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Occident and Islam have the same problem: secularism

Reader comment on item: Intimidating the West, from Rushdie to Benedict
in response to reader comment: Mozart opera cancelled due to fear of Muslim reprisals

Submitted by Pierre Chiartano (Italy), Sep 28, 2006 at 11:34

Wath happened in Deuscht Oper was unbelivable. No way to turn right dialogue with islam if Occident steps back by itself from its cultural identity. The problem of «ultrafondamentalism» is the wake, the failure occurred by «positive religion», imposed by kemalism stream in islamic countries in last century. The divorce of man from his sacred roots was the source of war and animosity.

In western countries we get the same problem. The secularism drove societies toward belief in the exclusive truth of natural sciences and faith of history's progress toward the full emancipation from religion. This wisdom we turn from sublimate religion to sublimate human issues like race, social class or radical nationalism. Moderate islam two step backs every time radicals rise. There are a lot of goodwill people in islamic societies that fight for freedom, but now are whispers in the crowd's screams. The moderate islam have to state its weakness and dialogue with westerners that lives with the same problem.

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