I dont agree with Howard Dean on this--which is rare bcs I almost always agree with him. It doesnt really help anyone if we use certain words to help pretend the extreme anti-democratic elements of a world religion are, somehow, not part of that religion. Extremists are part of world religion and thats a big problem facing democratic societies. KKK members are part of Christianity; violent lunatic West Bank settlers are part Judaism; zealots who kill newspaper employees in the name of defending the Prophet are part of Islam. We have to deal with these problems as they are--we cannot just frame them away from the larger whole. Granted, prejudice and politics creates different challenges for each. Americans tend to ignore Jewish extremism, instead of dealing with it. Americans reject white supremacy, but they somehow refuse to see the explicit Christian elements in it. And for Islam, the existence of violent extremists makes it virtually impossible for huge swaths of Americans to see any other part of the staggery large and diverse global Muslim population. Three different problems, three different solutions. But the problem is there and we need to face it for the most obvious and urgent reason: these people are murderers.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 18:49:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015