I know Christiane Amanpour has been doing a CNN three-parter on the evils of religious fundamentalism, but don’t look for a review here. I no longer watch anything she does. She gives me hives.
As for the premise of her show that I didn’t watch, the imputation of equivalence between the Abrahamic religions when it comes to violence, I think it is such an absurd lie it borders on propaganda out of Leni Riefenstahl – and I am a near atheist with no personal need for any organized religion at all. I would agree with John Derbyshire in his Pajamas review of Robert Spencer that they are all “magical thinking,” stories made up to explain life and nature when people thought the world was flat. They don’t work so well now.
Still, anyone who says the three religions are the same when Judaism and Christianity have gone through numerous reformations and Islam has not is simply delusional or lying or a combination of the two. For that reason, fundamentalists are a minority in Judaism and Christianity, while everybody is in one sense a fundamentalist in Islam. The Koran is the verbatim word of God, therefore immutable. The Bible is only a report of the word of God. Out of this, we still have Islamic people beheading people, trying to blow up civilians in subways, destroying Buddhist monuments, institutionally oppressing women and all the rest in 2007, not 1007. Are the perpetrators the exceptions? Sure to some degree (though not in the oppression of women). And there are certainly more of these violent types by far, exponentially far, than there are in any other religion. Do we see the Islamic world rising up in opposition to their behavior? Not at all.
Now Amanpour knows all this. So why does she lie? Well, one part of it’s obvious. She’s making several million a year from CNN for shoveling what she shovels. But I don’t think it’s just money, though that always help. I don’t know enough of this woman personally (don’t want to) to give any serious psychoanalysis, but it’s clear there is a lot of rage, guilt, hatred and confusion beneath the cultured tones and expensive safari jacket of this Fake Fallaci.
TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM: Phyllis Chesler has more patience than I do. She’s watching.
RELATED: Shrinkwrapped writes on the possibility of moderate Muslims.
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22 Comments
1. jsla:The more I learn about Islam — the more incorrect it seems to me to parse them into “radicals” and “moderates” as we tirelessly attempt to do.
All Muslims clearly may not agree on the exact mechanisms through which Islam should be spread — but they ALL agree that Islam MUST be spread.
Since this is an incontrovertible fact, I’m beginning to realize that ALL Muslims are part of a continuum. That the more violent among them are simply the pointy end of the spear — and that the little girl selling baked goods to support her local “Islamic Community Center” and the Muslim Lawyer defending the latest Muslim rapist or the latest home clitorectomy case are all on the same page.
We didn’t carefully parse the “good” Nazis from the “bad” ones — we understood that the functionaries of Nazism were just as guilty, and sometimes far more so, than their violent jackbooted brethren.
I also find it interesting that the Muslims are taught to think of all Muslims as their brothers — and while they acknowledge differences among the various sects, when it comes to their world view — there are two camps, and two camps ONLY — The House of Islam — Dar ul Islam — and The House of War — our house — the one they intend to burn down. We, as so-called “infidels” are to be killed, evicted, or enslaved in our House of War until it too becomes another wing in the ever bloody, ever growing, ever more hideous “House of Islam.”
Aug 24, 2007 - 9:48 am 2. Lem:Not so fast jsla.
If Muslims offered the virgins here and now I… would take a second look. Admittedly, I’m willing to work hard for that sort of thing.
But if I have blow myself up I can’t imagine how that would not diminish my prospects.
Not to mention the fact that my insurance would not cover it.
Worst, they don’t even have a catalog
Aug 24, 2007 - 10:12 am 3. Buddy Larsen:American Thinker says fundamentalism will beget fundamentalism.
Aug 24, 2007 - 10:50 am 4. heather:link
a small number of us gathered to listen to a friend who has read and thought a lot about Islam and Byzantium, and the Ottoman Turks. It was most interesting. All of us learned a LOT about Islam. Our ‘teacher’ is a very tolerant, Anglican type guy, kind to the core.
