Religion vs Ideology - an interesting perspective

[Sir EvilFreeSmeg]

February 04, 2006
Marx, Communism, Totalitarianism; Muhammed, Islam, Terrorism

I'm glad that the U.S. State Department condemned cartoons which offended many Muslims. That's their job. They are the official face of the American government to the world. And kudos to President Bush for condemning them. Again, he is America's chief diplomat. The business of diplomacy is to reduce conflict.

Luckily, I am not a diplomat. My responsibility as an online writer is to tell the truth as I see it. And the truth, as I see it, is that Islam is the cause of a great deal of evil in the world today.

So, when I see prominent bloggers that I respect saying that the above statement is based on a kind of phobia, I take humbrage. And when other prominent bloggers equate that sentiment with antisemetism, I take offense.

Many of us would like to think that Islam is just another religion. That sentiment comes from a good place. Most Americans want to believe that about our fellow Americans. In fact, I would argue that America has always had a national ecumenical spirit. But such thinking is also ignorant of Islam as it is, and not as it should be. I would like Islam to be just another religion which asks only for the soul of the Muslim and not his political fealty, but that is not the case.

As the vast majority of Muslims will readily admit to you, Islam is not simply a mode of worship, it is a total way of life that demands every aspect of a person's being. In other words, there is no render unto Ceaser that which is Ceaser's. There is no assumption of the separation of individual duty to God, and a society's duty to God. Thus, it proscribes not only what I should do as an individual, but what we should do as a society.

As such, it is not, strictly speaking, a religion. It is also a coherent socio-political system.

We normally call such socio-political constructs ideologies.

Islam as a religion I can accept, it is Islam as an ideology that I cannot.

The criticisms of those of us who are suspicious of Islam are sometimes valid. Frankly, part of the reason that I blog is to unleash my jeuvenile side. So, any accusation that The Jawa Report is often jeuvenile is spot on.

However, many recent comments by Left, Right, and Center are so far off and misinformed that they represent a kind of ideology of their own. That ideology confuses religious tolerance with religious acceptance. To tolerate Islam simply means to accept it as fact of life, but tolerance does not imply that I embrace it on equal terms with other religions.
Rest of blog post

You really need to read the entire bog post and related comment before commenting here.

[Xynrx]

He spelled Caesar wrong.

[EliManning]

That all depends on your definition of religion. In the west we generally don't find it laughable to say that we follow Christ religiously but then go around refusing to follow any of Christianity's central tenets. More power to muslims if they've managed to make their most important beliefs into actual important aspects of their lives.

The two logical monkey wrenches for you here are that you advocate the de-separation of church and state in America and that Israel is doing the same thing for Judaism that a couple of the predominantly muslim countries are doing for Islam (it's important to understand that any discussion of the people reacting violently to these cartoons necessarily excludes the vast majority of both muslims and predominantly muslim countries).

[Sir EvilFreeSmeg]

I'm not advocating anything out of that blog. All I did was link to it and ask your opinion.

What I advocate is the destruction of radical Islam by the most violent means necessary before it can spread it's fascism over the world. That guy's taking a much more passive tone.

[maccool]

You really need to read the entire bog post and related comment before commenting here.

You first. Though it may, in fact be, good bog reading.

I waded through the miasma, but stopped paying critical attention when Mr. Jawa (a journalist rivaled only by Jeff Gannon) went in to the peculiar Franken/Hannity partisan idiot logic that appeals to some.

Wait, this is your blog isn't it?

[Stevinator]

Is rusty who I think he is?

[Cloud_Walker]

Islam is an ideology and a religion with the distinction as described by the blogger. However, it would be a grave mistake to not realize that Christianity is the exact same way. Keep your ****ing sky pixies out of politics, plz.

[Pier]

I'm not advocating anything out of that blog. All I did was link to it and ask your opinion.

What I advocate is the destruction of radical Islam by the most violent means necessary before it can spread it's fascism over the world. That guy's taking a much more passive tone.

What I advocate is the destruction of right wing conservatives who limit my freedom, because it interferes with their "ideas" taken from a stupid work of fiction written 2000 years ago.

Grr pIER

[DurfBarian]

I offer my full support to the people who draw blasphemous cartoons, and the people who publish them, because they should have the right to do so. I support Bush's statement against the cartoons, because they are offensive. And I also support the Muslims who are fighting to keep their countries from blowing up in nutball idiocy. Lebanese police come to mind. At least one officer has died. Funny how righty bloggers don't spend a lot of time talking about him.

[Stevebo]

Umm... So Islam as a way of life is bad compared to christianity because it influences how people live and the political/social choices they make?

And yet dispite the christian radicals trying ot get religion taught as science and voting for Bush as he is more in line with their religious views on subjects like abortion, christianity is so much better...

(Seeing as the blog is about radical islam i think it is fair to compare it to radical christianity)

And certain christians calling for the death of muslims ("What I advocate is the destruction of radical Islam by the most violent means necessary") is so much more rightous than extreme muslims calling for the death of christians.