Religious intolerance
Posted by Nathaniel.
I find it really interesting when infighting in a religious group causes huge issues. Like the protestants versus the Catholics in Ireland. Really, the major tenets of your religion are the same, it’s just minor details.
Now, there’s a fight brewing between al-Qaida and Iran. Apparently, al-Qaida is mostly Sunni while Iran is Shiite. The Iranians, being the crazies that they are, have lately been trying to shift blame for 9/11 onto the Israelis. Of course, the whole thing must have been pulled off by Israel to make Arabs look bad. Plus, it really plays into the way Iran wants to view the world and how it wants to be THE powerbroker in the mideast.
Needless to say, al-Qaida is pretty proud of 9/11 so they’re having to wage a PR war of “Hey, we’re the ones who did 9/11! Don’t listen to Iran!” It’s really an odd situation.
I wonder what’s next… a terrorist attack on Iran? Hmm, they might blame that on the Americans.
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:48 pm Using
I think it’s pretty astounding how much influence religion has on global politics. I think, as Americans, we develop this sense of “religion has no place in government” and forget that it’s not always how things work in other places. I recently read Madeleine Albright’s book entitled “The Mighty and the Almighty”, which touches on a lot of these issues of religious/cultural divide. She’s obviously coming from a Democratic point of view, but I think she provides a fair analysis of the situation. I would recommend taking a look at it if you’re interested in these sorts of things.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 pm Using
I’m guessing that the evil Ethan dude hijacked your post and replaced the word “tenet” with the word “tenant”.
Other than that, good stuff – thanks for elevating the classy with this post!
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:47 pm Using
Yeah, I’m pretty hungry right now, too, so I’m not entirely sure how much of my previous comment was actually me or just the need to feed that was talking…
Anyways, religious intolerance is oxymoronical. Yeah, that’s the word.
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:54 pm Using
Tim, actually I’m going to blame Jimmy. He’s the one who wants renters.
Jules, our Government may be set up to supposedly separate church and state, but I really only think it does a so-so job. Compare us to France or Sweden and we look somewhat like the Taliban. Of course, the separation of church and state was designed to stop the government from regulating religion but we seem to be in a situation now where religion is regulating government.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 pm Using
Yeah, Jimmy’s a bastard through and through. maybe tenant = immigrants? dunno. that’s a whole ‘nother topic.
You make a good point, Nathaniel, that our self-congratulatory self-perception is a bit off; we definitely don’t separate church and state, just as we aren’t a meritocracy, where working hard isn’t enough to succeed, etc etc. I have no problem with personal faith guiding a political leader’s decisions, but it would be nice if they weren’t so dogmatic about it.
Anyway, your original point regarding the infighting is a bit interesting. We are so far outside the bubble (insert nerdy physics analogy here) that we generally see a unified “Islam” instead the reality of factions and whatnot.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:44 pm Using
The general ideas behind most of the world’s religions are generally good. I don’t have any issue at all with leaders being religious. Look at Christianity… take care of the people around you, don’t do bad things, forgive… Those are all things you want in a leader.
Then if you look at other aspects of other religions you have some good ideas like Kosher or Halal rules for food. I basically boil these down to “lets avoid eating things that are sure to give us food poisoning given a lack of refrigeration and proper preparation in the mid-east. we need you to reproduce, not just die.” It’s a good idea.
I really think the problem comes when people pervert religion for their own power. That sucks monkey dong.