Sunday, September 05, 2010 11:42:23 PM
How Sex, Sin and Power Bind Jihadists to the Radical Right
Markos Moulitsas
Founder and publisher, Daily Kos [ http://www.dailykos.com/ ]
Posted: August 24, 2010 06:43 PM
For the past nine years, I've been told that I want the terrorists to win.
That's funny. Why would I want the radical jihadists to win? Indeed, on issue after issue, there is no daylight between the views of radical jihadists and the American radical right. Fact is, I loathe jihadists for the exact same reasons I hate the modern conservative movement -- because whether it's their violent outlook, or their views on women and gays, or their hostility to knowledge and science, or their fear of pop culture, they are essentially cut from the same controlling, ideological cloth.
As obvious as this comparison might be, the accusation that liberals and jihadists share common cause has persisted, which is why I wrote my new book, American Taliban: How Sex, Sin and Power Bind Jihadists to the Radical Right.
Conservatives haven't reacted well to the book. Actually, they haven't reacted well to the title of the book, because none of them have read it. (Not that they've ever let ignorance get in the way of declaring something evil before.) But to the rational among us, the comparison is incontrovertible:
1. Theocracy
Mixing missionary zeal with government is always combustible, threatening freedom of thought, of religion, and of association. Such repression is obvious and deplorable in much of the Islamic world, where centuries-old Buddha statutes get razed by the Taliban because it offends their sensibilities. Yet such intolerance is also a hallmark of the American Taliban, whether it's their opposition to a Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero in Manhattan [(items linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53399578 and preceding and following], or Glenn Beck asking Rep. Keith Ellison, one of just two Muslims in Congress, "I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.'"
2. Violence
Remember Psalm 109 [(items linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=43673747 and following]? Conservatives would cite the first sentence with mock seriousness: "Let his days be few, and let another take his office." Then they'd snicker at the unspoken follow-up line: "May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow."
Even their "humor" is couched in violence. Indeed, both the American and Islamic Talibans believe they are doing their god's work, thus all means are justified in their mad pursuit of power. President Barack Obama's election in 2008 generated a spurt of violent acts, from xenophobic border-patrolling "Minutemen" in Arizona, to Glenn Beck-listening, gun-toting, cop-killing skinheads in Pittsburgh. Both groups worship their weapons, whether they are AK-47s or AR-15s. Both see violence and war as solutions to their problems.
Meanwhile, responding to a Department of Homeland Security report cautioning against the rise in right-wing violence, conservatives rushed out t-shirts that proudly proclaimed, "I am a right-wing extremist." Rather than distance themselves from the violent cranks on their side of the ideological divide, they embraced them.
3. Sex
There's enough sexual repression here to cover a whole book, with both the American and Islamic Taliban's hang ups over homosexuality, teen sex, premarital sex, extramarital sex, and even birth control (scratch that -- the Islamic fanatics don't much care about that last one).
It's not that the American Taliban aren't having gay sex, or teen sex, or premarital sex, or extramarital sex, mind you -- it's that they think it's important to judge you for doing the same things they are doing. As Newt Gingrich told one of his ex-wives while campaigning on family values while cheating on her, "It doesn't matter what I do. People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live [ http://www.esquire.com/features/newt-gingrich-0910 ( http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53234633 )]."
That's clearly the American Taliban motto, from David Vitter to Larry Craig to George Allen Reker. In fact, the Bible Belt leads the nation in teen pregnancies, divorces, and gay online subscriptions. You know those creepy purity balls were teen girls pledge their virginity to their fathers? Turns out that 82 percent of them deny ever having made those pledges five years later. Moralizing might make for great sound bytes, but it leaves their audience ill-prepared to deal with our natural sexuality.
4. Women
The American Taliban may not slap burkas on our women, but they sure like to tell them how to dress ... and behave. As Jerry Falwell once said [ http://www.slate.com/id/2166220 ], "I listen to feminists and all these radical gals -- most of them are failures. They've blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Caspar Milquetoast who asked permission to go to the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house. That's all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home."
You get the point.
5. Culture
Conservative writer Dinesh D'Souza said [ http://www.dineshdsouza.com/books/enemy-intro.html (and see {items linked in} http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=13899092 and preceding and following)] out loud what conservatives think: "The cultural left in this country is responsible for causing 9/11. I am saying that the cultural left and its allies in Congress, the media, Hollywood, the nonprofit sector and the university are the primary cause of the volcano of anger toward America that is erupting from the Islamic world ... thus without the cultural left, 9/11 would not have happened."
D'Souza is right, of course. If we were just like the American and Islamic Talibans wanted -- repressed, pious, and unrelentingly sexist, blind to science, then we'd all be friends and get along. Thankfully, the American Taliban isn't in power. And thankfully, the culture is progressing much faster than our political system, from gay and women equality, to greater openness on sexual matters, despite the best efforts from the Right to stifle that progress.
