Fixed it. Also, don't forget the rules. Any post that has the words "Ann Coulter" in it must have a picture.
Posted on 01/09/2008 1:25:08 AM PST by americanophile
Many in the west fear the threat posed by political Islam. But there is a more ominous menace closer to home.
After every terror attack by Islamists, fears are raised in conservative circles about the “Islamisation” of our culture with the presence of hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the UK and millions across Europe.
Despite what the selective reading of some surveys might suggest, most western Muslims share the same liberal values as the rest of society and radical Islam appeals only to a small minority. Political Islam can and does pose a threat to secular values – but in Muslim countries, not here. In Europe, we need to look west for our religious menaces.
As the creationism debate clearly demonstrates, the USA is home to a well-organised and motivated movement with intelligent designs on power. It is becoming increasingly difficult to write off Christian fundamentalism and other conservative Christian groups – aka the Christian right – as some kind of loony fringe as its agenda “Christianises” the mainstream. It is no accident that just about every single presidential hopeful in the US has asked God to endorse his or her campaign.
The vision of marrying church and state and constructing a “Christian nation” – every bit as contrary to modern secular values as Islamism – may still seem remote, partly thanks to the tough constitutional protections against such an eventuality, but it is surprisingly enduring.
“We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country,” thundered Randall Terry, religious activist and founder of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. “We must have a Christian nation built on God’s law, on the Ten Commandments, no apologies.”
And what would a “Christian nation” be like to its citizens?
Well, it wouldn’t be very friendly to atheists, homosexuals, secularists, women and non-Christians. “No, I don’t think that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God,” George Bush Snr once remarked.
“Aids is not just God’s punishment for homosexuality; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuality,” concluded the late televangelist Jerry Falwell. “This vile and satanic system will one day be utterly annihilated and there’ll be a celebration in heaven.” This is also the man who saw the creation of Israel in 1948 as the greatest “single sign indicating the imminent return of Jesus Christ”. The ongoing violence in the Middle East – stoked by the US invasion of Iraq – was also seen by him as part of God’s apocalyptic designs.
And how about those foreign “heathens”?
According to Ann Coulter, writing after the September 11 attacks: “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” She added for good measure that: “Congress could pass a law tomorrow requiring that all aliens from Arabic [sic] countries leave.”
It would be folly to dismiss these voices as a lunatic fringe, particularly given the string of victories Christian fundamentalists have scored over the last quarter of a century or so. After all, the current US president famously claimed that he was told by God to fight al-Qaida and invade Iraq.
Even as late in the day as 1979, few saw Iran’s Islamic revolution coming and Iran was wrongly viewed as a stable and secular society by many in the west. Could we similarly be ignoring telltale and worrying signs from across the Atlantic?
Interestingly, while the world’s attention was drawn to Tehran, a quieter religious revolution was set in motion in the United States.
Televangelist Pat Robertson boasted during the 1980 election that: “We have enough votes to run this country.” A Gallup poll at the time seemed to give some credence to his view: a third of American adults described themselves as “born again” and half believed the Bible was inerrant, i.e. perfect or above question.
If these trends continue and the US succumbs increasingly to its Christian right while Europe secularises, what kind of rift could that create in transatlantic relations? Even if it does not directly affect official policy, how about at the grassroots: could we start seeing a more aggressive transatlantic alliance between American Christian extremists and the European far right?
Of course, there is always the classic argument to dismiss worries about Christian fundamentalism: they may be mad, but they’re not bad – at least, they don’t go around killing people.
That is true only up to a point. Christian fundamentalists do their violence abroad by proxy and, in America, they are not persecuted, unlike many of their equivalents in Muslim countries.
In the Muslim world, it took one disgruntled intellectual, Sayyid Qutb, and one book, which he produced while in political detention being tortured, to transform the benign grassroots movement of the Muslim Brotherhood as conceived by Hassan al-Banna into the deadly ideology of takfir in which all Muslim societies were declared heathen and worthy of violence.
Could this happen in Christianity?
Well, the idea that mainstream society is hedonistic and ungodly is a common refrain among Christian fundamentalists in America. Their earlier response, as in the 1950s, was usually to withdraw from society. The civil rights movement and sexual liberties of the 1960s brought them out of hibernation. And the subsequent liberalisation and secularisation of society has terrified them. Some, such as anti-abortion activists, have taken the law into their own hands.
Pro-lifer Paul Hill of the Army of God murdered an abortion doctor in 2003 and was executed for his crime. “I expect a great reward in heaven ... I look forward to glory,” he said on the way to his death.
Could the Army of God be a precursor of worse to come on other contentious issues as we throw off the shackles of tradition, science takes us into uncharted frontiers, the religious become more embattled and the world appears to become a more dangerous place? It is hard to say. But it raises the important point that our obsession with Islamism in the west is distracting us for other worrying trends, mainly because it is dressed in a familiar skin.
We should not stigmatise or further marginalise religious extremists, as the strident atheists seem to be encouraging, but we should dialogue with them and show them that their fears are exaggerated and misplaced.
“It is important that we understand the dread and anxiety that lie at the heart of the fundamentalist vision,” Karen Armstrong writes in The Battle for God, “because only then will we begin to comprehend its passionate rage, its frantic desire to fill the void with certainty, and its conviction of ever-encroaching evil.”
