Why Doesn’t This Surprise Me?
Posted: December 16, 2013 Filed under: religious extremists, right wing hate grouups | Tags: Fundamentalist religions 14 CommentsJust saw this study reported at WAPO. It basically says there’s not much difference in fundamentalists Christians and Muslims. Don’t ask 
those two groups to acknowledge it however since all fundamentalist religions are based on seeing every one else as essentially hell-bound and wrong.
Religious fundamentalism among Muslim immigrants in Western Europe is dramatically greater than that among Christian Europeans, according to a recent study by Ruud Koopmans from the Wissenschaftszentrum in Berlin discussed on the Monkey Cage last Friday. On the surface, these findings legitimize concerns surrounding the incompatibility of Western and Islamic values.
Like Europeans, Americans express fear over Muslim integration and Islamic fundamentalism, although very little is known about beliefs among Muslims living in the U.S. A recent nationwide survey of U.S. Muslims, which I designed, provides some insight — the Muslim-American National Opinion Survey (MANOS) reveals that levels of religious fundamentalism among Muslims and Christians in the U.S. are nearly identical.
As one of the few nationally representative surveys available of Muslim Americans, MANOS provides insight into the degree Muslim Americans hold fundamentalist views, as defined by Koopmans. Data from existing surveys of the general American population allow me to assess where Muslims stand relative to other Americans in believing that religious rules are more important than the laws of the country and the degree individuals hold literal interpretations of holy scriptures.
The weird thing is that in the US, our religious fundamentalists run for office and get elected. That doesn’t happen much in Western Europe. Witness the Texas Lt. Governor’s race where all four candidates are creationists. What on earth does it take to educate people in the basics of science compared to iron age mythology?
Current Lt. Gov. David “Impeach Obama but get my niece out of jail” Dewhurst is already a creationist, and just believes in fairness:
“I believe that in fairness we need to expose students to both sides of this,” he said. “That’s why I’ve supported including in our textbooks the discussion of the biblical account of life and creation, and I understand there are a lot of people who disagree with me, and believe in evolution.”
State Sen. Dan Patrick and Ag Commissioner Todd Staples also said that they think that, for freedom, schools should teach something that isn’t science in science classes because it is popular, also Christians are oppressed:
“Our students … must really be confused. They go to Sunday School on Sunday and then they go into school on Monday and we tell them they can’t talk about God,” said Patrick. “I’m sick and tired of a minority in our country who want us to turn our back on God.”
The one candidate who didn’t overtly advocate teaching creationism didn’t exactly sound hostile to it, either. Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson trotted out the astonishing revelation that the phrase “Separation of Church and State” does not appear in the Constitution, which obviously means that schools should have a lot more church in ‘em:
“Show me where that’s in the Constitution, because it’s not in the Constitution,” he said. “I see nothing wrong with standing up at least for a moment of silence, let those who wish to pray, pray in their own faith. I see nothing wrong with having a prayer before a high school football game.”
Just as long as they’re not, like, Muslim or anything.
The candidates may find implementing their pledges somewhat difficult, as the Loot Gov doesn’t actually set education policy in Texas, and the state school board has almost miraculously approved science texts that actually teach science.
I’m sure they don’t like the comparison, but American fundamentalists seem to be all the same. It really doesn’t matter which abrahamic cult they’ve attached themselves too.
Results from MANOS and the General Social Surveys reveal that the general American population holds nearly identical levels of fundamentalist beliefs as Muslims, if not slightly more. Just over 57 percent of the general American population believes that “right and wrong in U.S. law should be based on God’s laws,” compared to 49.3 percent of U.S.-born Muslims and 45.6 of foreign-born Muslims. About a third of each group believes that society should not be the one to determine right and wrong in U.S. law. Such numbers reveal that the general American population is more fundamentalist than the average European, and that Muslim Americans are less fundamentalist than European Muslims, according to the Koopmans study.
A large number of folks have a problem with reality and modernity. Their issues have become our issues. They create war. They pave the way for missionaries that spread hatred around the world. They run for office and attack all kinds of people’s rights based on somethings that do not hold up to any kind of sane scrutiny. It’s about time that those folks that don’t embrace the mindset of the iron age but embrace the beliefs that started there start doing something about the crazies. It’s just not fair to the rest of us to have these fundamentalist mindsets inflicted on civilization.
