{"id":707,"date":"2010-09-24T13:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-24T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html"},"modified":"2010-09-24T13:01:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-24T13:01:00","slug":"the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html","title":{"rendered":"The Problem Is Not Just Islam, The Problem Is All Fundamentalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Between Terry Jones\u2019 aborted Koran burning and the furor over the non-mosque that is not at Ground Zero, it\u2019s easy to lose track of the real issue at hand. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
I am no naif when it comes to the dangers of radical Islam.\u00a0 I am also not unaware that numerically there are a whole lot of radical Muslims even if the majority are not.\u00a0 There are a billion of them after all.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
That said, I am more than a little wary of people like Daniel Pipes.\u00a0 He wrote in the Jerusalem Post<\/span><\/a> to remind us how the Muslims are somehow taking over America because Obama and General Petraeus asked Jones not to burn the Koran.\u00a0 For Daniel Pipes and many other neo-conservatives, there is no such fear of the other radical religious threat to America, Christian fundamentalists.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
CBS News reported yesterday<\/span><\/a> that the Texas Board of Education is considering a resolution \u201ccalling on textbook publishers to limit what they print about Islam in world history books.\u201d\u00a0 The effort is being pushed by, among others, young earth creationist and Board member, Don McLeroy.\u00a0 Here is one of his gems:<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s that great idea. That radical idea of Judeo-Christianity, that man is created in the image of God. So if you have world history books that downplay Christianity \u2013 Judeo-Christianity \u2013 and it doesn\u2019t even make it in the table of contents, I think there\u2019s a great concern,\u201d McLeroy said.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
I\u2019m going to put aside his pathetic expression of the faux-victimhood of evangelical Christianity.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
What is crucial to remember is what Islam and this brand of \u201cJudeo-Christianity\u201d have in common.\u00a0 The biblical creation story talks about the image of God.\u00a0 Islam teaches about the soul\u2019s creation by Allah.\u00a0\u00a0These are pretty words that mask ugly world views.\u00a0\u00a0All fundamentalists\u00a0have identical views on sex, gays and science and they overlap greatly on women\u2019s issues.\u00a0 Given half a chance, both of them impose their beliefs on others. \u00a0The fact that they are at war with each other only makes it worse.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
The correct stance here is that of \u201ca pox on both your houses.\u201d\u00a0 We would be wise to remember that the real threat to freedom is the belief that an omnipotent sky god commands obedience.\u00a0 The fact that extremist partisans for Hashem, Jesus and Allah can\u2019t agree on which books and religious medievalism to impose on the rest of us is a generally unimportant detail.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between Terry Jones\u2019 aborted Koran burning and the furor over the non-mosque that is not at Ground Zero, it\u2019s easy to lose track of the real issue at hand. \u00a0 I am no naif when it comes to the dangers of radical Islam.\u00a0 I am also not unaware that numerically there are a whole lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12,14,19,27],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-fundamentalist-christianity","tag-history","tag-islam","tag-morality"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Problem Is Not Just Islam, The Problem Is All Fundamentalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Between Terry Jones\u2019 aborted Koran burning and the furor over the non-mosque that is not at Ground Zero, it\u2019s easy to lose track of the real issue at\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Problem Is Not Just Islam, The Problem Is All Fundamentalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Between Terry Jones\u2019 aborted Koran burning and the furor over the non-mosque that is not at Ground Zero, it\u2019s easy to lose track of the real issue at\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-24T13:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html\",\"name\":\"The Problem Is Not Just Islam, The Problem Is All Fundamentalism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-24T13:01:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-09-24T13:01:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372\"},\"description\":\"Between Terry Jones\u2019 aborted Koran burning and the furor over the non-mosque that is not at Ground Zero, it\u2019s easy to lose track of the real issue at\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Problem Is Not Just Islam, The Problem Is All Fundamentalism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/\",\"name\":\"The Atheist Rabbi\",\"description\":\"The blog of Jeffrey L. Falick, Secular Humanistic Rabbi.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372\",\"name\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick\"},\"description\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick is the Secular Humanistic Rabbi of The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Michigan. He is also certified as a Senior Humanist Celebrant by the American Humanist Association and is president and founder of Humanists of Southeast Michigan.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/author\/jfalick\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Problem Is Not Just Islam, The Problem Is All Fundamentalism","description":"Between Terry Jones\u2019 aborted Koran burning and the furor over the non-mosque that is not at Ground Zero, it\u2019s easy to lose track of the real issue at","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Problem Is Not Just Islam, The Problem Is All Fundamentalism","og_description":"Between Terry Jones\u2019 aborted Koran burning and the furor over the non-mosque that is not at Ground Zero, it\u2019s easy to lose track of the real issue at","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html","og_site_name":"The Atheist Rabbi","article_published_time":"2010-09-24T13:01:00+00:00","author":"Jeffrey L. Falick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeffrey L. Falick","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html","name":"The Problem Is Not Just Islam, The Problem Is All Fundamentalism","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-09-24T13:01:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-09-24T13:01:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372"},"description":"Between Terry Jones\u2019 aborted Koran burning and the furor over the non-mosque that is not at Ground Zero, it\u2019s easy to lose track of the real issue at","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/the-problem-is-not-just-islam-the-problem-is-all-fundamentalism.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Problem Is Not Just Islam, The Problem Is All Fundamentalism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/","name":"The Atheist Rabbi","description":"The blog of Jeffrey L. Falick, Secular Humanistic Rabbi.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372","name":"Jeffrey L. Falick","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeffrey L. Falick"},"description":"Jeffrey L. Falick is the Secular Humanistic Rabbi of The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Michigan. He is also certified as a Senior Humanist Celebrant by the American Humanist Association and is president and founder of Humanists of Southeast Michigan.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/author\/jfalick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}