You hear it again and again on the campaign trail: “The Greatest Threat to America today is that of Radical Islam”
John McCain is convinced, the first of his three main issues on his campaign website is “Winning the war against Islamic extremists.” (link: 
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/)
From Fox News to CNN, everyone is in a tizzy about militant Islam.
My question is this: Shouldn’t we be concerned about the broader threat of Radical Religion?
From fringe nutcases like Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church and the KKK for Christianity, to Zionist nationalist groups exacerbating violence between Israel and Palestine, to true Islamic terror to violent cults, religion has the potential to cause large scale death.
To be certain, religion inspires and gives hope the billions of people across the globe, from Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and others. Life is filled with nagging questions about who we are, why we are here, and how we shall live. Science cannot answer these questions, but faith and spirituality can.
Religious charity and compassion gives food to the needy across the globe, it clothes the poor, and fights for social justice. Groups like Compassion International and The Christian Children’s Fund fight to prevent people in the Third World from succumbing to poverty.
All three Judeo-Christian faiths work to fight AIDS in Africa, homeless in the US, human trafficking in Asia, and drug addiction world-wide.
To push aside religion influencing politics would be to discount the Protestant Evangelical movement that was active in the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage. It would ignore the non-violent Buddhist monks that led protests against Vietnam and oppression in South East Asia. It would ignore that many scientists around the globe say “I do not think my belief in God means science is any less valid,” and work to explain the natural phenomena all around us.
But continuing on with my original thesis, let’s just name a few historical episodes where religion has been a primary factor in genocide.
-Romans persecuting Christians: pagan Romans slaughtering Christians on a huge scale
-The Crusades: centuries of massacre between a Christian/Islamic clash
-Spanish Inquisition: Spanish catholics enforcing orthodoxy and slaying heretics
-Protestant Witch Trials in America: Murders based on superstition
-Sand Creek Massacre: Manifest Destiny, God told settlers to travel to the west coast, claiming land and baptizing heathens as they went, murdering the Indian on the other side of rivers
-Holocaust: The largest group experiencing genocide were Jews, and gained support through anti-Semitism and scape goating
-KKK: Christian white nationalist movement that killed and terrorized blacks, and non-Christians
-Israelite fighting in Palestine: Two religious groups say God told them they own the land, long-term war ensues
-Current Jihad: Islamic extremists punish infidels with vengeance and death
Now this list is neither exhaustive, nor historically fleshed out. For the sake of brevity, large cultural, economic, and political factors are omitted. For example, when describing the Holocaust, I did not mention the economic ruin of Germany following the Treary of Versailles, or the rise of a military nationalist party, and the persecution of non-Jewish groups.
The larger point is that religion can be implicated in some of history’s worst violent genocides. When people claim divine revelation gave them an imperative to subjugate others, or a mandate of superiority, bad things tend to happen.
Why are we singling out Islam as “the greatest threat to our country”? It is certainly a threat, but some of the most vehement anti-Islam advocates spew horrific religious hate themselves!
Take John McCain’s spiritual adviser Ron Parseley who has called for the West to “eradicate the false religion” of Islam. (link: http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html) Note that he is NOT saying we need to combat terrorism, but actually destroy the Islamic faith and people! If someone used the KKK as a justification for a global campaign to eradicate Christians he would probably be thrown in jail, fired, and never able to work again. But it is somehow okay for Pastor Ron to disparage an entire FAITH that gives hope and inspiration to millions of people.
Another person supporting “death to Islamofascists” is Rev. John Hagee, who recently endorsed John McCain. This man held a “slave sale” fundraiser at his Church, claiming “This Sunday, slavery is returning to Cornerstone church!” (link: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06208/709076-84.stm), said Hurricane Katrina was a “judgement of God’s Wrath” on the city for hosting a gay pride parade and called the Catholic Church “the great whore” (link: http://mediamatters.org/items/200802280018)
Now it is a tad unfair to highlight only McCain supports, but Obama has also been endorsed by the religious nuts Jeremiah Wright and Luis Farrakhan. I don’t try to hide the fact that I lean left, but I do believe in full disclosure.
The statements from those two men should horrify you. Now you might shrug it off saying “They’re just words, they haven’t actually killed anyone.” To that I counter that it takes a charismatic person with fiery rhetoric to incite violence. Hitler’s continuing scapegoating of Jews in the ’30s was at first merely racist bigotry, but slowing convinced followers and then the nation to act on those.
You might also say “These men are fringe lunatics, they don’t have influence.” First, many of these beliefs are shared by “mainstream” evangelicals, like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Robertson has said many horrible things in his life, including “don’t be surprised” if a great tragedy befell Dover, PA during the evolution/ID trial, called Episcopalians/Presbyterians/Methodists “the spirit of the Antichrist,” and calling professors in academia “racists, murderers, sexual deviants and supporters of Al-Qaeda” (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Robertson_controversies) He has written many best-selling books, been consulted by politicians for decades, and has a highly rated television program called The 700 Club.
To quote a pre-sellout John McCain, I will call all of the statements above and those who made them “agents of intolerance.” Terrorism from the Middle-East is certainly one of many threats facing America. But continuing to turn a blind eye to religion used as a justification for hate is one of humanity’s longest standing threats to peace. When you look at the vitriolic intolerance that can be spewed from religious fundamentalists, the war some launch on science, their influence on world affairs and wars, you really have to see that fundamentalism is something to be rejected.
It’s a big world. Some people subscribe to the same faith you do. That’s great. Others don’t believe like you. That’s fine. And some people don’t have any beliefs at all. And that’s okay, too.
