{"id":4853,"date":"2018-01-20T06:46:37","date_gmt":"2018-01-20T06:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/01\/20\/pakistani-humanist-denied-uk-asylum\/"},"modified":"2018-01-20T06:46:37","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T06:46:37","slug":"pakistani-humanist-denied-uk-asylum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/01\/20\/pakistani-humanist-denied-uk-asylum\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistani Humanist Denied UK Asylum . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

. . . after failing to identify<\/a> Plato! Holy Guacamole! (HT: Karl White)<\/span><\/p>\n

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A Pakistani man who renounced his Muslim faith and became a humanist has had his application for asylum in the UK rejected after failing to correctly answer questions about ancient Greek philosophers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Home Office said Hamza bin Walayat\u2019s failure to identify Plato and Aristotle as humanist philosophers indicated his knowledge of humanism was \u201crudimentary at best\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is very strange in several ways. For one thing, how could anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the divine Plato call him a humanist? Later in the piece we get a definition that is on the right track:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In a letter in support of Walayat\u2019s asylum application, Bob Churchill, of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, said: \u201cFor many, the broad descriptive \u2018humanist\u2019 is just a softer way of saying atheist, especially if you come from a place where identifying as atheist may be regarded as a deeply offensive statement.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My astute readers don't need it explained to them why Plato is not a humanist by this definition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the Pakistani man should be given asylum. But there is a far more important, an 'existential,' issue:<\/span><\/p>\n

If the Brits had any sense they would curtail the influx of Muslims into their homeland, at least for the time being, until the Muslim world reforms itself.  (This assumes that Brits still care about their wonderful culture which is parent to our American culture.) Far too many Muslims, not having gone through the Enlightenment, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, retain their backward fanaticism, a fanaticism and 'true belief' that makes them extremely dangerous to civilized and skeptical and sometimes decadent Brits who are prone to doubt and therefore not inclined to defend their superior culture.  As we read:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Apostates are subject to discrimination, persecution and violence in Pakistan. In March last year, a student who had stated he was a humanist on his Facebook page was murdered at his university<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Blasphemy is punishable by death under Pakistani law. In August, 24 British politicians wrote to the Pakistani government<\/a> urging it to repeal its draconian blasphemy law, which has been used against religious minorities and humanists.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Immigrants bring their culture with them. If those with antithetical values are allowed to immigrate in huge numbers they will not assimilate, even if a few of them are willing and able to assimilate.  And then the Brits will have in their midst subversive elements who believe the evil nonsense described in the quotation immediately preceding. Eventually, the invaders will take over the host country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now how stupid is that?  No comity without commonality. Do the U. K. and Europe have a death wish?<\/span><\/p>\n

Think about it. You have a superior culture that allows itself to be destroyed by an inferior culture that exploits features of the superior culture that make it superior. I am thinking of such classically liberal Western values as tolerance, religious liberty (which includes the liberty to be irreligious), and free speech. <\/span><\/p>\n

We must not allow our virtues to vitiate us. For then our virtues become vices. The values mentioned have limits. For example, does religious toleration extend to a religion which is also, and indissolubly, a destructive political ideology antithetical to Western values?<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a crucial question, but have you ever heard anyone raise it? Now you have.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . . after failing to identify Plato! Holy Guacamole! (HT: Karl White) A Pakistani man who renounced his Muslim faith and became a humanist has had his application for asylum in the UK rejected after failing to correctly answer questions about ancient Greek philosophers. The Home Office said Hamza bin Walayat\u2019s failure to identify … Continue reading “Pakistani Humanist Denied UK Asylum . . .”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islamism","category-toleration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}