Btw, I’m not persecuting you. I’m laughing at your dumb asses. You have a right to believe it, but you certainly do not have a right to inflict such nonsense on the rest of us.
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That’s a great cartoon!
And so very true! Great post.
I am nauseatingly tired of fundamentalists, especially at this time of year.
“God’s laws” …. Betcha if we could put them all the fundy sects in a room together and tell them to agree on what those laws are, they’d end up killing each other.
Yup. all the while shouting the same crap but insisting they were the only ones that believed it.
I know that I am a “heretic” but I picked up the Bible one time and had no idea what half of it meant so how are these people “interpreting” when the “message” is so obtuse as to be almost incoherent? And so much of what is “written” is “borrowed” from ancient Greek myths that hold similar comparisons to the Virgin birth and celestial transportation up to the heavens at the time of death.
If there is such a thing as “god” then why all this global turmoil that has been going on since man first stood upright? Makes no sense.
It seems that this focus on the bible itself is what leads to the hatred that rules our society rather than the parables that point to the “goodness” of mankind itself.
But then what do I know?
My morning post is going to be a little late. I’m glad early risers have Dak’s late night post to get started!
I read this about George Zimmerman “original” art at Mediaite this morning and immediately became suspicious so I decided to share because I think George is not an artist but a tracer. What is even more outrageous is that last night at 10PM the Ebay bid was up to $99,000.
Here is the story and the picture of George’s art work
http://www.mediaite.com/online/you-can-now-own-an-original-george-zimmerman-painting-of-america/
And here is a website with the flag that “I believe”, George traced. Look at the 3rd flag down on the page and compare to George’s “original” artwork. Compare the photo beginning at the 2nd red bar down to the 4th red bar to Zimmerman’s “original” flag painting. To my mind Zimmerman’s “original” painting is a trace or a photocopy. It’s almost identical right down to the shape of the shadows on the white bars. What do y’all think.?
http://aflags.blogspot.com/2012/06/american-flag.html#chitika_close_button
I agree with you. Right down to the stitching in the photo. The amount of money bid on it is ridiculous. These are the same lunatics who preach that people need to manage their money better and control spending but they have no problem spending that much on crap art to support a racist.
There’s no way to know for certain if this is a trace or a photocopy. I imagine there are experts who could determine one way or the other, but I’m certainly not one of those people.
When I read the Mediaite article this morning I just became suspicious so I did a Google search of U.S. flags waving and came up with this remarkable likeness that, from my point of view, looks nearly identical to George’s flag. It could be a coincidence, but the similarities, right down to the shading on the white bars, seems to me to be an unlikely coincidence.
Just saw on JMG that other people are finding the same flag photo that I found. It won’t be long until this too explodes in George Zimmerman’s face. Who does he think he is, Rand Paul??????
The point is to show support for a gun toting racist anyway. He just will do anything to get them to fund his mental health issues and gun addiction.
Apparently…..The bid is over $100k for this “art”, copy, trace, whatever. Wow, who knew the right wing haters were so desperate for a gunman they’d dish out 6 figures for his tissue paper miracle.
And Dak…..I loved this post and totally agree. There’s not a slither of difference between fundamentalist Christians and Muslims.
Ok……Here we go
Did Zimmerman Copy a Stock Photo for His ‘Original’ $100k Painting?
http://www.mediaite.com/online/did-zimmerman-copy-a-stock-photo-for-his-original-100k-painting/
“Seeing as Shutterstock’s images are copyrighted and are not free to use, things could potentially become legally complicated if Zimmerman did, indeed, crib the image from the stock photo company. Plus, if someone is going to drop $100,000 on Zimmerman’s first-ever painting, they’d probably want to know from where the image originated?”
That dumb ass!! When someone like me, who doesn’t know a thing about art, can spot that something didn’t look “original” about the painting and simply go to Google to find it’s source, it’s sad.
Maybe he should follow the advice of his Conservative Right-wing supporters and GET A JOB. I hear McDonald’s is hiring for GREAT MINIMUM wage jobs all over the country.