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Daily Kos: Christianity Just as Incompatible With Democracy as Islam….

Same old tired and worn liberal argument that Christianity is equally, if not more violent than Islam.  This author takes it a step further and makes the absurd claim that Christianity is just as incompatible with democracy as Islam.  Thereby completely ignoring the fact that the vast majority of democratic nations are based on Judeo-Christian values, or at the very least, Christian majority countries…..

……And the same group that so loudly praises the invasion of Iraq has a ready answer: democracy and Islam are incompatible.  Entire websites are dedicated to this notion. Quotes are pulled from the Qur’an to demonstrate that Muslims are required to follow the tenets of Islam rather than any secular law.   

Believers, obey God and obey the Messenger and those in authority from among you.

And they give instances in which Muslims are instructed to war against those of other faiths.

Then fight for God’s causes, and know that God both hears and knows all things.

There! say those who are convinced that Islam is basically incompatible with democratic society.  How can you have people who believe these things, and still have democracy?  The argument boils down to a vigorous agreement with the assessment made early in the film Lawrence of Arabia in which Arabs are described as “A little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous and cruel.”  In fact, that very phrase is resurrected on several sites.  Which has to make you wonder why these people were so intent on “bringing freedom” to Iraq, if they believe that this silly people is unready to handle our precious, elevated, and refined form of government. 

Still, when you consider some verses, there does seem to be a case for incompatibility.   

Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life.

This verse quite clearly authorizes the taking, buying, and selling of slaves.

…totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.

Here unbelievers are subject to the most awful punishment, down to the smallest child, bolstering the case of those who claim this is violent religion.   

If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods,” don’t give in or listen to him.  Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people.

Any religion that believes that those outside the select can be taken as slaves, that enemies are liable to utter destruction, and that anyone not following the faith not only should be, but must be put to death, does seem to be a poor fit for democracy.  The thing is, those last three pieces of scripture didn’t come from the Qur’an, they came from the Bible. (ohh snap, he got us there, one huge problem with his argument, Muslims still use the Koran to justify violence -ed.)

Are the biblical verses taken out of context?  Yes, as are the ones from the Qur’an. (scary how little they know about Islam -ed) In both cases, these verses and others have been used by those who wanted to drape God’s sanction across violent actions.  You can imagine how often those verses on slavery (taken from that great source of biblically sanctioned nastiness, Leviticus) were used during the American Civil War. 

For anyone trying to build a case for the basic incompatibility of Christianity and democracy, there is a rich set of scriptures available to bolster their theme.  You can find far more violence, far more intolerance, and far more admonitions that only God can render justice between the covers of the Bible than you will find in the Qur’an (yes, he went there -ed.) — if only because the Bible is longer.

The Little People, Silly People argument would have it that Islam is particularly poorly-shaped for democracy.  However, anyone who doubts that the principles of Christianity can drive just as much violence and intolerance as Islam is ignorant of both history and world events.  The history of Christianity is replete with holy empires, holy kingdoms, and holy wars of conquest — and many of them not comfortably ensconced in the distant past.  Everyone who moans that the Ten Commandments should be posted in every school and courthouse, could benefit from contemplating the ultimate fruition of that philosophy in the God’s Army militia in Burma.  Under the banner of bringing a “government based on the Ten Commandments” to their country, God’s Army has killed more than a million people — far more than al-Qaeda. (that’s the only example he could find, a tiny group that nobody has heard of, here’s the flip side: Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Taliban, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Abu Sayyaf, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Jemmah Islamiyah, I could go on, but I’ve made my point -ed.)

A theocratic democracy is an impossibility.  That’s just as true for Christianity as it is for Islam. (hmm, then why are almost all the World’s democracies based on Judeo-Christian values? -ed.)

There’s more>>>>

ZIP

Crossposted via Weasel Zippers….

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Posted by WeaselZipper on December 23, 2007 9:54 pm

» Filed Under Bigotry, Church And State, History, News, War On Terror

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