Should Christians carry special IDs in this post-Crusades world?

Gallup: Two in five Americans believe that Muslims should have to carry special IDs. That’s so fucked up.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

10 replies on “Should Christians carry special IDs in this post-Crusades world?”

  1. The only saving grace, and I use the term advisedly, is that people who actually KNOW anyone who is a Muslim are not so quick to condemn.

  2. Most christians don’t take as the literal truth the parts of the bible that advocate death for commission of sin. Just as reasonable Muslims don’t take as literal truth the exortations to violent action against non-muslims found in the Koran.

    Unfortunately not all muslims are reasonable.

    And yes it’s fucked up that 2 in five american’s believe that. But it’s also understandable that they would feel that way.

    And since this isn’t Nazi Germany it would be wrong to seriously consider something like that.

  3. I dunno … fucked up seems like a cop out description. Let’s keep trying … “reprehensible” … “undefendable” … “unbelievably ignorant” … “outright bigotry” … any of those sound good.

    As a Catholic, part of me can only imagine that Jesus is looking down from heaven and shaking his head…

  4. TrvInMn,

    “Most christians don’t take as the literal truth the parts of the bible that advocate death for commission of sin”

    Actually there is a small subset of Christians called Dominionists who do take it literally. They are part of the Christian Right, they believe it is the right of Christians to rule America, including non-believers, and in their theocracy homosexuality, adultery, and other sins would be punishable by death.

    They are obviously not the mainstream of the Christian Right – if it’s possible to refer to the Christian Right as a mainstream, it seems like an oxymoron – but they are a powerful and determined subset.

    Muslims don’t hold a monopoly on extremism. They just get more publicity for it.

  5. You’re right. No justification on this one. As a Christian, I find this, “Fucked up.”

    I have to admit that I searched a bit for the proper term. I tried things, as suggested, like “ignorant,” “bigotry,” etc., but what I was really going for was “fucked up,” and I’m glad that I realized that.

    If such a belief became just a bit more widespread, we’d have 1938 Germany. That’s so terrifying.

  6. Actually there is a small subset of Christians called Dominionists who do take it literally. They are part of the Christian Right, they believe it is the right of Christians to rule America, including non-believers, and in their theocracy homosexuality, adultery, and other sins would be punishable by death.

    Cool! Thanks for that tid-bit of information. That gives me something else to read up on. I was pretty sure that there might be someone out their somewhere with that approach to Christianity. However I wasn’t sure what they would be called, etc… That’s why I only said: “Most Christians…” instead of all christians.

    Muslims don’t hold a monopoly on extremism. They just get more publicity for it.

    Sure I agree they don’t hold a monopoly on extremism, but it’s really not accurate to say that Muslims get more publicity. How many christian terrorists have tried to martyr themselves by attempting to blow up multiple airliners over the atlantic ocean in order to further the message of christianity with the goal of creating a theocratic christian state? Sure you have some abortion clinic bombings and the shootings of a couple of physicians who performed abortions, but that’s hardly a comparison.

    Because of democracy and the bill of rights in the United states (and in other countries as they evolved similar democratic traditions), for the most part it seems that christianity evolved away from the violence and percecution of “non-christians” that it was infamous for in ages past.

    Islam is begining to make similar evolution, but I’m also going to speculate that it is tied more to Islam as it is practiced in democratic countries with policies of freedom of religion. The repressive, theocratic, non-democratic countries in the middle east, lacking religious freedom and the tolerance that I believe develops over time in conjunction with religious freedom- those countries stagnate with the modern islamic equivalent of medieval christianity.

    Where I find fault with moderate Islam is that their voices are not as loud in the expression of outrage when their fundamentalist cousins participate in some spectacular atrocity. Silence in situations like that has the effect of tacit approval. I will grant that the MSM bears a part of the responsiblity for that lack of voice, but I do not think they are entirely to blame. In a society such as this one where opinion is formed by what people see and hear in the media, it’s important that muslim’s (who feel Islam has been ‘hijacked by radicals”) speak out. When islamic moderates do speak out, if they speak out, they aren’t speaking loudly.

    The Chicago Tribune has a Series of Articles they did as a Special Report titled Struggle for the soul of Islam. The articles are pretty good reads (although it’s been a while since I’ve read them).

    I’d reccommend this article titled: Hardliners won battle for Bridgeview mosque. Which is as the title suggests, a story about how islamic hardliners won the battle for a mosque in the Bridgeview neighborhood of Chicago.

    I’d also reccommend this article titled: A rare look at secretive Brotherhood in America. This one is about the “underground U.S. chapter of the international Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s most influential Islamic fundamentalist group and an organization with a violent past in the Middle East.”

    Both of those articles illustrate the strong influence these radical theocratic regimes exert on Islam within the U.S.

    In the for whatever it’s worth catagory the Chicago Tribune special report was done back in 2004. Last month lawyers began judicial haggling over trial issues surrounding the procecution of one Bridgeview man and another from Virginia, who are accused of funneling money to Hamas. A link to the latest article in that case can be found here.

    And just in case it got lost in the length of this post I’m definately not advocating or supporting religion specific ID cards. And I do believe that Americans who believe it’s a good idea are seriously misguided. However I can certianly understand why they’d feel that way, and that they do feel that way is not the media’s fault.

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