This column appeared in The Guardian Unlimited’s Comment is Free section on 14 July 2007. Read the related discussion.
Report back on your findings
Well 9/11 never happened,now peaceful Muslims will always be non-fundamentalist Muslims ( all Muslims are fundamentalists), and we don't have to worry about closet Muslims seeking the presidency of the US, while simultaneously supporting Islamofascists in Kenya , for example.
Nope, we shouldn't worry at all. Check out this site to see why this author, in the Wall Street journal no less,is absolutely full of beans.
Barrack Obama and his Campaign work for Odinga, Obama's cousin and fellow Luo tribesman,and Odinga's attempt to bully Kenya into Sharia law after losing the recent Kenyan election? No we shouldn't worry about that. Just a trivial matter. Anyone who worries about it is simply a stupid, emotional, right wing, fundamentalist Christian that no intelligent person should pay much attention to.
I think that last paragraph above just about covers what this author means.
Now for those of you who want to find out about the true nature of that creature called Barrack Obama, simply spend some time browsing here at this link, especially on the link called "Obama File."
There you will find why this author, Khaled Diab, is to be treated with the disdain of those who look at facts, not ideology:
Yeah, right. We're going to pray for their souls until our fingers bleed. It'll really mess up the carpet though...protein stains you see. Tough to get out, but we can try some vinegar. I'll bring some over tomorrow and we'll see if we can't scrub it out. You'll rue the day! Volitile Christian alert!
This is definitely a liberal Muslim writing this article. Conservative Muslims object to the sexual revolution, homosexuality, and abortion. The author of this piece appears to support those things. Muslims typically side with the liberals because of the liberal objection to Israel and our current war. Both groups have the ability to destroy America. Liberalism is doing by kicking God and morality out of the country. A country lacking in morality is much easier to turn into a socialist state. Radical Muslims would take over by jihad if they had the size and ability. Obviously not all Muslims are like this, evidenced by the ones fighting with us in the Middle Ease and law abdiding Muslims in the United States.
The problem is “the modern secular values” which have no substance and are responsible for the today weakness of the western civilization founded on reason AND judeo-christianism.
Ann COULTER rough and straight statement is simply right.
How to manage the huge problem of the civilizational clash is another problem.
Liberals only try to avoid it with the fantasmatic idea of multiculturalism founded on skepticism and relativism(the untold dogma).
Liberals have no children no hope and never mind about the future of he free world.
Yes there is a right christian fight for truth,dignity,and real freedom.Calling it “Christian Jihad” is simply stupid and/or dishonest...liberal
Fixed it. Also, don't forget the rules. Any post that has the words "Ann Coulter" in it must have a picture.
as reported by Pope Benedict XVI 9-12-2006:
“Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” Byzantine Emperor -Manuel II Paleologus 1391
But did not the Bible also say the Kingdom of God will come when the Gospel of Jesus goes out to all four corners of the world?
Thank-you for your response.
Pope Benedict was and is, spot on.
This is nonsense, of course. That said, I must admit there are some days that grabbing a scimitar, riding through the streets slashing and beheading and yodeling like that Palestinian woman sounds like a splendid idea.
But remember this is the same Islam that also says that if you do jihad, you will go to an eternal whore house. How ironic.
Ironic also there is another thread on why the Muslims in the USA are peaceful and law-abiding. Two factors come into play: A: the Muslim population is small and B: this community knows that Americans are allowed to keep and bear arms, so they have to mind p’s and q’s.
Why do you support a man who cheapens that?
“And what would a “Christian nation” be like to its citizens?
Well, it wouldn’t be very friendly to atheists, homosexuals, secularists, women and non-Christians.”
Substitute ‘Muslim’ for ‘Christian’ in that couple of sentences, and the argument is equally valid.
The fact of the matter is that Islam is founded, as a belief system, on violence against those not in agreement with that system, or those who violate its tenets in some manner. That command to violence is enshrined in Islam’s doctrinal, epistemological document, the Quran.
On the other hand, Christianity, perhaps due to the fragmentation borne of myriad subsets (Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics, etc.), is clearly not equivalent in preaching the politics of hatred. While there are certainly splinter organizations with agendas of intolerance and hatred, there are equally as many more tolerant groups preaching against them. That cannot be said of Islam, in our experience.
There has been no broad condemnation of Islamofascist violence by the more genteel among them. There is no demonstrable activity in opposition to the Muslim jihad from within the ranks of Islam.
Coupled with the awareness that the stated aim of Islam is to subjugate the world and mold the global caliphate, we must understand that we are locked, truly, in a clash of cultures. It is Islam against anything else; and anything else must win, if we are to avoid sliding back into the Seventh Century under the tutelage of a theocratic ruling class that can imagine nothing better.
The article demonstrates a total lack of understanding of American society and roots, especially in thinking that conservative Christianity is ‘fringe’. Well, they’ll find out the truth the hard way. Again.
Not necessarily. Taqqiyah... divide and conquer. It serves their interest to stoke fear and hatred of Christians even when they have to take sides with the socialists. By the way, they are siding with socialists worldwide in their efforts. This is more of the same.
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