The New York Times ended the year with the story and video of Farkhunda Malikzada, a young Afghan woman beaten to death and desecrated by a mob of men because they believed she had burned a Quran.
Not surprisingly, some Times’ readers rushed in to remind us that Nazis, Communists and American race-based lynch mobs are proof that religion isn’t the only thing that drives people to brutality.
True, but Nazism, Communism and racism don’t represent the world’s fastest-growing religion. Perhaps we should consider that radical Islamists could be this century’s Nazis. Let’s choose our religious battles accordingly.
Here in Portland, Ore., the city’s school district forbade school choirs from performing at The Grotto, a Catholic shrine and botanical garden, during the recent holiday season. The Freedom from Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based organization, had complained that as a Christian holiday, The Grotto event violated the law requiring separation of church and state. School officials agreed.
What a small victory the foundation won, particularly in the context of what’s happening in the world.
Given religion’s bloody history of wars and oppression, an organization devoted to freedom from religion is a good idea. But after looking at The Times’ video of the Islamic mob killing Farkhunda Malikzada, and knowing that these fanatics worship a growing religion, and knowing that Islamic countries require women to be subservient to men – shouldn’t the Freedom from Religion Foundation be aiming higher than a Christian choral festival?
Especially a Christian choral festival that is open to heathens like me.
Out of curiosity, I went to the Festival of Lights for the first time. Nobody proselytized to me. Given Portland’s reputation (it has a record number of strip clubs and residents tend to be unaffiliated with organized religion) I suspect many of the people around me, enjoying the lights and music at The Grotto, were no more religious than I was.
There were religious icons and Biblical quotations (“The people who walk in darkness shall see a great light”), but nobody was forced to read them or feign respectful obedience. I saw one guy cross himself, and that was about it.
The major religions – Islam, Christianity, Hinduism – all have their sins and ugly histories. Among them, Christianity does the most public soul-searching with attempts to make right. Shouldn’t we give Christianity credit for, no pun intended, evolving? (If Islam similarly evolved, it would cease to be the fastest-growing religion because Islamic women could control how many babies they have. This fact is lost on conservatives like Pat Buchanan.)
To dismiss an Islamic mob’s attack on a young woman by saying, “Yeah, but other religions have been just as bad,” justifies current wrongs and lays excuses for future violence.
The New York Times was quick to point out that Farkhunda Malikzada was innocent of burning a Quran, which raised the question: What if she HAD burned a Quran? Then what? Would it have been OK or at least understandable that the mob went wild? Would The Times have followed with the video and story?
When I was at The Grotto, no one in the crowd reminded me of a Bill Maher joke I once heard: “I think I’ll take a toaster to Pakistan and start a new religion.”
When I watched the video of Farkhunda’s murder, Maher’s joke turned real. These savage zealots look like they could be persuaded a man with a magic bread machine has Allah-given powers.
Why then do the Americans, especially in the mainstream media, show a readiness to criticize Christianity but a rush to protect Islam?
After Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” the media seized on his call for a ban — without adding his qualifier, “while we figure out what the hell is going on.”
Trump was ridiculed. There was no comparable denunciation when then-President Jimmy Carter placed restrictions on Iranians entering the country after the U.S. Embassy in Iran was seized. When a few political commentators pointed out similarities, the media were quick to parse the difference: Carter barred only Iranians while Trump wanted to bar all Muslims. (Again, the qualifier – “while we figure out what the hell is going on” – was often dropped.)
Trump later expanded on his remarks: “They think they are going to change our religion.”
Our religion? America doesn’t have a religion. We are regarded as a Protestant Christian nation, but how many Americans go to church?
Our national religion is closer to what writer Kathleen Norris describes in “The Cloister Walk” as an All-American optimistic, middle-class Protestant phenomenon that avoids harshness and conflict.
“We want to conquer evil by being nice,” she says.
Despite the media’s obsession over Trump’s proposal to temporarily restrict Muslims from entering the U.S., Americans are generally good sports when it comes to respecting other people’s religion.
