Sunday, November 02, 2008

Parallels on Proposition 8

These are not entirely perfect, but they provide food for thought:

1. If you would vote yes on Proposition 8, would you also vote yes on banning needle exchanges?

2. If you would vote yes on Proposition 8, would you also vote yes on banning sex education and the distribution of free condoms to "at risk" youth? And/or in "at risk" regions?


What can I say? I'm intrigued by the diversity of Muslim reactions to Propostion 8. On Saturday evening I met a brother who asked "wait, are there really young Muslims, our age, who are voting yes on Proposition 8?" He couldn't contemplate Muslims voting to strip others of their fundamental rights - and why should he have to? Scarier than Muslims simply voting yes they are also spreading homophobic propaganda. Their inability to participate in open and mature discussions without expressing fear that even simply discussing the issue might be default make them somehow gay is tragic and a big step backwards for purposes of dawah.

So really though, would yes-voters be opposed to clean needles and free condoms?

(It's possible that this is a parallel that only religious no-voters can comprehend.)


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i am a religious yes-voter, but would vote no for the above and i am not against them. i am sorry, i dont see the parallel...can u please elaborate?

Unknown said...

ironic how you have a yes on 8 advertisement on a decidedly "no on 8" blog. capitalism, you definitely risk selling your soul dont you?

adam said...

Salaams Zahra, my question to you is, you believe that marriage is a fundamental right for homosexuals. My view, is i dont think the state should be able to define who we should marry, I am not comfortable with affording the state that much authority, so one asked me, would i vote yes if there was a proposition to ban alcholol.

Zahra Billoo said...

Affad, oh wow. Adsense REMOVED. :)

(This response is nearly useless given the delay, but nonetheless...)

Moti, if I understood your comment correctly, I agree with your view.

Anonymous: the parallels are with respect to imposing our definitions of morality on others. Additionally the issue can be seen as one of permitting state recognition of a "harm" for the sake of bringing good to it and mitigating potential injustices.