Barbary and Bears

In case you missed this:

Yes, there really are some academics so blinkered by multiculturalism that they’ll defend the barbaric practice of female circumcision.

Dr. Ahmadu, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, was raised in America and then went back to Sierra Leone as an adult to undergo the procedure along with fellow members of the Kono ethnic group. She has argued that the critics of the procedure exaggerate the medical dangers, misunderstand the effect on sexual pleasure, and mistakenly view the removal of parts of the clitoris as a practice that oppresses women.

More at LGF. And Victor Davis Hanson on the Teddy Bear and Cartoon controversies.

UPDATE: There is much discussion in the comments to John Tierney's article in the NY Times (link above and here.) Some defend this practice as culturally acceptable in another part of the world. That may be so, but those of us who think it is mutilation and cruelty beyond the pale have every justification in continuing to speak out. Others may continue to defend it, here and around the world. Let them continue to do so.

But let me ask you who agree with the cultural relativists this question--if we still had slavery in this country, would you defend it? If suttee were still practiced in India would you defend that? And do you defend the stoning of women in Iran for adultery, or for defending themselves from a rape? And do you defend throwing gays off a mountain, or hanging them?

I didn't think so.

But maybe you just take refuge in silence.

Or in the United States of America.

UPDATE: A somewhat related story of one who took refuge here and abused our trust. More on the Morton Grove identity theft arrest from John Ruberry, Marathon Pundit, who lives in the neighborhood. The good news is that the man's son turned him in.

Previous posts: Women Banned in Iran, Challenging the Conventional Wisdom, Death Cult Women's Rights