Caliphate, Shmalifate
Reader comment on item: The Caliphate

Submitted by Andy (United Kingdom), Dec 15, 2005 at 11:56

Yes, but these statements are disingenuous because they makes it seem- by omitting an additional clarifying phrase - that Muslims in general want this return to the 7th. century.

All we non-muslims have learnt about Islamic thinking as a result of events from 9/11 shows this is a a very minority scenario. But the more important point is how mad it makes your "standard" Muslim by making him have to respond by expalining that in the main Muslims do not want a Caliphate.

The wierdness of all this is that no one brought out the straight jacket when Bush declared his decisions over Afghanistan and Iraq were dictated to him directly by God. In a sense the two protagonists, the Islamic fundamentalists of the al Qaeda variety and the fundamentalists Chiristians of America understand each other perfectly. The fundamentalist Christians have convinced themselves they have to defend their religion to the hilt by denouncing evolution and encouraging people to kill abortionists; the Islamists have convinced themsleves they can only preserve their faith by destroying all others. Though in both religions the vast majority of adherents accept their religions have had to adapt to societies changes. The mother Christian Catholic Church sees nothing wrong with evoltion. It has a keen interest in the debate about science and religion.

This problem for religions and the religious has existed for centuries even within Christianity. It is well exemplifed by cultists such as Jehovah's Witnesses (not considered Christians by many Christians because of certain doctrinal differences). The Witnesses have convinced themselves for about 100 years or so that they have to defend every word in the Bible - New and Old Testaments, but especially and strangely the Old, which is in essence the Torah, the Book of Judaism.

In other words, two small microscopic agendas are being thrown at each other at great force while the rest of the world sits by belwildered as to why all this should be the cause of so much heat and so little light, while making the usual mistake of not standing up to say that these issues are periferal to the major concerns of the world such as the protection of the environment and Third World poverty.

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