The Shrine is mostly made up of old white men who are nominally Christians in their normal life.
But it is a quasi Islamic order, and while all Masonic orders draw on religious themes much of what I've heard about the Shrine makes it seem the most immature obscene and frat like Masonic Lodge besides maybe the Jesters.
So basically they're making fun of Muslims.
And don't give them a pass because of their alleged charitable status, the 1913 law for tax exempt charitable organizations allows them to spend over 90 % of what's donated on "in house" expenses and the Shriners fully take advantage of that, spending most of their money on building huge Shrines that are large and fancier then most actual Mosques in America.
At the point at which this sect of Freemasons chose "Islam" as their theme (late 19th century), it was poorly understood. It's perhaps comparable/related to the "Egyptian" craze that swept the Western world in the 18th/19th centuries; neither is so much emblematic of Egypt/Islam as much as being conceptions of them in Western imagination.
ReplyDeleteMaybe at some point, assuming the Shriners survive long enough, they'll come to the notice of communities of Muslims here in the West, and draw some negative attention for their distortion of Islam.
But I'm more interested in your use of the expression "SJW." You self-identify as a "social liberal." You ought to be aware that "Social Justice Warrior" is primarily used by the Right as a term of contempt for social justice issues. It's an ad hominem calling into question the sincerity/honesty of those who champion various social justice issues.
Don't you believe in social justice?
I consider myself an SJW, I don't care if the Conservatives use it derogatorily.
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