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A short response to Muthukat's doomsday scenario
By Lorna Salzman I can't disagree with Muthukat's description of the earth's problems and causes, but he leaves out an important cause: the reversion to irrationality in the form of religion and "New Age" spirituality as well as the "personal growth" movement; and the corollary: the failure of people to prize, protect and promote secularism and rational thought. While the fearful masses cringe over the prospect of another terrorist act, equally bad things are happening in nonviolent and less visible ways, through the unremitting efforts of religious fundamentalists - both muslim and christian - to impose their personal doctrines and views on the rest of the world. We have seen similar secular efforts with Stalin's Communism and its fumbling descendants, modern-day Marxists, but these have had limited success for reasons I won't go into but which we all know. Today, in this country and in western Europe, fundamentalists, both muslim and christian, now unabashedly denounce science, evolution, freedom of inquiry, rational thought, and the equality of women. While Mormons have institutionalized prostitution and pedophilia and deprive their women of education and basic freedoms, evangelical christians have broader targets: the entire science and educational systems of the USA. American muslims are on the cusp of some kind of cultural assimilation though their demagogic anti semitic imams, mullahs and religious doctrines will continue to hold them back for many years until the second and third generation of muslim children (especially female) have enough education, exposure to secular values, and personal freedom to shake off their medieval patriarchal control...assuming they aren't killed in "honor killings" by their father. In western Europe, due to the misguided belief in multiculturalism and cultural relativism, preached by leftist post modernists, (embellished by anti Israel ravings ), the future is less bright as muslim immigrants get entrenched through an overly generous welfare state and lax immigration policy, and governments fail to insist on their adherence to secular laws and institutions, while allowing radical mosque preachings to inflame and incite individual acts of terrorism. England, particularl London, is now the center of islamic violence and the home to many cells of potential terrorists, like those who bombed the London subway and bus in 2005. Here in the USA, similar muslim efforts to bend American laws and customs still abound in the muslim community - separate women's gyms at Harvard, halal food in schools and prisons, footbaths for muslim athletes, and other requests for special treatment - but most Americans (wisely) do not look on these things favorably. On the contrary, it is these demands for favoritism and privilege that have made Americans suspicious of muslims, not a fear that all muslims are terrorists at heart. But muslims have become experts at crying about victimization even when it is non-existent and even though American muslims have more freedom, rights and equality before the law than their countries of origin. The American muslims have successfully brainwashed many liberals into believing that there is such a thing as "moderate islam", and that the qu-ran does not preach violence. Their propaganda machine is well oiled and well funded. There are quite a few books about islamic terrorism and there is no doubt that it is unabated. But the far greater threat from the religion of islam (as opposed to individual muslims) is from their arrogant assertion of religious superiority and their unswerving belief that islam is destined to become the religion of the entire world in the future. Towards this end we have the Muslim Brotherhood as the declared islamic leader, with the forked-tongue dissembler, Tariq Ramadan leading the charge. Leftists and some intellectuals and liberal media fall all over themselves praising this purported moderate and intellectual. Ramadan has succeeded in passing himself off as a philosopher, though his background is nothing more than that of a teacher. But he is a superb propagandist who skilfully relies on taqqiya, the command of Sunni doctrine that authorizes muslims to conceal, mislead and lie in order to promulgate the muslim cause. Caroline Fourest's book, Brother Tariq, is a comprehensive history of Ramadan, his origins and his pronouncements. In every way he fulfills the aims of his renowned grandfather, Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. The center for this propaganda is in Geneva, Switzerland, where Ramadan has lived for most of his life, which is headed by his brother. The tentacles of this school reach out across the globe, the USA included. There is no denying the ultimate and proximate causes of ecological disaster: capitalism, corporations, international finance, and economic growth and consumption. But the (un)lucky combination of global warming and financial collapse are now eating away at the seams of this consortium. Less obvious because it has less impact on our financial security is the growth in irrationality, anti-science sentiment (as Muthukat himself utters), and the influence of religion on our most basic institutions and culture. We need to turn our attention to the ongoing widespread subversion of the Enlightenment values that have allowed this country and western Europe to become the last bastions of freedom, democracy and human rights in the whole world. While we cannot let corporations, industry and capitalism off the hook for destroying the world physically, we must pay attention to the subtler forms of intellectual warfare being waged against secular democracies in the name of religion, a war that could easily end in tyranny over all secular societies and bring in a new Dark Age.
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