Religious Tolerance: A two-say street

[Nom Chompsky]

Washington Post

Religious fanatics, regardless of what name they give their jealous god, invariably have one thing in common: no sense of humor. Particularly about themselves. It's hard to imagine Torquemada taking a joke well.

Today's Islamists seem to have not even a sense of irony. They fail to see the richness of the following sequence. The pope makes a reference to a 14th-century Byzantine emperor's remark about Islam imposing itself by the sword, and to protest this linking of Islam and violence:

· In the West Bank and Gaza, Muslims attack seven churches.

· In London, the ever-dependable radical Anjem Choudary tells demonstrators at Westminster Cathedral that the pope is now condemned to death.

· In Mogadishu, Somali religious leader Abubukar Hassan Malin calls on Muslims to "hunt down" the pope. The pope not being quite at hand, they do the next best thing: shoot dead, execution-style, an Italian nun who worked in a children's hospital.

"How dare you say Islam is a violent religion? I'll kill you for it" is not exactly the best way to go about refuting the charge. But of course, refuting is not the point here. The point is intimidation.

First Salman Rushdie. Then the false Newsweek report about Koran-flushing at Guantanamo Bay. Then the Danish cartoons. And now a line from a scholarly disquisition on rationalism and faith given in German at a German university by the pope.

And the intimidation succeeds: politicians bowing and scraping to the mob over the cartoons; Saturday's craven New York Times editorial telling the pope to apologize; the plague of self-censorship about anything remotely controversial about Islam -- this in a culture in which a half-naked pop star blithely stages a mock crucifixion as the highlight of her latest concert tour.

In today's world, religious sensitivity is a one-way street. The rules of the road are enforced by Islamic mobs and abjectly followed by Western media, politicians and religious leaders.

The fact is that all three monotheistic religions have in their long histories wielded the sword. The Book of Joshua is knee-deep in blood. The real Hanukkah story, so absurdly twinned (by calendric accident) with the Christian festival of peace, is about a savage insurgency and civil war.

Christianity more than matched that lurid history with the Crusades, an ecumenical blood bath that began with the slaughter of Jews in the Rhineland, a kind of preseason warm-up to the featured massacres to come against the Muslims, with the sacking of the capital of Byzantium (the Fourth Crusade) thrown in for good measure.

And Islam, of course, spread with great speed from Arabia across the Mediterranean and into Europe. It was not all benign persuasion. After all, what were Islamic armies doing at Poitiers in 732 and the gates of Vienna in 1683? Tourism?

However, the inconvenient truth is that after centuries of religious wars, Christendom long ago gave it up. It is a simple and undeniable fact that the violent purveyors of monotheistic religion today are self-proclaimed warriors for Islam who shout "God is great" as they slit the throats of infidels -- such as those of the flight crews on Sept. 11, 2001 -- and are then celebrated as heroes and martyrs.

Just one month ago, two journalists were kidnapped in Gaza and were released only after their forced conversion to Islam. Where were the protests in the Islamic world at that act -- rather than the charge -- of forced conversion?

Where is the protest over the constant stream of vilification of Christianity and Judaism issuing from the official newspapers, mosques and religious authorities of Arab nations? When Sheik 'Atiyyah Saqr issues a fatwa declaring Jews "apes and pigs"? When Sheik Abd al-Aziz Fawzan al-Fawzan, professor of Islamic law, says on Saudi TV that "someone who denies Allah, worships Christ, son of Mary, and claims that God is one-third of a trinity. . . . Don't you hate the faith of such a polytheist?"

Where are the demonstrations, where are the parliamentary resolutions, where are the demands for retraction when the Mufti Sheik Ali Gum'a incites readers of al-Ahram, the Egyptian government daily, against "the true and hideous face of the blood-suckers . . . who prepare [Passover] matzos from human blood"?

The pope gives offense and the Mujaheddin al-Shura Council in Iraq declares that it "will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose the 'jizya' [head] tax; then the only thing acceptable is conversion or the sword." This to protest the accusation that Islam might be spread by the sword.

