Acts done in the "name of Islam..." Or Christianity... Or Catholicism... Or Buddhism... Or Judaism...

reading juan cole is like taking a long drink of clear, cold water on a hot day...

[T]he mere assertion that an act was done in the "name of Islam" would not necessarily connect it to Islam in the eyes of other Muslims. All kinds of crazy things are done in the name of Judaism and Christianity and Buddhism. Why didn't the American Buddhists demonstrate when Aum Shinrikyo let Sarin gas loose in the Tokyo subway? Did American Catholics demonstrate against Franco's policies in Spain? Why should American Catholics even feel responsible for those things? Why should Indonesian or Bangladeshi Muslims demonstrate about something that happened in distant Jordan, which had some local context they don't even understand? People who are actually Muslims don't take seriously small groups of cranks who do bizarre things in the name of Islam.

there's so much nonsense, stereotyping and misinformed commentary running around these days, it's extremely refreshing to read sensible, grounded perspectives... here's another, again from professor cole...

Countries governed by religious anythings have persecuted other religions. This is true not only for religious ideologies but also for secular ideologies like Communism and Fascism. Make an idea into an "-ism" and boom, you get gulags. Religion or no religion. You think Muslims were tolerated in Franco's Spain? And, by the way, why can't a Muslim guy marry a Jewish girl in Israel if the two love each other? Hmmm. Could it be that the rabbis are unsympathetic to young love?

this is precisely what's so troubling about the undying efforts of the christian fundamentalists to turn the u.s. into a fundamentalist christian nation...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet