Jewish Atheist

“Those who love God are not always the friends of their fellow men.”

Robert Ingersoll

“When I think of all the harm [the Bible] has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it.”

Oscar Wilde

“I find it necessary to wash my hands after I have come into contact with religious people.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

Voltaire was right for his time, but would be wrong today when he says “Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.” That title has passed to Islam.

Muslim sensitivity, always hair-trigger, is aroused, and a fatwa is issued against another cartoonist. Alll she did was draw pictures of things she SAID were Mohammed, and it was enough for a death threat. So what if I draw an emoticon — ():=> — and say it’s Mohammed? Are infidels now guilty of semiotic crimes of intent? I was amazed whem South Park, which never hesitates to show any sexual act or bodily function, SAID that the person in the bear suit was Mohammed. And still got into trouble.

Whole new level

We are at a whole new level, semiotically and pragmatically speaking: the offense is not merely making an image of a human being and saying that it’s Mohammed…but saying ANY image — like this one: ():=> — is Mohammed. Muslim sensitivity is rigid and nasty, requiring all to respect Muslim beliefs, tolerant of no other. Thus (latest Harper’s) Hamid Karzai and his cabinet, visiting DC, got down on their prayer rugs, asses up, while the American Prez and high officials had to watch.

Yech! It’s like watching a dogfight. Disgusting. But the Christians who had to watch it had their own form of humiliation to their invisible deity, so they had to be tolerant of other people’s fantasies. What if we had a resolutely secular President who forbade religious services on Government property? He/she would have told Karzai in advance: pray privately if you have to, not in front of everyone. But no, in the name of tolerance and diversity, they put their asses up and bray, sorry, pray.

Latest offense

And in the name of tolerance and diversity, they plan to build an Islamic cultural center, 13 stories high, yards from Ground Zero…and dedicate it on 9/11. That’s what they’ve always done: build mosques as a sign of conquest. For more, check out this video. I think we should build an American-style mall and food court on the Dome of the Rock. Fair is fair.

(My friend Doctor Logic says that they have every right, and we should show them how liberal we are. Sorry, Ivan, but I find this a bit ingenuous: religious freedom is a two-way street; it doesn’t work if only one side allows it, while the other is bent on world domination.)

A leader of the Tea Party movement proclaims that Allah is a monkey god and Islam a cult. Damn! He got it half-right. “Monkey” just sounds like a meaningless throwaway insult — but “cult” makes perfect sense.

In a previous entry I characterized Islam as a cult, because it requires the same kind of mindless obedience we often find in government, the military, corporations, and organizations of all kinds.

Characteristics of a cult

I did not intend to obscure the meaning of the word cult or even to insult Islam — only to use it to highlight what many organizations, especially religions, have in common: unquestioning belief in an unproven story and a tradition…and mindless obedience to authority – in this case, clerics and their fantasies and rituals. As in corporate or military cults, authority and tradition are rigidly respected.

Dangerous cult

I’ve also repeated and supported the assertion of Leo, the Atheist at Large: that Islam is also a dangerous cult. There are two pieces of hard, obvious evidence that no thinking person can deny:

First, the ongoing violence in perhaps seven or eight places around the world, all with one element in common — Muslims versus someone else. The second piece of hard evidence is their holy text itself which, unfortunately, they regard as true and infallible. Much of the Quran is highly intolerant and calls for violence against unbelievers.

There can be no denying that violence is the default modus operandi of Islam. What other religion’s fundamentalists would use modern weapons to blow up ancient statues of Buddha? Of BUDDHA!!?? What other would behead someone on the Internet? Or create a culture of death in which young people are rewarded for committing suicide?

One can find violent, ethnic-cleansing passages in the Torah, but Jews have assimilated to the wider, Western world much more thoroughly (they participated in the Enlightenment), so it’s much easier for modern Jews to ignore them. Some even acknowledge them as part of Judaism’s primitive past.

Regrettably, most Muslims seem rooted in the past, unable to free themselves of the mental slavery of rigid, fundamentalist adherence to the Quran.

Vicious cycle

This mental enslavement is very unfortunate for them, because it creates an endless cycle of resentment and blame of others. The sad result of their failure to make it in the modern world is that they turn even more fervently to the Quran.

Thus Muslims are locked in a perpetual frenzy of violence and blame projection. Entire societies are enslaved by primitive doctrines, and huge numbers of women are deprived of basic civil rights and opportunities. Harper’s also reports a tragic number of incidents of violence against girls’ schools in Afghanistan.

Muslims are now a billion strong, with a very high birth rate. They program their children relentlessly. Few ever get a secular education. Few outside the US are exposed to anything but virulent anti-Semitism, anti-Westernism, and anti-Christianity in the Middle Eastern media. I promise you, they see the world from a very different point of view than Americans.

Stoking the flames

What is most disturbing about this cult – and if I had to pick among many things, this would be “first among equals” — is the way its leaders relentlessly mobilize the hatred of their followers and constantly direct the believers’ rage towards outsiders, whereas it is obvious to all outsiders, even those as uneducated in foreign affairs as myself, that the Muslim world has only itself to blame for its misery.

Look at Israel. Israel has created a reasonably prosperous society on equally inhospitable land, with no oil whatsoever, by following Western principles of free markets, civil law, and so forth. (Well, reasonably free, at least compared to its wretched Arab neighbors.)

