Anti-Islamist Manifesto

I’ve been keeping the political stuff on my personal blog, but this is too important. Via Rantings of a Sand Monkey:

Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man’s domination of woman, the Islamists’ domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.

As usual, I encourage you to read the whole thing.

12 thoughts on “Anti-Islamist Manifesto”

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Kodjo 2006-03-05 at 08:05

Frankly, without a definition of Islamism, this piece is at best meaningless. Presumably the writers don’t mean by Islamism, broad Islamic beliefs or this piece is completely misinformed, and slanderous. Eg, one could, on exactly the same basis this piece is written, one could equally justifiably, replace Islamism, with Christianism, making virtually no other changes.

brock Post author2006-03-05 at 08:26

To whatever degree Christianity is followed to the letter of the Bible, that is true. We are, sadly, seeing a resurgence of this sort of thing here. As you say, most of the manifesto deals with religion in general. Given the problems that the world is having with Islam right now, it is given focus in the document.

Most of the authors of this manifesto have Fatwas on their heads for things, for example Salman Rushdie. The threat of a religion that, in the modern era, still imposes death penalties for what is considered blasphemy has earned Islam a focus in this manifesto. There still may be plenty of backward opinions among fundamentalists, and they may want to kill all of the gays and so on, but the difference is that Christians, by and large, ignore the bits of the Bible that ~~suggest~~ demand such actions.

While many moderate Muslisms (sorry about the alliteration) also know better than to act on ancient prescriptions for death, there are still entire countries where those practices reign supreme, endorsed and even perpetrated by the government.

So, while in principle (based only on dogma) this manifesto applies to most religions equally, in this particular case I think it points its criticism in the correct direction.

Kodjo 2006-03-05 at 09:58

I believe unfairly directing vitriol (even accidentally as is presumably the case here) toward people who do not deserve it on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, nationality etc. is plain counterproductive. In this case, instead of keeping open the door for co-opting folk who often would have views more similar to yours and mine than with those of Osama and co., this merely pushes them toward identifying with the freakazoids.

The same thing happens when city folk make fun of country folk, or campus intellectuals revile evangelicals. It’s a v natural human tendency, but it is, in the end, cheap unthoughtful.

brock Post author2006-03-05 at 10:05

Actually, a lot of the discussion among bloggers (admittedly, a progressively biased group) has included cheers and linking from moderate Muslims.

Here’s the question, though. At what point is it not okay to say, “well, that’s your opinion,” rather than, “these things that you are doing are harmful to those around you, and we categorically reject them,” ?

Ray Bright 2007-11-15 at 18:41

Kodjo,

You are committing a logical error.
Whether one could replace the word Islam with the word Christianity or not, does not make the article any less false.
(I am not implying that Christianity is as fascist as Islam, but even if it was, it would not invalidate the points in the article).
I if claim that you that you are a murderer and a rapist, you cannot defend yourself by asserting that I too am a murderer and a rapist. This is a separate case, and mixing it together just muddies the waters.

Schyane Kristiansen 2009-02-16 at 18:04

Please be wise and repented immediately, over 400 millions people murdered by christiandom since the biblical time, that’s the facts undeniable
who is the real beast and terorist ? are we?

Brock Tice Post author2009-02-16 at 18:30

Oh, I have no intention of repenting. As mentioned by Ray Bright above, “Whether one could replace the word Islam with the word Christianity or not, does not make the article any less false.”

It’s like complaining when pulled over for speeding that “the other people around me were speeding too.” It doesn’t make you not guilty of speeding just because others are doing the same.

Brock Tice Post author2009-02-16 at 19:22

Schyane Kristiansen: Here’s a recent example:

Punishment for being gang-raped in Saudi Arabia.

You see, my problem is not with people who are Muslims. It’s with people that think that this sort of thing is still acceptable in the modern world because it’s written in a religious book. That’s certainly not true of all Muslims.