6. Truth
What's the difference between Islamic madrasas and Jerry Falwell's Liberty University or Pat Robertson's Regent University? What about the Creation Museum, with its statues of people and dinosaurs, side by side? Both types of ideologues are quick to substitute their rigid theology over scientific fact and inquiry -- a tendency that might be merely quaint if they weren't fighting to impose their will on the broader populace. Thus we have a homegrown movement in the United States that rejects global warming [(items linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=50005440 and preceding and following] and evolution [(items linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=50005876 and preceding and following], for example, out of sheer ideological rigidity. Both Talibans consider learning, universities, and the educated elite as unwelcome challenges to their holy writs.
Ultimately, the regressive American Taliban are little different in their social beliefs from the Islamic fundamentalists they claim to hate. Any differences between them are a matter of degree -- Islamic jihadists are guilty of far worse abuses, but that's only because just one of those Talibans is in power. Thankfully, the other, for now, is not.
Copyright © 2010 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/markos-moulitsas-z/post_743_b_693281.html [with comments]
=====
Religious Outlier
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: September 3, 2010
With all of the consternation about religion in this country, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of just how anomalous our religiosity is in the world.
A Gallup report issued on Tuesday [ http://www.gallup.com/poll/142727/religiosity-highest-world-poorest-nations.aspx ] underscored just how out of line we are. Gallup surveyed people in more than 100 countries in 2009 and found that religiosity was highly correlated to poverty. Richer countries in general are less religious.
But that doesn’t hold true for the United States.
Sixty-five percent of Americans say that religion is an important part of their daily lives. That is compared with just 30 percent of the French, 27 percent of the British and 24 percent of the Japanese.
I used Gallup’s data to chart religiosity against gross domestic product per capita, and to group countries by their size and dominant religions.
The cliché goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
Assuming that this holds true for charts, here is mine.
Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/opinion/04blow.html [comments at http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/opinion/04blow.html ]
=====
'Islamization' of Paris a Warning to the West
September 05, 2010
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/August/Islamization-of-Paris-a-Warning-to-the-West/
---
Congo's First Lady: 'We Need You, Lord'
September 05, 2010
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/September/Congos-First-Lady-We-Need-You-Lord-/
=====
in addition to (items linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding (and any other following), see also (items linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=2716969 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=33948658 and preceding, and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=49140378 and preceding
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=50740924 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53085061 (specifically further to http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53976782 earlier in this string) and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53100487 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53737702 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54060074 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54093697 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54094311 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54094598 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54102532 and preceding and following
Markos Moulitsas
Founder and publisher, Daily Kos [ http://www.dailykos.com/ ]
Posted: August 24, 2010 06:43 PM
For the past nine years, I've been told that I want the terrorists to win.
That's funny. Why would I want the radical jihadists to win? Indeed, on issue after issue, there is no daylight between the views of radical jihadists and the American radical right. Fact is, I loathe jihadists for the exact same reasons I hate the modern conservative movement -- because whether it's their violent outlook, or their views on women and gays, or their hostility to knowledge and science, or their fear of pop culture, they are essentially cut from the same controlling, ideological cloth.
As obvious as this comparison might be, the accusation that liberals and jihadists share common cause has persisted, which is why I wrote my new book, American Taliban: How Sex, Sin and Power Bind Jihadists to the Radical Right.
Conservatives haven't reacted well to the book. Actually, they haven't reacted well to the title of the book, because none of them have read it. (Not that they've ever let ignorance get in the way of declaring something evil before.) But to the rational among us, the comparison is incontrovertible:
1. Theocracy
Mixing missionary zeal with government is always combustible, threatening freedom of thought, of religion, and of association. Such repression is obvious and deplorable in much of the Islamic world, where centuries-old Buddha statutes get razed by the Taliban because it offends their sensibilities. Yet such intolerance is also a hallmark of the American Taliban, whether it's their opposition to a Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero in Manhattan [(items linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53399578 and preceding and following], or Glenn Beck asking Rep. Keith Ellison, one of just two Muslims in Congress, "I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.'"
2. Violence
Remember Psalm 109 [(items linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=43673747 and following]? Conservatives would cite the first sentence with mock seriousness: "Let his days be few, and let another take his office." Then they'd snicker at the unspoken follow-up line: "May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow."
Even their "humor" is couched in violence. Indeed, both the American and Islamic Talibans believe they are doing their god's work, thus all means are justified in their mad pursuit of power. President Barack Obama's election in 2008 generated a spurt of violent acts, from xenophobic border-patrolling "Minutemen" in Arizona, to Glenn Beck-listening, gun-toting, cop-killing skinheads in Pittsburgh. Both groups worship their weapons, whether they are AK-47s or AR-15s. Both see violence and war as solutions to their problems.
Meanwhile, responding to a Department of Homeland Security report cautioning against the rise in right-wing violence, conservatives rushed out t-shirts that proudly proclaimed, "I am a right-wing extremist." Rather than distance themselves from the violent cranks on their side of the ideological divide, they embraced them.