This is an American gesture: When I worked at The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Wash., an employee who was Muslim was preparing to observe Ramadan, the 30-day period of fasting from sun-up to sundown. She worked in one of the outlying bureaus, and her coworkers announced that they would forgo their morning doughnut ritual during Ramadan.
But Christianity in America has become synonymous with “white males,” a popular target now. We are frequently reminded that the men who wrote the U.S. Constitution were primarily of light beige complexion and European ancestry (some of them owned slaves!).
Like it or not, the Constitution they wrote has led to a country where its citizens don’t have to go church or worship any religion, a country that desperate people flee to – not from.
Would America be a better country today had a few of the signers to the U.S. Constitution looked like the men outside the Muslim shrine where Farkhunda Malikzada died?
It might be a lot worse, especially for women.
– Pamela Fitzsimmons
Related:
“Why then do the Americans, especially in the mainstream media, show a readiness to criticize Christianity but a rush to protect Islam?”
Yours is the million dollar question. I could speculate, but the contemporary animus is too deep, to virulent for ready explanation.
I was reading Tocqueville this morning, making a real effort to stick with him and to understand his position as valued observer of our nation. I was surprised by his analysis of Christianity in our country. Below I link to a summary of a scholarly paper, but it is best to read the man himself.
Something that has developed during my lifetime is a broad and profound anti-Americanism to be found among a large number, perhaps half of the population of the country.
Also, there now exists an insane antagonism against business and Christians. It is of an Iago-like character in its disproportionate response to wrongs real and imagined, and in its complete silence on the West’s beneficent achievements.
The complete omission of Christianity’s contribution to the arts, to law, to civil governance, to spiritual solace and accord is mad. I see a driver’s license given to an adherent of Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. This dismissal of faith as a comic book silliness will come back on us.
Additionally, anti-White racism is open and acceptable. I have long been uneasy with the cover up of racist attacks on white. It doesn’t look like it is going to get better soon.
Then too, Activists strike me as mindlessly revanchist.
The radical leveling of American society over the last 60 years is among other terms, miraculous. Most of the activists of today face no impediment to realizing rational hopes. But, all seem to behave as if they felt the bondsman lash yesterday noon.
What is Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, that he would weep for her? Just imagine what he would do if he had the cause for feeling that I do.
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5333632
I think Alexis de Toqueville would be shocked at how anti-American many Americans have become. It’s a luxury some of them can enjoy, because they are confident their president is the most powerful man in the world. Notice how casually the American media continue to make that assumption, and how often they’ll repeat it during the 2016 presidential race (carefully updating it with “or woman” tacked on, just in case).
They have forgotten 9-11 when Mohammed Atta was more powerful than George W. Bush. Even Dan Rather became patriotic, crying on David Letterman, asking “Where do I sign up?”
Your statement: “This dismissal of faith as a comic book silliness will come back on us.” It will come back on us because our irreverance is one-sided. We mostly make fun of religions affiliated with white Christians (particularly if they are associated with the Republican Party).
Even when Christians do something right, there’s a hesitancy in acknowledging it. For example, Portland’s homeless population continues to grow, and The Oregonian looked at Utah’s success in reducing homelessness.
Buried towards the end of the story is one big factor in Utah’s success, and it’s offered almost grudgingly:
“Although state leaders are loath to tally up precisely how much the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has donated in cash, land and manpower, it’s hard to overstate the role the church played in Utah’s success.
“Sixty percent of all Utah residents are Mormons, and the church has a long, broad tradition of helping the poor plus the infrastructure that comes with that commitment. The church is the single most influential force in the state, with the financial and political power of several Fortune 500 companies.”
http://www.oregonlive.com/homeless/2015/12/homelessness_utahs_model.html
I do not know how many Americans still believe in the power of the American Presidency. But, you are right: if you believe in an all powerful president you can safely be anti-American.
And, you are right again about power shifts, but my candidate for puncturing omnipotence would be the two-bit punk Lee Harvey.
Letterman simply disgusts. His knave’s self-righteousness grows out of position (hence power, they all were obliged to bend the knee on his show) and money.
