Some bloggers in Right Blogistan have really been laying the wood to Islam, some going so far as to call it a satanic cult. Others struggle to separate the Islamist murderers from the religion itself, while still railing against its malignant influence on Western Christendom. While I do not criticize religious debate, I am in the latter camp.
I don't think it is any more racist to criticize black panthers or radical islamists than it is to attack white supremacists.
It is not anti-Christian to call Fred Phelps and his followers the anti-American ass-hat dingbats that they are, and it is completely legitimate to criticize Muslim extremists operating in the west who hate our western values.
Having said that, I think Christians and conservatives do our cause more harm than good when we criticize Islam itself. I've done it. Usually while criticizing one of the Muslim world's multifarious abhorrent cultural practices, hydra-headed hatreds, cultural intolerance, or religious bigotry. We can condemn an abortion clinic bomber without condemning Christianity; can we condemn a Muslim terrorist without casting aspersions upon the religion of Islam?
How do you like it when smart-ass atheists ridicule your faith?
Sticks and stones, right? But does it make you have a more favorable or less favorable opinion of them? Does it make you more willing or less willing to hear what they have to say? I found Mike Huckabee's winking anti-Mormonism repellent. He lost my vote, and I'm not even a Mormon.
It is in our own best interests to keep our focus on the anti-Western practices of the few, rather than the religion of the many who go about their daily lives as good Americans.
My God's Better than Your God
I remember awhile back hearing Glenn Beck on the radio mocking the Shia Twelvers, calling the Hidden Imam “the boy in the well.” You’d think he'd be a little more circumspect, seeing as how his religion is based upon God coming into the world as a human baby, dying, and coming back to life after three days in the tomb, and then ascending to heaven. To the skeptic, that's right up there with Mohammad's flying donkey.
Some Christians believe we’re all saved. Others believe there is a preordained elect, and the rest of us will burn in hell. Catholics pray to saints, believing they are with God and can therefor plead to him on our behalf. This leads fundamentalists to condemn the followers of the Whore of Babylon to eternal damnation. And that's just within Christianity!
My point here is not to mock anyone, but to simply point out that our different and varied beliefs are not reconcilable. We don't have to respect the religion of others, but we must respect each others' constitutional right to freedom of worship. None of us can scientifically prove our particular sect or belief is the right one, so why argue about it and inflame one another? As Dennis Prager once observed, every religion has elements that look downright ridiculous to outsiders.
Freedom of Conscience - Freedom from Violence
Outside of some witch trials, institutional bigotry against Jews, and a few spasmodic episodes against Catholics and Mormons, we've been blessedly free of sectarian turmoil and bug-eyed religious zealotry here. I pray we can keep it that way. Inshallah
