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{"id":16961,"date":"2015-01-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=1789"},"modified":"2015-01-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T00:00:00","slug":"tangled-in-the-secular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/01\/tangled-in-the-secular\/","title":{"rendered":"Tangled in the Secular"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

Writing at\u00a0Stratfor<\/a>, George Friedman offers a sobering, pessimistic view of the future of Islam in Europe: \u201cWe are entering a place that has no solutions. Such a place does have decisions, and all of the choices will be bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the moment, he admits, \u201cIt is difficult to imagine another outcome save for another round of ghettoization and deportation. This is repulsive to the European sensibility now.\u201d But that may change: \u201cUnable to distinguish radical Muslims from other Muslims, Europe will increasingly and unintentionally move in this direction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The choices are made more difficult because of the secular assumptions that guide current policy. Secularism doesn\u2019t allow us to assign responsibility to a religion for the violence in Paris and elsewhere. Because it \u201ceschews stereotyping,\u201d secularism \u201cleaves unclear who is to be held responsible for what. By devolving all responsibility on the individual, secularism tends to absolve nations and religions from responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friedman doesn\u2019t this is wrong in principle, but it creates a huge practical problem: \u201cyou have paralyzed your ability to defend yourselves. It is impossible to defend against random violence and impermissible to impose collective responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"