Muslims and Nazis
August 17, 2010Henry Baum 2 Comments »Why the comparison – the Ground Zero mosque would be like opening up a Nazi headquarters next to a Holocaust museum – should be retired. I can’t get enough of the new hysteria – think it’s archetypal and vital. So, an interview with myself:
The equation between a mosque and Nazi headquarters makes no sense. This is more like being against putting up a German restaurant next to a Holocaust museum. After all, the chef “might” be a Nazi.
All Germans aren’t Nazis. All Muslims aren’t terrorists. And there is a fundamental difference between a political group and a religion. The Nazi party has a platform – a distinct ideology. There is no such thing as a “less fanatical” Nazi – they all believe in a disgusting ideology. No religion falls under that same description. Like any religion, there are many different belief systems within Islam. And the implication is that a billion+ Muslims all think in violent lockstep. It’s plain bigotry.
OK, then the majority of Muslims are violent.
First, you don’t know that. Secondly, the majority of Christians believe in the End Times. That has the potential to be as dangerous as terrorism, as these Christians may actively desire environmental degradation and war to hasten the Second Coming.
Fair point – then what if it’s a matter of self-preservation to abolish religion? If it’s going to lead to World War III, then we’ll have to abolish majority-rule fanaticism.
How do you plan on doing that? Arresting people if they believe in a certain faith?
As I said, if they’re actively trying to sow discord, this may be the only option.
But then you’ve traded one dystopia for another. A fascist dictatorship against free thinking is not the answer because it limits people’s options. Better to educate people on moderate matters of faith – how to avoid extremism. And banning the mosque in Manhattan is a form of extremism, a lesser equivalent of banning religion entirely because of what a subset of the religion believes. It will halt progress just like censorship.
Do you really think “education” is enough?
If it was a priority. Unfortunately, it’s not. And the media doesn’t help by feeding the hysteria – and more people listen to their TV than school.
By that logic we need to censor the media as well. Or at least regulate what people talk about.
Well, not exactly. We just a smarter media, just as we need smarter religious debate. Censorship doesn’t make people smarter, it stops discussion. Once you open the door to thought regulation, that’ll give rise to a religious demagogue who then uses the new regulations to her own purposes.
OK, then, how about this? A Christian right conservative gets into office. She wants to go to war with Islam to start Armageddon. Millions of people support her. What do we do?
We’d have to revolt.
So you do advocate revolution against religion if things got really out of hand?
I guess. This is an issue that’s really been troubling me lately. War makes sense sometimes – and if a politician is legislating based on Biblical law, then basically she has created a type of Nazi party. A political platform that has melded with a religious ideology. Until that point, religion is just religion. Once it’s merged with the state, it becomes a different animal, hence our Constitution.
And I’ll add, the extremist notion that all Muslims are terrorists is as dangerous as a notion as “All Christians are good” or “America can do no wrong.” It’s that kind of black and white thinking that can lead to Sarah Palin’s rise and demagoguery (that’s who we’re talking about, right?) So sowing bigotry by banning a mosque is a step towards a world where black and white thinking becomes the norm. The result? More war based on good/evil principles that don’t exist in this complicated world. Certainly, there are evil regimes like the Nazi’s, but what’s happened here is that people without the same extremism are being lumped together. That’s a dangerous precedent.
So what you’re saying is that things might not get any better.
Basically.
August 17th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Here’s the other thing about the comparison that bothers me: why do we need it? What do we know more about: our feelings about 9/11 and our feelings about Islam or our feelings about the Holocaust? No-one needs this comparison to allow them to understand the issue.
What they need it for is to disguise open debate about how America feels about Muslims and that reminds me of what happened with Iraq… we come up with some national fiction that we discuss (WMDs) instead of what is really going on: what we are really scared of.
(That was analogy too, wasn’t it?)
August 18th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
[...] combine the subjects of the recent posts, the reason that the “Ground Zero mosque” issue is so troubling is that it’s [...]