What else is there to say to religious extremists besides “no”? No, you are wrong. No, whatever merit there might have been to your aspirations or your complaint, your violent means have nullified it. No, you will fail eventually, as do all who attempt to coerce the conscience. However much these words need to be said to those who murdered 2,974 people on a single day six years ago and are still committing mayhem, I am not that someone. These words need to be said within Islam, by Muslims to extremist Muslims; just as they need to be said within all human communities oriented to an ideal – religious or secular. In religious matters, too, we must think globally, but act locally, if we are to have any effect.

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The common definition of cult is captured in the common joke: my faith is a religion, yours is a sect and that guy over there whom we don’t like, well, his is a cult.

In its more scholarly usage the term tries to measure socio-cultural distance. The greater the mismatch of the customs between believers and their host culture, the more likely the believers are deemed somewhere on the spectrum between sectarian to cultish.

This doesn’t capture the negative connotations of the word cult, however. The Amish, notwithstanding their oddly old-fashioned and standoffish ways are, today, never referred to as a cult. The Latter-day Saints, notwithstanding their modern ways and successful integration with their host societies throughout the world, are frequently called a cult.

Obviously, then, separation from culture is not the definitive aspect of cult. Rather, the word has become a means of asserting separation, even if it doesn’t exist. Cult asserts religious difference in value-laden terms at the expense of one religion and for the benefit of another. Cult is a way of saying “you are not like us, the good guys, and don’t you forget it.”

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