Islamic Terrorism Is Right-Wing Terrorism
We’ve never come under attack by liberal Muslims, but conservative Christians have drawn plenty of blood.
By Joshua Holland, The Nation 6/15/16
http://www.thenation.com/article/islamic-terrorism-is-right-wing-terrorism/
snip>
The details differ, but the defining characteristic of all right-wing religionists is an abiding contempt for religious pluralism. They deny the legitimacy of other faiths. All conservative religious traditions are hostile toward gays and lesbians and those who reject traditional gender roles. Most embrace religious nationalism and reject multiculturalism. There are some exceptions, but most oppose abortion. They all want to return to an idealized vision of an earlier, simpler time. When you get down to brass tacks, they’re all right-wingers.
Thankfully, the vast majority of conservative religionists aren’t violent. That’s as true of Islamists as any other group. Writing in The Guardian, the Pakistani scholar and author Ali Eteraz argues, “It is a great fallacy to think that jihadists and Islamists are one and the same.” But, he writes, the Muslim right is an “ideological movement” that’s grounded in an inherently conservative “individualist revolution” within the Islamic world.
With their religious supremacism—which convinces them that everyone else’s life would be better off if they adopted the same values as them—these Muslims leave themselves wide open to be preyed upon by savvy propagandists. Thus, hateful tricks like invoking the dangers of homosexuality, attacking sexual liberation, demonising religious minorities and foreign cultures, and censoring anything that smacks of critical thinking, are all used to keep the ideological base stirring.
That sounds a lot like Ted Cruz’s base.
Academic studies show that organized religious terrorism isn’t really about religion. Groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS have decidedly secular goals—political power or control of territory or resources—and use religion as a potent recruiting tool. It gives their followers a sense of shared identity, defines their enemy, and steels them to commit unnatural acts of violence. It’s the same with Christian terrorist groups like The Lord’s Resistance Army in central Africa and India’s National Liberation Front of Tripura. It’s the same with violence by extremist settlers in the Occupied Territories. Their leaders may claim to speak for their God, but their objectives are always earthly, not theological.
snip> more at link
