With Merkel's Foes in Disarray, Germany Defies the Trump Trend

[Dill]

(05-05-2017, 02:57 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Dill Wrote: A  vetted panel of academics sound good, but we are living in the time of Trump (what do "experts" know about anything) and the Islamophobes will have their "experts" too. Not great scholars, perhaps (one thinks of Fox commentators like Sebastian Gorka), but that will become a fight over criteria of expertise.

This is a not so subtle attempt to label anyone who disagrees with you on this subject as both an islamaphobe and, most certainly, not a "serious scholar".  In so doing you've both declared the discussion over before it begins and expose the weakness you perceive in your own argument.  By condemning everyone on the other side of an issue to the ranks of the unlearned plebeians you attempt to stifle any attempt to have a rational debate or to acknowledge that the other side possesses the expertise to even discuss the subject with you.

This is quite a long way from saying "anyone who disagrees with me is an islamophobe and not a serious scholar." Especially when you just got a set of critieria for scholarship which is independent of anyone's stance on Islam.

And are you saying there are no islamophobes? 

Or are you saying there ARE islamophobes, but some of them are serious Islam scholars. You know this and can provide examples?

Calling people "assholes" and telling them to shut their pie hole declares discussion over, certainly, but merely asserting that Islamophobes will put forward experts to advance Islamophobia does not, in itself, do anything like that, even if I suggest their scholarship is not good.

Do you think both sides of every issue are "equal" in knowledge and quality of argument? I have never read a good argument in support of racism, not even by "scientific" Nazis, certainly not a scholarly one, though I have read Nazi scholarship.  Oops--did I just declare a discussion over before it begins? No. I'll listen to what the Nazis have to say. If can identify logical inconsistencies and factual errors and unwarranted claims then I will. If I cannot I will reconsider my objections to racism.

I do a pretty good job of letting all comers "discuss the subject" with me.  Presenting good arguments with support does not shut down discussion with people who want good arguments with support.

And my post said that once we start talking about "expertise", Islamophobes will nominate their team and that will become a fight over criteria of expertise. Obviously that didn't shut down discussion as you stepped right into the fight over expertise, demanding to know why people who have no scholarly credentials on the subject of Islam can't be experts too and demanding to know what my criteria are.  You got those criteria and so far have supplied none of your own.