© Route 60 Sentinel
I am struck by the level of neurotic sound and fury, vitriol, misinformation, general ignorance, and pontifical certainty that is prevalent today in much of our body politic. Especially so as I observe the ongoing debate about the nature and varieties of Islam and the related US refugee resettlement policies that is happening between, on the one hand, the many Islamophobiacs on the Right and, on the other hand, the many Islamophiliacs on the Left, as well as the muddled opinions of those in the middle of this spectrum of views.
This is true not only on these troubling questions, but for virtually every other public policy question, foreign and domestic, facing us today. Politically correct silencing, strident shouted chants, and death threats based on an underfed base of knowledge do not advance a civil dialogue, it only angers and then inflames opposing parts of the body politic.
Take the question of Islam, for example. Few people have read the Quran, any of the Hadith, the life of and practices of Muhammad, the history of Muslim territorial advances and retreats over the centuries, contemporary Islamic reform movements, or the widely differing theological norms and cultural practices among the some 1.6 billion Muslims in countries worldwide.
Just as there are varieties of scriptural interpretation and practice among Jews (Lubavitcher and Reformed) and Christians (Roman Catholic traditionalists and liberationists, the differing national Eastern Orthodox churches, and the many Protestant groups), so also is it in the case of Islam.
Comment: UPDATE: The 70 year old man who has been charged with ordering child sex abuse videos has told the court an absurd story that he was trying to financially help the children he had abused. RT reports: He quite obviously didn't really have a moral view that 'you don't do these things to children' because he did in fact have such things done to children 346 times.