Maybe part of the problem these days is we’re too polite about religion. Basically, in society you either ignore religious differences and act like all religions are the same or you burn Korans, but there isn’t really anything in between. There is no actual public, polite discussion of whether some religions are flawed or some are better than others. That just isn’t done. You all remember the reactions when Brit Hume actually suggested that maybe Christianity was superior Buddhism; that’s something every Christian should believe, but mentioning out loud was national news.
In this country, the civilized view is that religions teach pretty much the same thing and the differences are just a cultural thing — one religion is no better than the other. To even question religion is like making fun of someone’s clothing from their native country (except if you’re an atheist questioning Christians, as they’re not the minority and known to be used to that sort of thing). And if anything bad pops up about a religion, it’s just waved off as extremists without even checking if those tenets are core to the religion or not. But religion is supposed to be more important than that in this country. Most people here call themselves Christians, and Christianity is in direct conflict with the beliefs of Islam, but how many Christians are actually able to argue for the beliefs of Christianity over that of Islam? That’s left for a few kooks shouting about how Mohammad was a pedophile.
Anyway, maybe the reason so many Muslims freak out over silly things like pictures of Mohammad is they aren’t as used to their religion being questioned as Christians in this country are. And they are going to continue to be that way if they get coddled. Basically, the only way to ensure moderation in a religion is to make sure it’s used to polite questioning. There needs to be more of a discussion of religion in this country, and not just in a happy, “Yay all religions!” way. But also not in a shouting “Islam is of the devil!” way. An academic discussion — something you’d think a country as religious as this one would be used to.
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