A War of Religion

Andrew Sullivan writes about the "fundamentalism" of Muslims in this article. The basis for the claim, here, is used by Republican pundits Michelle Malkin, Douglas Farah, and others to support the current public opinion of Islamics as Jihadists. However, polls are usually used only in pieces, to help make a particular argument. A Pew poll from August 24, 2006 yielded the following: "(S)ix-in-ten white evangelical Protestants say that the Bible should be the guiding principle in making laws when it conflicts with the will of the people." From the same 2006 poll, 67 percent of those polled believe "the U.S. is a Christian nation." Malkin and Farah must have just forgotten to add those tidbits. Andrew Sullivan himself says: The reflexive defense of all things Muslim and the support of even a small minority for religious violence are troubling - and have no parallel among other religions or ethnicities. Do they really "have no parallel"? I suppose books like Why Apologize for the Spanish Inquisition could not possibly be a parallel... implying that if we wrote: The reflexive defense of all things Christian and the support of even a small minority for religious violence are troubling... we would be categorically false? I think I would have to disagree. We can also use US Government in place of Muslim. Michelle Malkin, who freaks out at the Pew Poll above, recently wrote a book entitled In Defense of Internment: The Case for "Racial Profiling" in World War II and the War on Terror. In it, Malkin defends the arrest and internment of Japanese American citizens during WWII as necessary to national security. Draw your own conclusions regarding the motivation of Asian-American (and FOX News correspondent) Malkin... Another instance is in the US dealing with the American Indians. It is fairly mainstream to read things like this, but remember that we are talking about "the support of even a small minority". Is it impossible to find a "small minority" that supports Manifest Destiny? In these cases, the quote becomes: The reflexive defense of all things America has done and the support of even a small minority for State-sponsored crimes are troubling... Andrew, this would be a true statement as well... What hasn't been talked about much in the just released Pew poll is that, while 47 percent consider themselves Muslim first and American second, 42 percent consider themselves Christian first and American second; And while 43 percent of American Muslims think mosques/churches should express views on political/social issues, 54 percent of American Christians think likewise. Could it be that Muslims and Christians hold similar beliefs with regard to their religions? Be still, my heart... A decent attempt at objectivity on this subject is here, but is still so very difficult to look at ourselves through the same filter that we use on others. My most significant frustration with the (almost universal) evaluations of the poll results is the talk of "assimilation". This language suggests that people who immigrate need to become "American", whatever that means (It probably has a strange resemblance to Christianity, by the way...). This sentiment has almost universal support, from both sides of the debate. It is almost as if this point is a truism that is beyond debate among most people. I happen to disagree. The United States is referred to as the "great melting pot". A melting pot does not require that a particular element change its nature; instead, it is accepted, complete with its own unique strata, into the collective. This also does not mean that the result of being in the melting pot is a homogeneous mixture. The guiding documents of the US Government (the Constitution), as well as the guiding book of the dominant religion (The Bible), both preach acceptance of others. It may very well be that Islam does not teach this (I'm not proficient enough in Muslim theology to know), but that is irrelevant. The Constitution and the Bible do not require reciprocation of good deeds - in fact, it requires acceptance even in the face of non-reciprocation. "They did it too" is not a defense ... Even if Very Rev. Fr. Alphonsus Maria Duran, M.J. (Inquisition apologist) and Hugh Hewitt (Torture supporter) want it to be.