Hypocrisy towards the fundamentalist extremists ... of america

So I had a startling realization the other day. I've been extremely hypocritical in my dealings with the radical right? Why? Simply because I've reacted to fundamentalist muslims and fundamentalist christians in very distinct manners. I've been very forgiving of the formers actions and very unforgiving of the latters.

I blog a lot, it gives me something to do. A lot of putzes out their display a distinct islamophobia in their posts and I tend to come down hard on them. For instance, in matters such as the Talibanization of Pakistan and the rockets from Hamas I have been a voice for compassion. I argue that they are impoverished and these religious organizations have offered education, jobs, healthcare and more to these desperate people. But when I discuss the religious right in america or Israel I tend to be both hostile and dismissive right up front.

Well that's just hypocritical. I shouldn't be any more upset by a christian terrorist attacking a doctor than I am with Hamas launching rockets at villages in Israel but I am. It's my own personal bigotry I guess. Largely I think my reasoning was that one side holds the power (the christian and jews) and the other side is just struggling to survive. But realistically they are both looking at the world, interpreting the world and acting on the world from the same fanatical viewpoint.

I have been loudly advocating that the way to handle muslim extremists is to bring them to the table, to open dialogue with them, to convince them that there is a better way. But I have basically resorted to ignoring or belittling the religious right in America and Israel. That's simply wrong. I realize that now and I'm going to change it. The only way to succeed is to bring all parties involved to the table and work out a solution. Most people act because they believe they are doing what's right, so in the case of fundamentalists we must simply convince them there's a better way. I realize now that it is not religion that is bad, it is the politicization of religion that has caused so much harm to the religions themselves AND to the rest of the world. There's a lovely saying that goes "without religion bad people will do bad things, but for a good person to do a bad thing, that takes religion." For a long time I agreed with that notion but now I realize that if it wasn't religion that was corrupting good people it would just be something else. As a christian says, look at the atrocities committed by "atheist nations" like china in the past century. Well they weren't done for religious or non-religious reasons but they certainly involved warping good people to commit acts of evil in the same kind of fervor induced by the radical religious right. So if not religion, it would be something else.

Here's a example from Israel. Israel doesn't want to deal with the two state solution but here's why they should. At the current population growth rate Israel will soon again be a muslim nation because the israeli muslims are breeding much faster than the jewish ones. Once muslims control the government there won't need to be a war, they'll just vote the way they want and the Jews will lose their control over their supposed homeland. Thus, it's in their best interest to come to the table and work out a two state solution. That's a really solid, pragmatic way of looking at the situation and I've decided i'm more of a pragmatists than anything simply because pragmatists actually get shit done.

This isnt' to say that we have to take a soft line. For instance, if israel fails to come to the table we should start cutting their aid. They get 5 billion annually from the US no strings attached. Start cutting that flow and see how long they hold out, God did say they were a stubborn people, but they aren't stupid either.

I may have to come back and edit this as I'm really tired but this is the gist of my thoughts (i know I can be clearer though).

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