’s clear the subject is really Muslims.) In a follow-up, he has translated an opinion piece by Jussi Halla-Aho about the deeper meanings of this incident, namely that Western tolerance of Muslims means Western tolerance of Muslim intolerance of Jews, homosexuals, women, etc. The West prevents its own people from being intolerant of Jews, homosexuals, and so on. But, at least so far, it has shown no will to prevent Muslims from being intolerant of those groups. So where is all this heading?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the ultimate telos of Western liberals’ demand for equal freedom for everyone is the voluntary submission of Western liberals to Muslim tyranny.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 23, 2006 06:03 AM | Send