I’m pretty sure America can be dismantled as fast as the Soviet Union and that we are in a slow roll to that dismantlement now. I regret my hate for bill and Hilary from the 90s. The sort of bitterness I felt and expressed in having those two chiselers and their minions in office is the seed for our national rancor. I and those like me set up the insane hate for GWB and the current national schism
Christians and Republicans capitulate rather than grow and develop their ethos and principles. For example, while abortion needs to be safe, legal, and available there is room for discussion and scrutiny. I see more yielding on the part of the NRA than the pro-abortion folk, which is to say I see none at all.
I recall when Elizabeth Smart was lost and found her Mormonism was discounted or unmentioned. When it was mentioned it was in terms of an NPR interview which subtly implied that Smart’s surrender while in captivity was borne of her upbringing in a repressive patriarchy. While that is not an area that is off limits for discussion it is an area that is not especially valuable. Did Patty Hearst grab a gun because of Bay Area slack mindedness?
I mean being a continually raped captive often has something to do with cooperation and with a relatively cloistered 14 year old girl, well… Moreover, the strength that Smart demonstrates everyday of her life now is testament to the qualities that Mormonism can contribute to women’s lives.
I hold no brief for that peculiar faith. I have worked and lived among them for many years in Idaho. They’ve got their faults and a patriarchal viewpoint is chief among them. I once new a Mormon man who was second in command to my girlfriend at an NPR station. Both of us were aware of his discomfiture with Mary as a supervisor because she was a she.
But, when I worked in the woods, mines, railroads, oilfields etc. they showed up sober with a can-do attitude. Found them to be a better than fair bunch on the whole.
Moreover, their belief in the male taking the primary responsibility in family life, certainly trumps the boy-men I see in Portland and indeed in an entire American generation.
As a side note the apologia by women and progressives in Europe over the New Year’s nastiness in many European cities is a species of what we have here.
For us it is a concealment of black self-slaughter and racist attacks on Asians and Whites. It is insane and it mirrors the hypocrisy of the Europeans. In Matriarchal Sweden they compel boys to urinate sitting down in grammar school. Yet, they’ve become the rape capital of the world and insist upon taking in more Muslims that have no ambition too integrate. And, they insist on leaving that North African or Middle-Eastern cultural world-view intact.
We will have to disagree about abortion.
There has already been too much room for discussion and scrutiny. (Nobody should be scrutinizing the contents of a female’s uterus except her doctor.)
A few years ago I wrote about what Planned Parenthood could learn from the NRA: http://www.heldtoanswer.com/2011/05/the-nra-vs-planned-parenthood/
Had abortion supporters been as tough as the NRA, we would not have seen the erosion of abortion rights in America. In some states, abortion is harder (and more expensive) to obtain now than it used to be. And then there is the pro-life propaganda that has guilted some girls and women into having babies they cannot take care of. We all pay for that.
Even Gloria Steinem miscalculated on how to support abortion. In her new memoir, she tells an anecdote about speaking to an audience that included protesters carrying anti-abortion signs. She tried to reach out to them by casting abortion as a reproductive right no different than the right to have a baby. The protesters got up and walked out. They were unpersuaded.
Considering how many girls and women now have babies out of wedlock, they have embraced the “reproductive right” to do so. Abortion opponents can’t very well complain. Neither can abortion supporters if they have promoted baby-making as a right.
Mmm. I have been following the varied fortunes of Germaine Greer over her lifetime as she has always struck me as frequently brave, often wrong, and always the most fun and intellectually challenging woman of her generation.
No matter Ms. Steinem’s contribution to our nation’s progress I have never been able to sustain her …well anything. Good heavens, the Ms magazine solicitations we used to receive were over the top. Reminded me of old Klan scare material frankly.
To your original points, Western Culture’s disarray is such that
Yates’ and Didion’s rough beast has pretty much arrived and been delivered.
Gun rights, abortion, white males, racial inequity . . . are looking to be drowned in a sea of trouble we can’t yet comprehend.
I feel that I must also allude to my inquiry – the self-hate that the West has for itself is very destructive and driven by those who have greatly benefited from its forward strides.
The hate for the West is disproportionate and, it seems, fatally crippling. Younger and more vigorous forces are focusing with intensity on our ridiculous discord.
