3

Scenario

In this video, Chris Hedges states that Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris have 'sanctified' violence against Muslims because [Muslims] are barbaric.

Question

Are there any instances that Sam Harris has ever 'sanctified' (as in to entitle to reverence or respect) violence against Muslims?

Commentary

I have followed Sam Harris for quite sometime - and perhaps due to a bias - I do not recall such sanctification. I know that Sam Harris disdains religion, especially Islam, but that isn't the same as sanctification.

To be more fair to Chris Hedges, Christopher Hitchens did openly support the invasion of Iraq by US and Coalition forces due to Saddam Hussein breaking UN Resolutions.

Ruut
  • 2,132
  • 15
  • 27
  • @DJClayworth Chris Hedges didn't use the word "Sanctioned." – Ruut Nov 02 '15 at 14:51
  • Can you provide a quote of what Chris Hedges is saying? – Christian Nov 02 '15 at 15:39
  • I closed this question because I don't think it is clear enough to answer. Does [this blog post](http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-truth-about-violence) 'sanction violence'? It depends what that means. – Oddthinking Nov 02 '15 at 15:41
  • technically speaking, you can't "sanction" something unless you have a legal/political power to do so. You can "incite", but not "sanction", if you're a private individual. So the answer is "no". – user5341 Nov 02 '15 at 16:23
  • Sorry guys, Chris Hedges does indeed use the word "sanctified". He's doing it in the context of comparing Hitchens and Harris with fundamentalist Christian extremists, who have (it is claimed) "sanctified" violence against Muslims by stating it's God's will that it should happen. His claim is that Harris and Hitchens do the same (metaphorically) by stating that violence against Muslims is approved of in their secular religion. Out of context though it's going to come across as weird. – DJClayworth Nov 02 '15 at 17:02
  • The change from "sanctioned" to "[sanctified](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sanctified)" better matches the claim, but makes the claim even murkier. Hedges appears to be using a vague metaphor here. – Oddthinking Nov 03 '15 at 01:34
  • 3
    Harris has a podcast on which he says in virtually every episode that he doesn't sanction violence against all Muslims. So I'd say no. – PointlessSpike Nov 03 '15 at 09:11
  • @PointlessSpike Plenty of people say they are not things that they actually are. – DJClayworth Nov 09 '15 at 00:37
  • @DJClayworth- I've been following him for a while. You will not find an instance of him encouraging violence against non-combatants. His arguments tend to be quite complex, though, so a cursory glance often leads people to misunderstand. – PointlessSpike Nov 09 '15 at 10:56

0 Answers0