Culture Wars
Different Flavors of Fanaticism
by Matt Tootle
I recently received a link to a video that is circulating on the internet. It is a fairly long video, about 16 minutes, and it is creatively produced and thought provoking. The main point of the video is to highlight the violence propagated by the Qur’an and the devoted followers of Islam. I think a typical reaction to the video could be one of hatred and disgust…towards what is portrayed and possibly even all of Islam. You can watch the video here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2949546475561399959
I found myself with a different type of reaction. I was definitely disturbed by the images and memories, but I think one could produce the very same type of video using selected passages from the Bible highlighted with videos of “our” religious fanatics. I am definitely not an apologist for Islam, but I do believe that the vast majority of Muslims practice their religion and attend their mosques for similar reasons that you and I attend our various churches. As I watched the Islamic fanatics doing what they did and preaching what they preached in the video, my mind replayed images of Warren Jeffs, David Koresh, Jim Jones, various white supremacist groups, Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, abortion clinic killers and various “con artist” televangelists…all doing their deeds in the name of God or Jesus, and all with scripture-a-plenty to justify it. I do believe the Bible to be the word of God, and I do believe the Qur’an to be simply a misguided book…but as a darn good pastor I know says, “context is everything.” If I have a particular agenda that I am passionate enough about, I think I could take parts of the Yellow Pages out of context to further my agenda.
Thoughts?
Posted by Matt Tootle at April 4, 2008 11:10 PM
Matt,
I’ve read a lot about this short film. It has generated a LOT of controversy in the Netherlands. Its creators have been subjected to death threats, and there has been much urging from the political left there that the film be banned by the government.
I understand the point you make about how religion can be taken out of context to serve an agenda. Furthermore, I do believe that most muslims in the world probably do not want to wage jihad against the west.
However, all that said, I think we ignore those who do adhere to these views at our national peril. I believe that we had lots of warnings about militant islam during the 1990s, but nobody thought that it’d ever bother us - until September 11, 2001, that is.
One of the reasons I think this is hard for us in the US is that we have compartmentalized religion and politics - which is good, and has served the country and the church well, I think. However, it’s difficult for us to comprehend the complete melding of politics and religion that these extremist muslims - call them Islamists - want to impose on the world.
I don’t want to paint all muslims with the brush of fanaticism. I just want us in the West to have our eyes open about what the Islamists want, and how they feel entitled to go about bringing it about.
Your comments are dead on regarding those of which you spoke; Jones, Koresh, et al. It was very disconcerting when I saw the mini-series some years ago about Jim Jones preaching “in the name of Christ.” That he was not actually preaching Christ is stunningly apparent to any true Christian. The main thing I get from all this is that men use religion, all religions, throughtout all the world for their own purposes, and that man is truly, deeply, totally depraved in a sense that he can’t even recognize.