Comparing Ms. Magazine subscription solicitations to Klan material — now that’s funny. I never subscribed to Ms. Magazine, but I used to read it occasionally. I remember telling a college journalism professor that I thought Ms. had become as predictable as any other “women’s magazine,” that they needed to surprise occasionally, “put Ayn Rand or Carol Doda on the cover.”
I spent some time yesterday trying to find if Gloria Steinem had said anything about the sexual assault jihad in Cologne, Germany. If she made a comment, I couldn’t find it. (The mayor of Cologne is a woman, and she initially blamed the victims. I bet she considers herself a feminist.)
Portland blogger Larry Norton monitors the foreign news websites and has a lot of interesting links that give a different perspective on the news that you won’t find in the American news media. This is good:
http://www.eurasian-challenge.com/2016/01/merkel-should-have-thought-about.html
Time Magazine lavished Angela Merkel with praise for laying out the welcome mat to more than a million refugees. But as Margot Parker, a member of the UK Independence Party, says: “People coming to another continent are going to have to live and abide by the ways of the country that they hope to integrate and live in. … You can’t assimilate huge numbers of people into society just like that. It’s just not possible. And if people have no respect for women, that’s something that Europe is really going to have to look at. … Chancellor Merkel behaved badly, she was rather stupid in doing what she did, and now we’re all suffering the consequences of that and we have to try and put it right. And it’s going to be very difficult.”
As Norton points out, “Europe is being dumbed down.”
Not unlike the U.S.
Here are a couple of other good links: http://www.eurasian-challenge.com/2016/01/adventurism-and-decline-of-west.html
http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/260580/muslim-future-european-feminism-i-man-you-woman-i-daniel-greenfield
thanks for all of the links, but most especially the Larry Norton.
A fellow named Michael Totten is from Portland and is distinguishing himself as a journalist and as a blogger of subjects Middle-Eastern. Why local media never mention him is beyond my ken. The guy has made himself a good first hand reporter on the Muslim world (or such parts as he encounters).
About Ms – as a boy in San Francisco our apartment had some “black men will get your women” etc. race hate stuff slipped under our door. The subscription solicitations from Ms just always reminded me of that apocalyptic/hyperbolic and degradation against our kind is coming POV.
And from what I know of Ms Steinem’s mother’s mental illness it must have been very, very hard for her to achieve what she has.
Finally I think the ugliness directed toward Oriana Fallaci unto her death and the opprobrium focused on Melanie Philips in the UK appalling.
To ignore our nation’s Christian origin is as naive as to ignore the Agnosticism of our nation’s originators.
Unfortunately, Agnosticism has grown unpopular. Today, we must choose sides, pick teams, or worse, Identify. The failure to Identify is proof positive of our failure to belong.
To modern world’s fail to belong is… devastating. Pick your side or stand alone against the Media Masses! Lo, should we all have the courage none of us have.
Tribalism has taken over, and tribalism is the antithesis of united.
Follow the money, the saying goes. OK, who benefits from tribalism? One of the two major political parties has segregated voters into tribes and then campaigned on the premise that, if elected, it would dole out various goodies for _____ (fill in the blank with Hispanics, African-Americans, gays, illegal immigrants, etc.).
The marketing and media industries have embraced tribalism, as well, thinking it would be good for business. When I worked in newspapers it seemed like every year we had a new poll supposedly showing us how we needed to change to reach this group or that group. Considering the current state of newspapers, you can see how that worked out.
A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a notice inviting residents to a meeting of a Portland neighborhood “Equity and Inclusion Action Team.”
Among the questions to be taken up by the team: “Is our equity policy written from a white person’s perspective, or from an equity perspective?”
It left me wondering what a “white person’s perspective” is. Do all white people think alike? And what is an “equity perspective?” Inequality is a fact of life. We don’t all look alike or live alike.
The announcement also carried these instructions:
“Always be willing to apologize when your words are taken as insensitive or insulting. A direct apology, not an apology where your statement is followed by ‘but… .’ Find common ground and words. You will find more commonality than difference as you get to know one another.”
Forcing apologies and restricting speech will hardly lead to finding common ground.
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