Interesting article.
I was thinking the other day (well have been thinking this for a while, but really just kinda pulling it together in my head) that humanity as a whole must speak out against fundamentalism. It's not terrorism that's todays biggest threat, it's fundamentalism. We need to confront and debate people with fundamentalist ideas and ideals on a daily basis, because it exists in all monothestic religions, and is getting out of control.
From the radical muslims that are becoming terrorists, to the hate mongering christians that picket gay funerals to the fundamentalist jews that hate their islamic neighbors and want to exterminate them. These are people from all walks of life and all religions that must be confronted. And not with violence, but with dialouge, good will, and strength.
I mean, there's Baptist and (what's the denomination that believes in born-again?) Christians dancing because they believe the end of days and rapture are coming. And the more we dismiss it or ignore it, or just make an off-color remark to them, the stronger it grows. And there's enough people in enough governments and places of power now that believe in this crazy stuff. They live their false piousness forgetting the rules of 'love thy neighbor' and 'turn the other cheek' and all the other that all religious CLAIM to aspire to.
Religion or faith is not a dangerous thing. But fundamentalism is. And I think it's ALL of our duty to speak out against it at every turn, in which every faith or society we exist, becuase it IS getting out of control.
We claim that muslims should be rooting out and speaking out against their extremists in their midst, an I agree 100%. It sounds like this guy was doing just that. But we need to give him some help, and we need to do it in our own communities too.
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