He has come to the conclusion that giving into Muslims in any way is like letting the camel stuff his nose into the tent.
Islam is DIFFERENT from Christianity and Judaism.
Aug 24, 2007 - 11:02 am 5. Buddy Larsen:That’s pretty much the feeling of the Byzantines, as expressed by Greek Orthodox congregations (a GO friend tells me), even to this day, even here in America. The memories of the centuries of attacks upon Byzantium are as fresh as yesterday, and they grieve for the church in Constantinople, the Hagia Sophia (is it called?), now a mosque in Istanbul.
It’s odd, isn’t it, how yesterday’s ancient history is back on the front burner. I guess if I were Jewish, it wouldn’t seem odd at all, since it’s never been *off* the front burner. I guess, because, as Israel has no other place to be, there is no back burner to put the history on.
Aug 24, 2007 - 11:20 am 6. Lem:Obesity is rapidly becoming the number one killer in this country.
Strictly looking at the numbers, regular fasting would not necessarily be a bad thing.
This is a post Islamist victory ‘look on the bright side’ analysis.
Of course I’m not saying this is what’s going to happen.
Aug 24, 2007 - 12:06 pm 7. tim maguire:Christians are proselytizers, just like Muslims. Moderate Christians are not that different from moderate Muslims in that respect.
The biggest difference between us and them is that a few hundreds years ago, we had a reformation. Ater a couple centuries of outrageous violence, we learned the value of tolerance. Islam has not had its reformation and the world as it exists today is not going to let them have one.
So the question is, can they learn tolerance without the graphic demonstration of the fruits of intolerance that we got?
That’s up to the moderate Muslims. Again, they do exist–a great many muslims want only to practice their faith, have a job, obey the laws, pay taxes, and live quiet comfortable lives just like the rest of us.
Ultimately, this clash of civilizations will turn on these moderate muslims. If we have to do the job, it will be ethnic cleansing. Because that’s the only tool available to non-muslims.
That is why it is so vital that moderate muslims take the lead in rooting out fundamentalism. So far, they have not stepped forward to take their place in the struggle and the longer it is left to us, the more likely we are to we see massive bloodshed.
Aug 24, 2007 - 2:28 pm 8. Buddy Larsen:I keep thinking that Muslim women will save the religion from itself. But there’s that built-in physical block –very hard to work around.
Aug 24, 2007 - 2:58 pm 9. WorkinStiff:CNN is part of CNN International, owned by Wahabi Saudi oil shieks…..You know, the bastards who have financed madrassas, terrorist training camps and flight lessons for the likes of mohammed atta..Who believe that allah put the massive oil pools under saudi arabia so that the true believers can conquer the world….The massive puts taken out on airline stocks just prior to 9/11 were traced to these same characters, a fact left out of the 9/11 report when it was released to the public…
Aug 24, 2007 - 4:31 pm 10. heather:very big difference between Mohammed and Christ: Mohammed was a warrior. Jihad is a war of the House of Submission against the House of War (where I live.)
To compare Judaism (non proselytizer) and Christianity (centred by Christ who never had a sword in his hand, and who gave up his own life, quietly, in order to be a sacrifice for humanity)… and Islam… is just ignorant.
Aug 24, 2007 - 8:51 pm 11. heather:also, to become an Islamic ‘martyr’, you die while making WAR against non Islamic folk.
to become a Christian ‘martyr’ you LET others murder you because you are a Christian.
As we get sloppier and sloppier with our words and our language, our thinking gets sloppier too.
Aug 24, 2007 - 8:55 pm 12. conefor4200:CNN was guilty of picking sensational characters and make the program in the style of FOX News.
But there were hidden values here a there.
I want to stop the discriminating bashing of the ordinary Muslims.
Ordinary Jews, Muslims and Christians are equally spiritual and superstitious.
I know plenty of Christians and Jews from Eastern Europe, Muslims from the Middle East. They are all equally blind and filled with prejudice.
With love and patience they can be turned around.
