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The devil made me do it. When I was promoting my book "Freethinkers," I agreed to appear on a right-wing radio talk show that attracts a large Christian fundamentalist audience (even though the host, Michael Medved, is an Orthodox Jew).
It is time to stop pretending that the "more violent and extreme elements" within Islam constitute a tiny minority and that this violent minority has nothing to do with the "real" Muslim religion.
As a freethinker and a feminist, I have always found it baffling that women, as a group, are more religious than men. Every public opinion survey reveals this "faith gap" between the sexes, in spite of the fact that the world's major religions have treated women as inferior beings throughout most of human history.
The question about whether the media treat religion fairly really ought to have two parts, and the second half ought to read: "Do the media treat skepticism about religion fairly?" The answer to both questions is no.
As a regular member of the On Faith panel, I am reluctant to bite the hand that publishes me. Nevertheless, I must point out that the "Muslims Speak Out" forum represents a gamut of opinion stretching, roughly, from A to C. This forum includes only a few women--an oversight that, in itself, disqualifies the panel as a representative group--and the voices of secular Islam, stressing the need for a Muslim Enlightenment, are also virtually inaudible.
I assume that the definition of "religious extremist" is someone willing to kill anyone seen as an opponent of the extremist's faith or political goals. The idea that there is any point in sending a "message" to fanatics is a fantasy beloved by many good, naive people of all faiths or no faith. What is one to say to Osama bin Laden, whose idea for world peace is that everyone else convert to Islam?
I am not too fond of absolutist ex cathedra statements, even when they come from someone who is definitely not the pope and with whom I am in total agreement about the irrationality of all faith in the supernatural. Modify the noun "religion" with the adjective "fundamentalist," and I'll sign on to that sentiment.
This is the wrong question. Muslims around the world, depending on their interpretation of the Koran and the level of their respect for secular values (of which free expression is one) have widely varying views about everything from freedom of speech to the death penalty. A better question is whether the exercise of civil legal power by religious leaders--any leaders of any religion--is antithetical to free expression. To that question, history emphatically answers yes. It is only thanks to the separation of church and state that Christians in the West have long since stopped lopping off one another's heads over doctrinal differences concerning, say, the Holy Trinity.
The Question: Pope Benedict's recent baptism of a well-known Italian Muslim has prompted criticism in much of the Islamic world. Has Benedict done enough to build bridges to Islam?
One thing that devout believers in ecumenical dialogue simply don't get about the Roman Catholic Church is that its leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI, truly believe that theirs is the one, true faith. Although the church has given up conversion by the sword and waterboarding (a form of interrogation used on heretics during the Inquisition), the Vatican's raison d'etre remains the conversion of everyone--including Muslims. We don't hear much about this today, because the belief that your religion is truer and better than anyone else's doesn't sit well in democratic societies.
What Islam Really Says About Violence, Rights and Other Religions
Gomaa, Fadlallah, Mubarak, Khan, Siddiqi, Ellison, others | On Faith
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