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It seems to me that it makes little difference whether the person who believes they have a monopoly on the truth is religious or atheist. Perhaps the assumption that religious people are somehow more prone to this tendency tells us more about the modern (Western) discourse ON religion than it tells us about religion itself.
Looking at the history of Islam, I have always been impressed by its power of conversion, not of peoples -- contrary to popular stereotype -- but of ideas, institutions and cultural artifacts.
Frankly, I thought the Pope's remarks at Regensburg were gratuitously snide and misguided. But I was more saddened than I was offended.
It would seem that neither numbers nor majority status alone are enough to define a nation's religious identity. According to common statistics, there are more Muslims in America than there are in Bahrain, Kuwait and other countries commonly considered Muslim.
Elsewhere on this forum, I have mentioned that the modern, Western moral and political framework within which Islam is forced to express itself tends to force it into apology and misrepresentation. The present question is representative of what I had in mind.
As I read it, this question seems to imply that to the extent that religion is "man-made" it is false and has no rightful claim on intelligent people. If I am correct, this would seem to put religion in a pretty unenviable position: If humans have no role in determining its substance, it is oppressive and alienating; to the extent that humans have any role in determining its substance, religion must be false.
These questions are topical and pointed. They are also, however, hegemonic, in that they proceed on the apparent assumption that Western norms (presumed to be uncontested among Westerners themselves) are both the proper point of reference and the most ideal manifestation of the values under consideration. As I have stated in previous posts, this has the effect of forcing Muslims out of an explanatory posture and into an apologetic one, where the aim shifts from simply speaking about Islam to attempting to assuage Western fears, prejudices and misunderstandings. In such a context, the very fact of a Muslim response can, if we are not careful, serve to dignify such fears and prejudices as legitimate, with the result that Westerners end up subjecting Islam and Muslim apologetics to meticulous critique, while leaving their own fears, prejudices and misunderstandings unchallenged.
What Islam Really Says About Violence, Rights and Other Religions
Gomaa, Fadlallah, Mubarak, Khan, Siddiqi, Ellison, others | On Faith
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