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White Americans may view diversity and multiculturalism more negatively as the U.S. moves toward becoming a minority-majority nation, UCLA psychologists report.
As part of their study, the researchers divided 98 white Americans from all regions of the country — half male, half female, with an average age of 37 — randomly into two groups. One group was told that whites will no longer be the majority in the U.S. by 2050; in fact, this is likely to be true as soon as 2043, according to some projections. The second group was told that whites would retain their majority status in the U.S. through at least 2050. All participants were then asked a series of questions about their views on diversity.
“Whites feel lukewarm about diversity when they are told that they are about to lose their majority status in the United States for the first time,” said Yuen Huo, UCLA professor of psychology and the study’s senior author.
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/soon-to-become-a-minority-in-the-u-s-whites-express-declining-support-for-diversity-ucla-psychology-study-finds
[PAPER]: No Longer “All-American”? Whites’ Defensive Reactions to Their Numerical Decline:
http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/08/13/1948550614546355
(Score: 2) by keplr on Sunday October 05 2014, @10:30AM
Paraphrasing Daniel Dennett, religious scholarship is like stamp collecting: very few people do it, and they have little influence. A sophisticated and liberal scholar might have a nuanced and tempered understanding of their religion compatible with contemporary secular society, but he doesn't have any authority or influence on the vast majority of believers who are more than willing to take on board the unsophisticated version of the faith. Those are the people I'm concerned with. What the PhDs say is essentially irrelevant, because it just hasn't gained much currency. If all Muslims were like that, accepted those interpretations, then we could call it a day.
I don't know what your background is, but you sound like you've done at least as much reading as I have so share with me what you've found. Let's start with a simple topic. Apostasy. Educate me on what Islam's position is on that. Give me the most charitable interpretation. From what I've read, the Quran specifies that it is a serious crime (16:106) that must be punished, it doesn't specify how or to what extent. The Hadith reaffirms that it is a crime, and adds that the proper punishment is death (Sahih al Bukhari 4:52:260). There are over 20 Muslim countries that actively punish apostates in some way, including with death. You just don't see this sort of thing with other religions today. So what am I missing about apostasy?
I don't respond to ACs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 05 2014, @05:11PM
or influence on the vast majority of believers who are more than willing to take on board the unsophisticated version of the faith. Those are the people I'm concerned with. What the PhDs say is essentially irrelevant, because it just hasn't gained much currency.
I will hold you to that. What the vast unwashed masses of muslims actually do is what matters. Not what a small minority of extremists do. Not what their books say. Not what their scholars say. Not what other scholars say about their books.
With respect to apostasy then, all the verses in the quran that say there is no compulsion in religion don't really count. [themodernreligion.com] Nor does it count when the quranic scholars says that it isn't apostasy that uniquely requires punishment in this life, [blogspot.co.uk] but apostasy combined with their version of treason against the state. [fiqhcouncil.org]
What matters to you is how it is actually practised. So to that I say the actual number of people executed for apostasy by any recognized government is vanishingly small and it only happens in the most extremist of theocracies like Iran and Saudi where they execute people for things like drug trafficking at a rate at that are couple of orders of magnitude higher. Sure, a lot of people are casually in favor of the concept, but they don't care so much about it that they are willing to actually make it happen. Same thing with treason laws in the USA, technically a capital offence, but no one has been executed for it in generations.
That's not to say all is good and fine with how these conservative societies handle basic human rights that we take for granted, only that the western definition of apostasy isn't their definition of apostasy. There are a lot bigger problems that those countries have with respect to free speech in general, just like basically every 3rd world country and some 1st world countries. [volokh.com]