The problem is the glorification of the past military victories.
All lost battles are forgotten.
Bring in decency instead of the glory of the old heroes.
Aug 25, 2007 - 5:42 am 13. photoncourier.blogspot.com:workinstiff…CNN is part of Time Warner, a public company.
Aug 25, 2007 - 6:51 am 14. pst314:“the imputation of equivalence between the Abrahamic religions when it comes to violence”
This has been a standard liberal tactic for decades–no, for generations. In its original form it was the standard fall-back position for situations when liberals could not deny the evils of communism. In such cases the tactic was to claim that America was “just as bad.”
Christiane Amanpour is just doing what our traitors have been doing for a long, long time.
Aug 25, 2007 - 7:01 am 15. Soldier's Dad:“CNN is part of Time Warner, a public company.”
If CNN mistakenly broadcast CNN International into everyday American homes their Atlanta offices would be burned to the ground by an angry mob within a matter of hours.
Aug 25, 2007 - 8:19 am 16. Former CNN Watcher:Buddy,
The Hagia Sophia is now a museum, and has been since 1935.
Aug 25, 2007 - 9:17 am 17. Former CNN Watcher:And of course, Mrs Amanpour, is half Iranian.
Aug 25, 2007 - 9:30 am 18. Buddy Larsen:Former CNN, thanks –I should’ve been more careful. But, still, mosque or museum, Hagia Sophia is referred to by many as the “Great Church in captivity”.
Aug 25, 2007 - 11:01 am 19. SteveBrooklineMA:I watched most of the Christian episode, but not the others. This threat from these “God’s Warriors” was that they might vote in enough numbers to outlaw porn (oh no!), or allow the posting of the 10 Commandments in courts (egad!), or (gasp!) help get a Republican elected president. Sleep with one eye open people!
Aug 25, 2007 - 6:43 pm 20. Gary Rosen:I’m a nonobservant Jew and still look askance at the likes of Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell. But for crying out loud they never hired anyone to fly a plane into a building.
Aug 25, 2007 - 11:15 pm 21. ahem:It certainly is.
Before making stone-headed remarks about religious equivalency, secularists should first read the Torah, the Bible and the Koran. I defy you to find exhortations to murder unbelievers wherever they may be found in either the Torah or the Bible.
Aug 26, 2007 - 4:39 am 22. dclydew:I think that the main difference exists in the percentages. There do exist some Christians which appear to think that violence in the name of God is acceptable (people have killed other people in the name of Jesus and God, even recently). In the Jewish faith we can say the same… there exists some Jews which seem to accept violence against their religious ‘enemies’ as acceptable.
The difference between extremists in Christianity, Islam and Judaism is in the percentages. A very small percent (almost vanishingly small) of Christian and Jewish followers appear to actively connect God and Violence. Some do, there is no doubt. But, the majority neither agree, approve or support these fundamentalists. In the current state of Islam, we still have a small percentage of the overall followers or are violent, but the majority don’t seem to shed these fellows as readily as the other two. There certainly are some Muslims who have rejected this extremist position, but they are also a minority.
I find all organized religions seem to hold the potential for danger. Anytime you have a large group of followers that accept ‘truth’ from a central source, there exists the potential for dangerous Dogmas and fundamentalist behaviors. This could be true no matter the position (That is an organized religion could become dangerously dogmatic about pro-choice or pro-life). Of course, this danger isn’t relegated to those systems that claim Abraham. Any system where the followers absolutely accept X as TRUE run this risk. Be it Global Warming, Abortion or the state of the State of Israel.
So, in some sense, I think its good to examine the fundamentalists on all sides… after all, if the Muslims had taken stock of their “Warriors for God” fifty years ago, we may not have the problems we have today. ANY position where an individual claims a right to violence based on their religious belief appears dangerous to me. However, that doesn’t mean that all of those religions are currently equal in danger, perhaps only that they all have the potential to become dangerous, as Islamic radicalism currently is.
Aug 27, 2007 - 10:49 am