As I said. No sense of irony.

 

[Sarakael]

Amen

Sadly you will still get people on here who will find fault in this news article

 

[kilo39]

Point is - what does it matter - a few thousand 'extremists' - gee, even I can use the fascist language. The death of the nun? This is a continent where they cut off kids hands - and worse. Atrocities are rife in africa - Somalia? - Basically a warzone. A protest in London? How many? (Have you any idea how many muslims live in the uk? Millions.) The majority of protest comes from the middle east - where some would say people have a legal political gripe. Salmon Rushdie? Condemned by probably the most radical of theological leaders - himself a product of american political tampering -. Then the fiasco of 9/11 - and the more rabid amongst us would also point to the fiasco of 7/7. Then - the Madrid bombing:

Investigating judge Judge Juan Del Olmo's report into the case, published in April, detailed evidence against the group ranging from its finances to telephone transcripts and also concluded that the bombers, who also injured 2,000 people, were not directed by al Qaeda.

The trial is expected to be one of Europe's biggest terrorism trials. The defendants are mostly Spanish or Moroccan.

The Bali bombing? Surely a local warlord and a local war? Etc.

Point: the rhetoric is just as great from the western media - above being a good example - whereas most ordinary people just want to get on with their lives -. Warzones are hardly a good example.

9/11? Ah, a key hinge - with holes the size a boeing could fly through. Let's remember - this is a country with a few dead presidents - not all of whom died peacefully in their beds - mecca for a bunch of crazies - why should 9/11 be any more outlandish?

So what are we left with? I seem to remember Saddam saying "iraq will be america's vietnam" - we all laughed - the comedies got greater still. Afghanistan - another unwinnable war. A basic quagmire (now we expect these people to cheer.)

The Orwellian double speak in the article - is the moral equivalent of any protest by muslims - are not your sensitivities tickled - you/we may not go out and throw stones - but the outrage is the same - theirs is just better articulated. We of course beat them hands down on technology - blowing motor cars off busy public streets being an example - do we wonder its vitriolic - and violent?

Nobody likes extremists - but doing everything in our power to make them more extreme doesn't contribute. War mongering is for fools.

... and when you get down to the bedrock of this whole sorry affair - you are left with the bombings in africa - and the cole.... maybe just the cole.

Who exactly is the enemy here? Oooh ya - an ill-defined bunch (excluding the likes of hamas) - all those hundreds of thousands protesting in the streets.

Where did I read in the last few days: america holding 14 000 prisoners - of war - status undefined -. A recipe for the goodwill of their families, associates, countrymen. Released from Guantanamo - a short time ago - an 84 year old man - no charge.

Um - excuse me - what is the war in the middle east - if not a religious war? By those who wish to call it such (and the extreme muslims surely do.)

So - thiis latest diatribe from the post - should be consigned to the same dirtbin as the popes speech - while real people - get on with their lives - and go to Madonna concerts.

No sense of irony just about sums it up.

 

[krycor]

Afghan people have nice sayings about the many who try and conquor it and have and continue to fail for most part. The Iraqi's don;t trust the US asside from their civil war which seems too loom in the distance. I think we in SA take forgrant our peaceful transition of goverment and expect the same from else where which is a bit unrealistic.

Even in SA, our peaceful democracy is hanging on only due to the fact that the is no real competition. A true test will come when power lost in a supprising twist of events. To expect Iraq to be instantly peaceful when there should have been in a civil war but kept under a oppresive leader is folly. The only reason the Iraqi war with US did not get a uproar from everywhere is cause Suddam was a oppressor + dictator.

Wait what were we talking about.

 

[bdt]

Some topical humour and quoteage action (note the views a lot of America's founders/influential thinkers have had to Christianity down the years) to be had at H.E.R.B. ..and the overarching quote:

The World is divided into armed camps ready to commit genocide just because we can't agree on whose fairy tales to believe.
In the end, Religion will kill us all.
-- Ed Krebs