Preeti Aroon writes: “She may have some valid points, but that certainly doesn’t mean Islam is practiced in a pro-women way in all places.” What are you gaining by adding this statement? Let me ask, when the priest from the church across the street from my home preaches about love and forgiveness, should I write in my local newspaper, that “although he had some valid points, it certainly doesn’t mean that Christianity is practiced with love and forgiveness across all the US?” Because someone is trying to take a good step forward by implementing positive reinforcement, does that mean that I must “balance” his or her effort by playing devil’s advocate? Take some time to read child psychologists and experts views on the importance of positive reinforcement over pointing out faults. If this example strikes you as irrelevant, then allow me to explain it for you.
Experts agree that enforcing a child’s positive actions teaches them to focus on good behavior since they are rewarded by an internal feeling of satisfaction, otherwise known as “doing the right thing”. Ultimately, parents struggle to raise good children in order to be a part of what? What will children join when they become adults? Society perhaps? The same society that the priest from across the street will be returning his congregation to? Obviously Christianity isn’t practiced with love and forgiveness across this great country as evidenced by the KKK and some in the religious right (to name a couple of main-stream examples without getting into the details). Nor is Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, or any other religion, for that matter, practiced positively in uniform across the globe. But that doesn’t mean we should downplay efforts from any one of their speakers trying to reinforce positive attributes. I understand the point of the “What We're Reading” post. But you must understand that what you write, people do read…and they may not have enough background knowledge to be able to make decisions for themselves, so they may end up taking what you write as their point of view. I’m not advocating a feel good blog where the job of every writer on Passport is to make the world a better place, but for goodness sake, have a little forethought. We all have to share the world whether we like it or not. 1.2 Billion Muslims are not just going to go away like a migraine overnight. Yes not “all places” in the Muslim world are good, but with positive reinforcement from all sides, we can sure change the path of our human history, if not of the entire world, then at least of our country.