the minaret

In last week’s issue, Kelsey Allagood made the case that Representative Peter King’s hearings on Muslim extremism are dangerously close to racism.

I don’t quarrel with her characterization of Representative King, and I find his hearings bigoted and unfairly divisive. However, I would like to draw a distinction between criticism of religious people and religion itself. Misguided public figures like Representative King should not be evoked to marginalize the very real problem of worldwide religious/political conflict.
The truth is, religious conflict has been the main destabilizing force in world history, whether we’re talking about the ancient history of the Inquisition or the Crusades, or the modern problems of Hezbollah or Al-Qaeda.

I am especially worried that forces of theocracy, on behalf of any religion, would gain control of nuclear weapons. As writer Salman Rushdie, once targeted for assassination by Muslim extremists for penning The Satanic Verses, said on episode 147 of Real Time, “There’s only one group in the world that currently wishes to get nuclear weapons to use them [emphasis mine]. … That is radical Islamist politics.”
These are, of course, among the worst examples from any one religion. Are they representative of their religion? For instance, should every moderate Christian have to answer for the Westboro Baptist Church, the hateful Christian group famous for its “God Hates Fags” signs?
Well, frankly, yes. In my estimation, one of the biggest problems religious moderates must grapple with is that extremists often have scripture on their side. The God of the Old Testament really does “hate fags;” Leviticus lists homosexuality as punishable by death. The Old Testament condones (and indeed was historically used to justify) slavery. This self-described “jealous God” commits genocide on multiple occasions, whether ordering the slaughter of the Canaanites, destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, killing the first-born of Egypt or rebooting creation via a global flood.
In my view, religious moderation is a game of how much scripture is acceptable to ignore. This process gives too much credence to empirically false accounts of man’s origins.
Rep. King’s Muslim radicalization hearings are undoubtedly bigoted. But, the real discussion over the validity and usefulness of religious doctrine, teachings and institutions must be a focal debate of the 21st Century. The nonreligious, like myself, do not promise utopia but we do advocate for a world of debate and activism in search of truth and progress.
In her original article, Kelsey alludes to a grandmother quoted in The New York Times, who says, “Islam is not about a religion. It’s a political government, and it’s 100 percent against our constitution.” While I strongly disagree with the idea that the exercise of religion goes against the Constitution (for what is the United States but a radically secular document that separates the exercise of religion from government?), she’s right that Islam implies a political system. But so does Christianity. Same with Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, et. al. What are the Ten Commandments? Guidelines? To paraphrase Christopher Hitchens, religions are our first attempt at philosophy, science and governing systems. This is a lesson not lost on many supposedly “secular” dictatorships, especially the world’s most disturbing totalitarian state, North Korea, in which Kim Jong-il literally presents himself to his people as a god.
I’d think it would be clear by now that people don’t need to evoke divine retribution in order to govern themselves.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen how ugly anti-Muslim bigotry can be. Last 9/11, I went to Park 51 (better known as the “ground zero mosque”), and saw Christian religious zealots protest the proposed Islamic cultural center near ground zero. My criticism is not directed toward Muslim people or Christian people, but, rather, the ideologies and doctrines that they hold. Just as I would any other intellectual proposition I find problematic.
I’ll stand with the religious against bigoted statements from people like Representative King. I will not, however, cease to speak out against religion when it acts in opposition to worldwide stability.