POSTED RESPONSES TO AN EDITORIAL IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
"Human
rights" is a Western concept that has no importance or meaning in Chinese
thought.
'Or in Islam, for that
matter.'
Only partly right.
"Human rights" is a modern concept, having no long
history in Europe.
Every state which reaches general prosperity and modernity
comes to gradually embrace the concept.
Even in a place like Saudi Arabia, there is a growing
implicit recognition.
So, too, China.
It took Europe a very long time to evolve the concept,
through centuries of absolutism and religious violence.
The United States borrowed all the concepts in its founding
documents from Europe, but it was a very long time until it lived up to them.
Dr. Johnson talked contemptuously of "drivers of
negroes speaking of liberty!"
And we see today that ignorant fear, re-inforced by
government's special interests, can start making what we thought were
well-established freedoms start disappearing under ghastly legislation like The
Patriot Act.
Again, where is the concern for rights in a place like Israel
with its 4.5 million people with no rights whatsoever and suffering constant
abuse?
_________________________________________
The person writing this is simply ignorant of China.
China is not intolerant of religion.
Religion often in the past - as the Catholic Church of the
sixteenth century - has been used by outsiders as a means of gaining power in a
state.
The Chinese understand this, and much like French kings or
Henry VIII's England, they are against such efforts.
Outfits like Folun Gang fall into this category.
While I'm sure it has some sincere followers, the
organization unquestionably has been driven by secret CIA funding.
And if we are going to speak of religious intolerance, may I
remind you that the United States has virtually declared war on Islam, the
religion of more than a billion people?
It murders literally thousands in Afghanistan and, with its
drones, in Pakistan and Somalia and other places.
And not one of its victims was involved in 9/11.
Saudis, the folks helping engineer the violence in Syria,
very much were.
And what of Israel's 4.5 million victims, the Palestinians, people
of many faiths actually, including significant numbers of Christians?
