Who Here Needs a Well-Rounded History Course?
A Colorado activist sent me this clip of Wafa Sultan. The title of the email? Terrorism 101: A Refresher Course.
I wanted to write back: Are you high? How about World History 101: A Refresher Course? Because if you think Islam is the only batshit crazy religion with batshit crazy adherents, you are sadly mistaken.
The world has been around a lot longer than the past few decades when Muslim loo-loos have been all the rage.
Love Wafa Sultan. Seriously. Big fan.
While I find her arguments compelling and her bravery admirable, I can't help but disagree with part of her premise.
She's wrong when she says that Jewish people haven't killed in the name of religion. They have blown up a ton of people in the name of Israel and the Jewish God. And what about Christians? It wasn't a Crescent or Star of David burning in black people's yards back in the Sixties South. Let's not even get started about those New England witches who were murdered back in the day for opening their mouths and speaking their minds.
You can't go after one without going after all three - that leaves a whole lot of ignorant and angry followers. The People of the Book indeed...
In fact, you could replace "Muslims" with "Jews" or "Christians" in the above clip and her criticisms are still valid.
A Jew killed Rabin. Doesn't anyone remember the Inquisition or Crusades?
She's right. Parts of the Koran are hateful. So are parts of the Bible and Torah. All three religions have shed the blood of innocent people. All three religions are part of the problem. All three religions are batshit crazy with batshit crazy adherents.
Let's not pretend otherwise.
posted by kate @ 6:13 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Kate. i am sorry but there is not equivalence between the three religions. Juadiasm is founded on religious tolerance. Jews have never "mass converted" conquered people. Only Muslims and Christians have done that. But Christianity moved on. Martin Luthar and the reformation broke the monopoly of power of the Catholic church. The reformartion lead to the renaissance , the rise of humanism and the foundation of democracy, etc. Islam is still in the dark ages and is founded on intolerance.
The foundation of Judaism is the foundation of Christianity and Islam. So you could say all three are founded on religious tolerance.
You could say that, but you'd be wrong.
The foundation of Judaism, the Torah, is filled with images of child rape, misogyny, degradation to women, slavery and a host of other ills. Either it's all the word of God or it's a collection of stories, fables, and horror stories to learn from - not a system of government, not the word of God, and not anything to fight and kill over.
Can you guess which side I'm on?
Jews may have never mass converted conquered people, but I wouldn't put it past them should the opportunity arise. Christianity moved on? Really? Tell that to the gay men and women who aren't allowed to get married because to do so would insult "biblical values" that Christians hold dear.
Don't get me started on Martin Luther's anti-Semitism and where that eventually led or the peaceful 400+ year rule of Islam for a great many conquered people. Islamic women were given many more rights than their European counterparts or the females in the colonies at the time.
To point a finger at one religion and say the fundies are insane, but ignore the fundies within your own religion, is hypocritical and ridiculous.
Kate,
I find your linkage of Judaism to child rape entertaining. But I am sure you do not fear for your safety for having written these words. However the same is not true for Salman Rushdie, Danish cartoon publishers, or others that criticize Islam. When was the last time a christian or Jewish leader issued a Fatwa to kill someone because over an "IDEA"??
But thank you for proving my point. Your mention the "peaceful" 400+ years in which Muslim woman had more rights than their christian counterparts. That was from the 8th century through the 13th century. BUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE? Almost nothing.
TODAY, every Islam dominated nation gives their woman far fewer rights than any Western nation. 13 year old women in the West are not stoned to death for the crime of being "gang raped" 50 men showed up to do the stoning. TOLERANCE DEFINED.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGPRE200810317930
I'm with you on the recent atrocities in the Islamic world. If I were only looking back the last few decades, I'd agree that Islam is worse than Christianity and Judaism.
However, when looking back on history as a whole, I'd argue that all three have been God awful.
Obviously, modern Judaism is the least offensive. Perhaps that's why I chose Judaism for myself and, subsequently, my children. But before we go spouting off about how superior our values are, let's not forget that the root of our religion has some very unpleasant "values" that most of us want no part of. Let's not forget that the Orthodox among us have done some nasty things in the name of Israel and Judaism. At our core, then, we are not above the horrors that other faiths are dealing with.
Religious fundamentalism, at its core, is bad - no matter the relgion.
And beware that superior streak because that's what gets every faith and the rest of the world into trouble. "We're not as bad as the rest" is awfully close to "We're better than the rest" and that leads to intolerance, war, suffering, and a whole lot of other shit that f*cks up the planet.
No thanks.
kate,
I'ld like to warn you about drifting to far down the morale relevance path. In our effort to reach out to Islamic countries let's not forget the wisdom of the West's institutions. The US constitution talks of "inalienable" rights. Do you Kate believe that basic rights are "inalianable"?
I for one believe that all people (men and woman) absolutely should have the right to speak, worship, vote, own property, etc. I think that religious/political systems that actively work to prevent people from having these rights are fundamentally bad systems. So I am not sure it is wise for us to "tolerate systems that repress their own people and are intolerant of the foundations of Western democracies.
I agree with you that such systems are bad and I do believe that governments as well as private citizens can and should do certain things to help to change those systems into better, or more democratic, societies.
Just because I believe fundamentalist religious people of all denominations are frightening or that all religions are flawed or that war isn't necessarily the way to change aforementioned bad societies - doesn't mean that I believe what's going on in Islamic societies should be tolerated. It should not.
We just need to be careful about what we replace it with. Secular, democratic societies are flawed, too. But I prefer them to other forms of government.
I've enjoyed y'all's exchange. Not a lot to add. Islam, recently, is pretty bad, but we've all got blood on our hands. Love God, love each other, leave the rest of it alone.
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