3. Sex
There's enough sexual repression here to cover a whole book, with both the American and Islamic Taliban's hang ups over homosexuality, teen sex, premarital sex, extramarital sex, and even birth control (scratch that -- the Islamic fanatics don't much care about that last one).
It's not that the American Taliban aren't having gay sex, or teen sex, or premarital sex, or extramarital sex, mind you -- it's that they think it's important to judge you for doing the same things they are doing. As Newt Gingrich told one of his ex-wives while campaigning on family values while cheating on her, "It doesn't matter what I do. People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live [ http://www.esquire.com/features/newt-gingrich-0910 ( http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53234633 )]."
That's clearly the American Taliban motto, from David Vitter to Larry Craig to George Allen Reker. In fact, the Bible Belt leads the nation in teen pregnancies, divorces, and gay online subscriptions. You know those creepy purity balls were teen girls pledge their virginity to their fathers? Turns out that 82 percent of them deny ever having made those pledges five years later. Moralizing might make for great sound bytes, but it leaves their audience ill-prepared to deal with our natural sexuality.
4. Women
The American Taliban may not slap burkas on our women, but they sure like to tell them how to dress ... and behave. As Jerry Falwell once said [ http://www.slate.com/id/2166220 ], "I listen to feminists and all these radical gals -- most of them are failures. They've blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Caspar Milquetoast who asked permission to go to the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house. That's all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home."
You get the point.
5. Culture
Conservative writer Dinesh D'Souza said [ http://www.dineshdsouza.com/books/enemy-intro.html (and see {items linked in} http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=13899092 and preceding and following)] out loud what conservatives think: "The cultural left in this country is responsible for causing 9/11. I am saying that the cultural left and its allies in Congress, the media, Hollywood, the nonprofit sector and the university are the primary cause of the volcano of anger toward America that is erupting from the Islamic world ... thus without the cultural left, 9/11 would not have happened."
D'Souza is right, of course. If we were just like the American and Islamic Talibans wanted -- repressed, pious, and unrelentingly sexist, blind to science, then we'd all be friends and get along. Thankfully, the American Taliban isn't in power. And thankfully, the culture is progressing much faster than our political system, from gay and women equality, to greater openness on sexual matters, despite the best efforts from the Right to stifle that progress.
6. Truth
What's the difference between Islamic madrasas and Jerry Falwell's Liberty University or Pat Robertson's Regent University? What about the Creation Museum, with its statues of people and dinosaurs, side by side? Both types of ideologues are quick to substitute their rigid theology over scientific fact and inquiry -- a tendency that might be merely quaint if they weren't fighting to impose their will on the broader populace. Thus we have a homegrown movement in the United States that rejects global warming [(items linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=50005440 and preceding and following] and evolution [(items linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=50005876 and preceding and following], for example, out of sheer ideological rigidity. Both Talibans consider learning, universities, and the educated elite as unwelcome challenges to their holy writs.
Ultimately, the regressive American Taliban are little different in their social beliefs from the Islamic fundamentalists they claim to hate. Any differences between them are a matter of degree -- Islamic jihadists are guilty of far worse abuses, but that's only because just one of those Talibans is in power. Thankfully, the other, for now, is not.
Copyright © 2010 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/markos-moulitsas-z/post_743_b_693281.html [with comments]
=====
Religious Outlier
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: September 3, 2010
With all of the consternation about religion in this country, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of just how anomalous our religiosity is in the world.
A Gallup report issued on Tuesday [ http://www.gallup.com/poll/142727/religiosity-highest-world-poorest-nations.aspx ] underscored just how out of line we are. Gallup surveyed people in more than 100 countries in 2009 and found that religiosity was highly correlated to poverty. Richer countries in general are less religious.
But that doesn’t hold true for the United States.
Sixty-five percent of Americans say that religion is an important part of their daily lives. That is compared with just 30 percent of the French, 27 percent of the British and 24 percent of the Japanese.
I used Gallup’s data to chart religiosity against gross domestic product per capita, and to group countries by their size and dominant religions.
The cliché goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
Assuming that this holds true for charts, here is mine.
Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/opinion/04blow.html [comments at http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/opinion/04blow.html ]
=====
'Islamization' of Paris a Warning to the West
September 05, 2010
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/August/Islamization-of-Paris-a-Warning-to-the-West/
---
Congo's First Lady: 'We Need You, Lord'
September 05, 2010
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/September/Congos-First-Lady-We-Need-You-Lord-/
=====
in addition to (items linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding (and any other following), see also (items linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=2716969 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=33948658 and preceding, and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=49140378 and preceding
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=50740924 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53085061 (specifically further to http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53976782 earlier in this string) and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53100487 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53737702 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54060074 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54093697 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54094311 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54094598 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54102532 and preceding and following
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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