It’s not that the Muslims cannot do it. Once they were the most advanced societies on earth. But because they decided, back in the late Middle Ages, to prohibit any questioning of the received wisdom, they are locked down by religious fundamentalism and will remain backwards for a long time to come.

But back to the clerics. They know, as Hitler and every other successful manipulator of people has known, that you must keep the believers in a constant state of irrational frenzy, and you do this by demonizing — if not outright creating — external enemies (as Bush did with Saddam).

Sir Salman

A couple of years ago, inflammatory clerics and others evoked Muslimed fury at the knighting of Salman Rushdie (Chicago Tribune, June 20, 2007). Congratulations, Sir Salman. I bow before my computer.

The Muslim leaders make repeated use of a tired propaganda technique: spin the event to achieve the desired effect. All that really happened was that knighthood was conferred upon Rushdie. But one Muslim leader after another spun the event.

In doing so, they showed their usual intolerance and rigidity. If you want to read all of their obscene religious indignation, I suggest you turn to the Tribune article. I don’t have the stomach to repeat it all here.

Just one quick example:

“British flags and effigies of Rushdie and Queen Elizabeth II were burned in several cities across Pakistan.”

And a quote:

“‘This insulting, suspicious and improper act by the British Government is an obvious example of fighting against Islam,’ Iran’s Foreign Ministry Director for Europe…told the state-run news agency [emphasis mine; religion and politics once again in bed together]… ‘It has seriously wounded the beliefs of 1.5 billion Muslims and followers of other religions…’”

Is this childish behavior, or what? If there is one hallmark of childhood, it is the impression that the universe revolves around oneself. No one was trying to insult Islam. You have my word.

All that happened was, I repeat, that Mr. Rushdie became Sir Salman Rushdie. The clerics and the other politico/religious leaders decided to make a big thing of that, to get Muslim men out in the streets shouting and burning flags and effigies…and get their minds off how their life is miserable and the rest of the world is passing them by because all they do is read the Quran.

The next time the honorable Director talks to the state run media, would he do me a favor and not talk about people of other religions?

The part about other religions is just more BS designed to rile the Muslim masses. It almost goes without saying that there is nothing in Rushdie’s book which, if translated into Christian or Jewish cultural terms, would cause any more than a ripple of criticism or negativity, mainly in the more orthodox quarters.

There would be no burning of effigies, no riots. Most people in the West have better things to do than worry about whether particular Bible verses were inspired by Satan. So I would advise the Mr. Rahimpour, the Foreign Ministry Director, to speak for himself. This particular Jew is not offended at all by anything that Rushdie writes.

Fundamentalist Islam — it breaks my heart that a billion human beings are enslaved to this garbage. Yet I have no wish to stop Muslims from indulging their fantasies, except as it affects my right to live in the world.

This is why I speak out.

The threat

Islam is a truly aggressive religion, dominated by fundamentalist elements that aspire to world domination. That is why secular, liberal Muslims must also speak out, in America and abroad. More on this below.

It could be that time is running short. Perhaps Leo’s right about 200-300 suicide bombers being trained and sent to America. But even if he is wrong, it would only take two or three.

A couple more 9/11’s, and you will see a radical transformation in American society. We have dodged numerous potentially disastrous terrorist plots - just barely. Americans, unlike people in many other parts of the world, take their physical safety for granted (at least at the hands of foreign emenies - crime and drug war voilence are another story). To damage it is to strike at the very core of American life. There must be no more 9/11’s, if we can possibly prevent them.

It is simply not true that the war in Iraq is important to America because it keeps the terrorists from coming here and fighting us. The Al Qaeda folks who destroyed the World Trade Center weren’t “advancing” like an attacking army (they just wanted us to get out of Saudi Arabia, which we did).

To reverse Bush’s logic, there’s no point in fighting them in Iraq because since the 1992 bombings and especially after 9/11, they’re “already” here.

No “front”

There’s no geography to this war, no “front” in this war – regardless of what the government says. That is SO last-century! America withdrew from Vietnam, but the communists didn’t take over the US. Yet the government still uses this outdated threat and logic to frighten Americans into obedience.

So yes, I support the war against Islamic fundamentalism — properly justified, properly anticipated, properly identified, properly fought. I do not support ridiculous, made-up wars against foreign nations, no matter how distasteful such nations may have been to George W. Bush.

Here in the West, I would like to see any Muslim advocacy of the replacement of a democratically-elected government by Islamic law, any activity towards that goal…be prosecuted as treason. Muslims can have Muslim countries – even that’s too much — but not a Muslim world.

The wedge factor

The war on terror must also be fought by Muslims — in particular, secular Muslims, liberal Muslims, people of learning and influence in the Muslim world. And they are the wedge factor.

It is they who must approach the people in power and start to create nonviolent change within Islamic societies. It is they who can explain to Muslim leaders that which is clear in the eyes of all outsiders: their societies are badly stuck, destructively enslaved to harmful, fantastic religious doctrines.

They must do this, not just for the good – the very spiritual freedom and humanity! – of Muslims themselves…but because Islam clearly threatens the rest of us. And they are among the few who could help prevent continued – and even more widespread — religious suffering and death.

We need a thousand, TEN THOUSAND Rushdies. Now – before it’s too late.

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Alan M. Perlman is a secular humanist speaker and author — most recently, of An Atheist Reads the Torah: Secular Humanistic Perspectives on the Five Books of Moses. For information, go to www.trafford.com/06-0056.