Terry Eagleton is suf­fering from the racism of otherwise-liberal priv­i­leged, white, west­erners too afraid to speak up against bar­baric reli­gious prac­tices and beliefs.

That state is not too both­ered about what you believe, as long as it does not thwart the right of others to their beliefs.

<snip>

There should be laissez-faire in the realm of belief, just as there should be in the marketplace.

So nice of a person coming from white, western priv­i­lege to allow for such cul­tural rel­a­tivism for us lowly colo­nial sub­jects. It’s a good thing he’s not, say a woman in Swat, or a young girl in Mississauga, who are being flogged and even killed for not fol­lowing the beliefs of their par­ents and their communities.

So nice that he doesn’t have to live in Muslim ghet­toes even in the middle of a Western city and has to follow a script made up for his life by everyone except himself.

So nice of him to allow for the sub­ju­ga­tion of people like me because he’s too afraid of not appearing “lib­eral” enough to his dead, white, male mentors.

Solipsism becomes him.