Devout Muslims watching current Western debates, for instance, might notice that some of the same cosmopolitan liberals who think of themselves as Benevolent Foes of Islamophobia are also convinced that many conservative Christians are dangerous crypto-theocrats whose institutions and liberties must give way whenever they conflict with liberalism’s vision of enlightenment. They also might notice that many of the same conservative Christians who fear that Islam is incompatible with democracy are wrestling with whether their own faith is compatible with the direction of modern liberalism, or whether Christianity needs to enter a kind of internal exile in the West.
See this link for an interesting discussion of THAT concept: The "Benedict Option."
9 comments:
Mike, what the fuck? Why do you continue to beat the drum of tolerance for these fucking savages? Why are you having such difficulty understanding the true and real threat that Islam poses? I have to seriously ask: do you not know history? Your bible? The "shores of Tripoli"? I really don't get it? Islam is not a religion. Just because the Muslims are telling you it is doesn't make it so. And when did the U.S. Constitution apply to anyone but citizens of the United States? If you and the other "tolerant"'Americans don't begin to understand the truth of Islam - your grandkids will be facing the sword. You think that's hyperbole and racist bigoted xenophobic ranting. If you do, it shows how absolutely clueless you are about Islam. They mean to kill us. Their "holy" book commands them to invade and conquer and to lie to infidels. That is exactly what they are doing and you're giving them quarter by thinking you're somehow more understanding than the rest of us who you see as "misinformed" and "closed minded". Islam is a cult of violence. It is a political ideology of oppression and violence. It is INCOMPATIBLE with all tenets of Western Civilization. Period! All you are doing is allowing these savages to gain a more certain foothold before we are forced to fight them on our own soil. STOP IT! Just fucking stop it. There is no virtue in protecting or defending Isalm. If you don't believe me, try asking somebody who has lived under it. Enough already.
I scorn the NYT and think violence is in the Islamic DNA -- but still, excellent article. Thanks for posting.
"But this is less an irony than a form of recognition: An Islam that set aside the sword without abandoning its fervor would be working in the same mission territory, Western and global, where evangelicals and Mormons presently compete and clash.
"But it has to set aside the sword."
Douthat rightly notes that he doesn’t understand Islam from the inside. But this is not necessarily true of everyone. There are plenty of converts from Islam, many from extremely radical backgrounds, and what they tell us about the experience of Islam is that without the threat of death for apostasy (or for being an infidel) combined with the license to Islam's many permissible forms of sadism, Islam has no spiritual appeal comparable to Christianity, Judaism, or even Secular Humanism.
Without the threat and promise of unlimited violence, Islam won't even be Unitarianism, with or without prayer rugs and Middle Eastern kitsch. It will be an embarrassing reminder of just how pointless all the bloodshed was. Unitarians can stand to be Unitarians because it doesn't involve associating themselves with a long history of bloody atrocities for the sake of Unitarianism. All the past atrocities claimed in Unitarians' (supposedly long) history is committed against their doctrine (whatever exactly it is), not for it.
Islam can only endure if there is something Muslims experience through their worship (after stripping away all the violence) which is worth all the violence in their past. And there simply isn't. People who leave other faiths remember with poignant feeling the sense of spiritual loss, converts from Islam only ever remember the pervasive fear that they finally overcame to openly renounce it. Other faiths have had violent pasts too, some of those who left them risked as much as Muslims living in secular countries today might. There was fear, yes, but also something else which was lost.
Islam only has the fear and hate. It cannot endure without it.
Pity the NY Times was not listening when Christ said "My kingdom is not of this world". The adverb 'conservative' never precedes Christianity.
Evangelicals escaping to monastic life and leaving the political scene...
Fine with me.
I may not vote for Trump in our Primary, but I agree with him about the damned Muslims. Islam is NOT a religion. It's a death cult. As such, it should not be tolerated in our country. Every damned Muslim in the U.S. should be deported and none should be allowed to enter the United States, even as a visitor.
- Old Greybeard
I may not vote for Trump in our Primary, but I agree with him about the damned Muslims. Islam is NOT a religion. It's a death cult. As such, it should not be tolerated in our country. Every damned Muslim in the U.S. should be deported and none should be allowed to enter the United States, even as a visitor.
- Old Greybeard
To the OP....you must be the one ignorant of history. Christianity has very similar tenets to Islam in the Old Testament, the difference is that there are far more apostates/hypocrites in Christianity than Islam.
I say this as a self-professed Christian.
Islam is where Christianity was in the middle ages; intolerant of dissent within its own ranks and outright hostile and violent towards any religion other than one's own particular sect.
Change will only come with time. Trying to claim Islam "is not a religion" is beyond retarded and IMO, is just a way of people making such a claim to disavow American Muslims right to 1st Amendment protections.
Nice try, but that is the stance only a tyrant hellbent on murder would advocate. You *are* the evil you claim you want to prevent.
As we leave the field of political influence, the contest to wield the violence of the state to promote our interests, we shall have to provide the means of our own defense.
I think that some who thought they'd be glad to see us out of politics will be rather shocked by what happens when we render politics truly irrelevant to our lives.
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