America’s Closeness to Islamic Ideals
America is closer, in a sense, to the Islamic ideals it is pitted against, than the liberal, post-Enlightenment attitudes of the Western nations it is expected to rub shoulders with as its natural allies. So should we conclude, then, that between the religious police tactics of the Taleban, and the periodic episodes of witch-hunting in America, there is only a difference in methods, but not intent? But to say so would be heresy, would it not?
posted by Unknown @ 3:10 PM
6 Comments:
I disagree with this guy's conclusion. He seems to be under the impression that European secularism means that it's free from religion, but it's not. Europe's state religion is political correctness, and it's much more pervasive than Christianity is in America. Much more dangerous, too. While most religions require you to accept things on faith without any evidence (and that is troublesome enough), PC requires that you accept things against mountains of evidence. And while Christians may stomp and throw a fit over Janet Jackson's titty, they're mostly harmless. The PC police are much closer to the jihadis in their mindset, and they have a similar chilling effect on debate.
Besides, it isn't the U.S. which has been discussing the revival of blasphemy laws.
Jeg er enig med Jeff.
Fjordman: Hvor mye tid har du tilbrakt i USA?
Bruce Bawer, I'll answer in English:
I have never lived in the USA, only visited on holidays.
And don't assume I agree with what was written in this article. On the contrary.
OT-
Reuters
Bikinis for Toddlers Spark Controversy
Thu Mar 31, 8:24 AM ET
OSLO (Reuters) - A Swedish bikini-style top for toddlers will be withdrawn from sale amid criticism from a Norwegian cabinet minister that bra-like clothing was inappropriate for small girls.
"It is remarkably daft to make bra-like bikinis for one-year-olds," Norwegian Minister of Children and Family Affairs Laila Daavoey was quoted as telling the Norwegian daily Verdens Gang Thursday.
"This is a terrible commercialization of childhood. Children are not women. Bikinis on small children are a way of linking children to sexuality. We must say 'No' to this," she said.
Swedish clothes maker Lindex said it would withdraw one design of top, meant for girls aged 1-2, after an internal review.
"It's a bit too similar to an adult top so we are choosing to withdraw it," spokeswoman Ulrika Danielson told Norway's NRK public radio. She said the decision was made independently of the Norwegian criticism.
Earlier this month, Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik criticized Swedish furniture maker IKEA for showing few women assembling flat-packed goods in cartoon instruction leaflets. IKEA agreed to depict more women.
Norway is celebrating 100 years of independence from Sweden in 2005.
One look at the First Amendment should disabuse anyone of the idea the U.S. has anything close to Islamic 'ideals'. There are no ideals in Islam anyway. It's a means of controlling the masses and conquering territory, unparalleled in history: propaganda, fatalism, divide-and-conquer.
For starters, the US certainly is a lot more religious than Europe is (I know, I've lived in both places for quite some time). Religion also plays a much larger role in US society and affects its laws and politics to an extent that it doesn't in Europe.
States like Utah are run by religous minorities and the present-day Republican party is very much dominated by Southern bible thumpers (in contrast to the western freedom lovers under Reagan). Views on abortion and education curriculum (the whole creation vs darwin debate) are affected by fundamentalist christians.
I wouldn't mind so much if the relious fundamentalism didn't spill into the US's foreign policy. US foreign policy is very messianic, it's all about going out to fight against evil, black and white, etc. (at least that's the justification used). Support for Israel no matter what is also driven very much by christian fundamentalist groups in the US.
So, yes, both fundamentalist Islam and fundamentalist christianity have a simplistic view of the world, divided into good and evil and little room for more refined analysis.
I don't want to say that US foreign policy (or domestic policy for that matter) are completely dominated by fundamentalism, just that it has a large impact on it.
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