The Baha'i Studies Listserv On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 9:53 AM, Susan Maneck <sman...@gmail.com> wrote: > The Baha'i Studies Listserv >> Perhaps you didn't intend it this way, but the basic form of your >> argument was to say that Naison was wrong because he was echoing >> Muslim arguments. > > Dear Gilberto, > > My basic argument is that Naison's argument is inadequate because both > Islam and Christianity have stated the same thing but it has not > protected women from oppression in either religion.
But Christianity AND Islam AND the Bahai faith include statements in their writings which make distinctions between the roles of men and women in society. It would be dishonest to suggest that Bahais are radically different. And Bahais aren't magically immune from sexism. > . As time goes on, all societies (Muslim, Christian, Bahai >> etc.) are making progress in terms of women's equality. You don't have >> to frame it as a Bahai vs. Islam argument. > Yes, I realize that. But we claim to be saying something different > about women's roles than those other religions. If in fact we are > saying the same thing then our claim is bogus. I'm not sure that is correct. Not every Bahai needs to one-up the other religions. >> >> Also, I've said this before but there are certainly issues where >> "progress" isn't monotonic in a simple-minded way. For example, why >> would God prohibit pork under Judaism, permit it under Christianity, >> prohibit it under Islam, and then permit it under the Bahai faith >> again? > > Granted. But Baha'is don't go around bragging that we get to eat pork > the way we brag about the equality of men and women. In fact, if you > push us we will tell you it is best not to eat any meat period! And in the Muwatta Umar (ra) says; "Beware of meat, because it has an addiction like the addiction of wine." > What I'm saying is that there needs to be some substance behind > something we have made a cardinal principle. Sure. But that substance should come from promoting equality in human society generally. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:arch...@mail-archive.com Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-537235-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to ly...@list.jccc.edu Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai...@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
