Fundementalism mostly comes down to money. Take Ireland as an example. People often say the Good Friday Agreement ended terrorism, and it did play a crucial role, but economic prosperity mattered just as much. Ireland’s economy took off, and today the Republic of Ireland ranks just behind Luxembourg and Switzerland in income levels in Europe. Ironically, many people in the Republic now oppose unification with Northern Ireland—once the wealthier region—because it would cost money and drag them down economically.
Prosperous societies tend to lose interest in radical politics because they have too much to lose and not much to complain. If Ireland were poorer, there would be no shortage of politicians blaming everything on an “evil” UK, and they would find plenty of followers.
That’s the point I’m getting at with the United States. One of its biggest problems is extreme inequality: roughly half the population controls only about 2.5% of the country’s wealth. Populist politicians exploit that frustration by inflaming religious fundamentalism and blaming Muslims, immigrants, and other convenient targets, doing anything but addressing the underlying economic imbalance.
While I completely agree, I see one objectionable thing here - comparing Quran to the Old Testament.
Muslims believe in the Old Testament just like Christians. Hence it would be more adequate to compare Quran to the New Testament. I do not have any opinion which of those two would be preferable, but I think the choice would be much less obvious.
And yes, as a younger religion, Islam is going through similar phases like Christianity did, though some of the problems happening to it may perhaps be more (and some perhaps less) serious.
If we lived long enough, in a few hundred years both might converge so much that we might see them difficult to distinguish from each other in many respects.
I hear what you’re saying. However, there’s one major difference between the God in the Old Testament and the one in the Quran. In the Old Testament, God wants the punishment carried out by his followers. In the Quran, the general message is: if someone repents, you’re supposed to forgive them—and if any punishment is necessary, leave it to God. Taking justice into your own hands is basically playing God. The only case where the death penalty is allowed is for murder—and even then, it can be avoided through a financial settlement with the victim’s family.
The violence often associated with Islam comes from the Hadiths, most of which were written down 200 to 250 years after Muhammad died, and are more than questionable. Muhammad never said, “Write down everything I say and create a supplement to the Quran.” In fact, for the first two centuries, the Quran was the only main source of Islamic guidance.
I did not intend to compare God of the Old Testament and God of the Qur'an. I only wanted to point out that to compare apples to apples, you should rather compare the Qur'an to the New Testament.
And if we go into characteristics of God as described here and there - obviously there is a great difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the Qur'an - but the same could be said about the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. And then, there is not that much difference (it seems to me, but am not an expert and may be wrong) between the God of the New Testament and the God of the Qur'an.
As to the Qur'an being a mostly peaceful book - I completely agree. Having lived so far more than 8 years with my Muslim boyfriend, I got a bit of motivation to learn a little bit about what the Qur'an says - to be able to talk to him, as well as to sometimes write back to the maniacs on Medium seeing Islam and the Qur'an as the recipevsteaight from Hell for torturing and enslaving everyone who is not a Muslim, which is an obvious bullshit.
There is not much difference between radical Muslims hurting people and fanatic Christians hurting people (for instance in Uganda or Rwanda). But these are not caused by religion, but by politics distorting religion.
In principle both the Qur'an and the New Testament seem to be (mostly) books of peace compassion.
We are in the age of fundamentalists’ revival in all religions. Looking in the rear view mirror to move forward has never been a good idea.
Fundementalism mostly comes down to money. Take Ireland as an example. People often say the Good Friday Agreement ended terrorism, and it did play a crucial role, but economic prosperity mattered just as much. Ireland’s economy took off, and today the Republic of Ireland ranks just behind Luxembourg and Switzerland in income levels in Europe. Ironically, many people in the Republic now oppose unification with Northern Ireland—once the wealthier region—because it would cost money and drag them down economically.
Prosperous societies tend to lose interest in radical politics because they have too much to lose and not much to complain. If Ireland were poorer, there would be no shortage of politicians blaming everything on an “evil” UK, and they would find plenty of followers.
That’s the point I’m getting at with the United States. One of its biggest problems is extreme inequality: roughly half the population controls only about 2.5% of the country’s wealth. Populist politicians exploit that frustration by inflaming religious fundamentalism and blaming Muslims, immigrants, and other convenient targets, doing anything but addressing the underlying economic imbalance.
Excellent.
Pretty much the same can be said of many Christian sects - especially the more fundamentalists ones.
Oh my God Tanner, you hit the nail directly on the head
I'm glad you liked it.
I could not help it, from the topic to the actual text..
Beautiful, beautiful writing.
While I completely agree, I see one objectionable thing here - comparing Quran to the Old Testament.
Muslims believe in the Old Testament just like Christians. Hence it would be more adequate to compare Quran to the New Testament. I do not have any opinion which of those two would be preferable, but I think the choice would be much less obvious.
And yes, as a younger religion, Islam is going through similar phases like Christianity did, though some of the problems happening to it may perhaps be more (and some perhaps less) serious.
If we lived long enough, in a few hundred years both might converge so much that we might see them difficult to distinguish from each other in many respects.
I hear what you’re saying. However, there’s one major difference between the God in the Old Testament and the one in the Quran. In the Old Testament, God wants the punishment carried out by his followers. In the Quran, the general message is: if someone repents, you’re supposed to forgive them—and if any punishment is necessary, leave it to God. Taking justice into your own hands is basically playing God. The only case where the death penalty is allowed is for murder—and even then, it can be avoided through a financial settlement with the victim’s family.
The violence often associated with Islam comes from the Hadiths, most of which were written down 200 to 250 years after Muhammad died, and are more than questionable. Muhammad never said, “Write down everything I say and create a supplement to the Quran.” In fact, for the first two centuries, the Quran was the only main source of Islamic guidance.
I did not intend to compare God of the Old Testament and God of the Qur'an. I only wanted to point out that to compare apples to apples, you should rather compare the Qur'an to the New Testament.
And if we go into characteristics of God as described here and there - obviously there is a great difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the Qur'an - but the same could be said about the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. And then, there is not that much difference (it seems to me, but am not an expert and may be wrong) between the God of the New Testament and the God of the Qur'an.
As to the Qur'an being a mostly peaceful book - I completely agree. Having lived so far more than 8 years with my Muslim boyfriend, I got a bit of motivation to learn a little bit about what the Qur'an says - to be able to talk to him, as well as to sometimes write back to the maniacs on Medium seeing Islam and the Qur'an as the recipevsteaight from Hell for torturing and enslaving everyone who is not a Muslim, which is an obvious bullshit.
There is not much difference between radical Muslims hurting people and fanatic Christians hurting people (for instance in Uganda or Rwanda). But these are not caused by religion, but by politics distorting religion.
In principle both the Qur'an and the New Testament seem to be (mostly) books of peace compassion.
Cultural control manual.