21 March 2007
Tolerance
Bret Stephens wrote in the March 13, 2007 Wall Street Journal about Islamosocialism. He pointed out how European progressives have allowed their tolerance of multiculturalism to be manipulated by fundamentalist Islamists who have made it an issue of civil liberties to protect their right to impose submission on their women. This is the genius of any religion, including Islam: it can turn liberal thought to its own defense, no matter how reactionary its beliefs and practices. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has also warned of dangers of this tactic in her book, Infidel.
Of course, a culture like Western liberal democracy can be manipulated also for the opposite effect. Its members’ underlying resentment of Jews was brilliantly exploited by Joseph Goebbels to screen the tactics of the 3rd Reich. Those who propagandize convincingly take advantage of intolerance just as well as do those who play on the uncertainties of the faithful. An exclusionary impulse drives religious and secular nationalist movements alike.
Bret Stephens wrote in the March 13, 2007 Wall Street Journal about Islamosocialism. He pointed out how European progressives have allowed their tolerance of multiculturalism to be manipulated by fundamentalist Islamists who have made it an issue of civil liberties to protect their right to impose submission on their women. This is the genius of any religion, including Islam: it can turn liberal thought to its own defense, no matter how reactionary its beliefs and practices. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has also warned of dangers of this tactic in her book, Infidel.
Of course, a culture like Western liberal democracy can be manipulated also for the opposite effect. Its members’ underlying resentment of Jews was brilliantly exploited by Joseph Goebbels to screen the tactics of the 3rd Reich. Those who propagandize convincingly take advantage of intolerance just as well as do those who play on the uncertainties of the faithful. An exclusionary impulse drives religious and secular nationalist movements alike.
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