The danger of any fundamentalist faith today

Submitted by Andria Spindel (Canada), Dec 28, 2004 at 23:12

I agree with the obvious that radical islam exists only among Muslims, but it is also self evident that ethnic stereotyping is a serious breach of the ethics we have thrived on and cherish in North America. We would not want to have a society where people had to wear yellow stars, would we? We can always see how things go overboard, but first they are above board. How do you keep from things getting out of hand?

The McCarthy enquiries hurt a lot of people. The internment of Japanese civilians was a war time security measure but it never took into account that the residents of Japanese decent were first Americans and Canadians, and not Japanese citizens, for the most part.

Citizenship has to be equal and respected for all. I don't have the answer to give you an alternate. I do think that we should require Mosques to teach tolerance,not hate. So, maybe, like schools, we should have "visitors" but then why not do more of this in private and or religious schools?

I also think that some Christian fundamentalists are dangerous, and many are armed. I assume because they are currently on the side of God and Israel, anti-terror and greater security that we can support them. But in earlier days they were the basis for racial hatred and intolerance of blacks. They could as easily turn on some other group; they deny homosexuals equality now. They wish to carry arms which usually means there will be more deaths -check it out in the US vs other unarmed citizens.

Similarly, some fundamentalist Jews are also intolerant, ignorant and potentially dangerous. We have seen them bear arms in Israel, killing Rabin, yet shun the army which protects the whole population.

Seems to me, some focus on educating for tolerance, setting ethical standards and reinforcing them, denying public spaces to prejudice and hate would be a good start.

Andria

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