Posted by: ed ||
10/25/2005 09:06 ||
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Two senior analysts with close ties to the U.S. military....Bluntly put, U.S. may look like it puts abstract ideals of democracy above geopolitics and strategy.
Long interview with George Weigel, author of "The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America and Politics Without God", on the issue of european secularism and what it means to the USA.
#1
I think this is a false axiom. In fact, the problem is just the opposite from what he states. That is, Europe's underlying philosophy is based not on atheism, but in royalism, or more properly, the Divine Right of Kings. The belief that God ordains the leaders of men.
It was in those times when Europe evolved its criminal and civil legal customs, its cultural traditions, and its bureaucracies. While since Voltaire, they have denied "God", per se, they have kept His "hierarchy of heaven" as the foundation of their government. EU bureaucrats think of themselves as something akin to nobility, based in something like "righteousness", that makes them superior to the common man.
Their pervasive Roman and Napoleonic Law works from the assumption that the king, or "the state", is always in the right, being ordained by God, and that the people must have the kings, or the states, permission to do much of anything.
"Religious America" is equally false. Its founding documents are popular, not heavenly. "We the people..." is its statement, ignoring God utterly. And like the fortunate British, the US also embraces Common Law, which is law ordained by the people, not God or God's chosen few. So while many Americans believe in God, very few consider legislation from the government to be holy. It is only "of men, by men, and for men."
As far as demographics go, to give credit or blame to God is also a false axiom. First of all, in any society, there is an economic plateau, which varies from country to country. When couples reach this economic plateau of financial well-being, the number of children they produce rapidly drops to just slightly more than two per couple.
While government cannot really stimulate them to make more children, it can make them want even fewer children. It does this by making parenthood more difficult than it already is.
For example, emphasizing material needs that children have, personal responsibility in parenthood, financial support that *must* be provided, no reproduction until after marriage, etc., etc. All of these are seen as "good" social goals--but at the same time, they lower the number of children being born. High taxes prevent pregnancy. Government also provides birth control and abortion. It is clearly obvious how this affects society. It causes fewer children to be born. Again, God has nothing to do with it.
Certainly, a few religions pressure their members to have as many children as they can, but society and government exert far more pressure. An Arabic couple might have eight children in their homeland, and maybe have that number in their first generation living in the West; but their children and grandchildren will only have a fraction of that number, even if they live in segregation and keep to their old culture and religion. Society and money are that strong, and they will choose to conform, as a rule.
The Muslim Brotherhood has threatened to kill the Coptic Pope Shenouda III. A nun was stabbed by a Muslim who burst into a Coptic church shouting âAllah akbar.â Three people were killed as thousands of Muslim protestors rioted outside a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt. Relations between Muslims and Christians in Egypt have not been this tense in recent memory.
By all accounts, itâs all because of a DVD that was shown in a Coptic church which Muslims think insults Islam. How exactly does it insult Islam? According to CNN, âThe riot was sparked by the distribution of a DVD of a play that was performed at the church two years ago. The play, âI Was Blind But Now I Can See,â tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and becomes disillusioned.â
So a film depiction of someone converting to Islam and then becoming disillusioned is enough to bring more than 5,000 protestors to the church and get a nun stabbed and three people killed? Rumors have spread among Muslims in Egypt that the film insults Muhammad and Islam, but this is unlikely given the Coptsâ general reticence about speaking about mistreatment they receive from Muslims. As the Coptic Bishop Armia said, âCopts would never tolerate anyone insulting Islam.â Pope Shenouda himself likewise denied that the play contained anything insulting to Islam. As many Middle Eastern priests and lay Christians have told me, Christians in the Middle East well know that as a matter of survival, they must say one thing in public and another in private. The Copts who showed this video violated that rule, or at least found themselves in violation of it when news of the showing became known. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
10/25/2005 08:33 ||
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Insulting Islam in Egypt
I thought that just sneezing inopportunely accomplished this.
#2
"Muslims" that demand that the world conform to their views lest they riot in the street are undisciplined children. They do it because they can, because no one has ever disciplined them for it. If governments won't control their people, then they should expect others to do it for them. The best way to suppress this sort of nonsense is overwhelming firepower. If a mob is going to kill you, return fire. Although the inbred imams have never been good at cause and effect, if you kill enough of them for doing stupid, evil, intolerant things, the survivors will at least learn to be more cautious in their intolerance.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
