Murderous Muslims, Catholic Extermination Camps, and Common Sense

Chauvinists on both, or all, sides of the War on Terror are doing Islam, Western civilization, and Christianity, no favors.

Epithets like "towel head" and "dog" reduce discussion of the current global conflict to name-calling. This is nothing new. In my youth, it was terms like "commie" and "capitalist lackey." As a "capitalist lackey," I'm rather glad that the "plutocratic oppressors" weren't replaced with collectives, and that Russia is in the process of sorting itself out.

During the Cold War, I could be amused by the 'capitalist running-dog militaristic aggressor' speeches in the United Nations. The daft, simplistic, name-calling rants by some who seemed to think they were defending Freedom, America, and Decent Folks Like Us, were an embarrassment.

Today, it's 'déjà vu all over again.'

Murderous Muslims, Catholic Extermination camps, and "Self-Satisfied Ignorance"

The behavior of bin Laden and Ante Paveliç have given Islam and Christianity a rather bad name. Paul Myers and his academic colleagues have a little evidence to back up their attitude toward religion in general.

Academic freedom, American style

The point is: every group, if it's large enough, is going to have its crazies. Talking about the 2008 American presidential election, I wrote: "When elections shake the tree of liberty, quite a few loose nuts fall out."

I'd expand that to include most stressful situations.

Thanks to Al Qaeda's impassioned and, in my view, misguided, defense of Islam, many people know who Osama bin Laden is. Ante Paveliç isn't so much of a household name, at least not in America.

Catholic Concentration Camps in Croatia!

Someone going by the name of akhter left a half-dozen or so comments on this blog yesterday. Long ones. Two on one post.

This akhter knows quite a bit about Christianity. And, those murderous Catholics:

"...Surprisingly few know that Nazi extermination camps in World War II were by no means the only ones in Europe at the time. In the years 1942-1943 also in Croatia existed numerous extermination camps, run by Catholic Ustasha under their dictator Ante Paveliç, a practicing Catholic and regular visitor to the then pope. There were even concentration camps exclusively for children!..."
(February 7, 2009 - you'll have to search the comments for this gem)

I don't doubt that Paveliç was a "practicing Catholic and regular visitor to the then pope." I don't doubt that. The Kennedy's are generally billed as 'practicing Catholics.' Which is regarded as a scandal by Catholics who pay closer attention to what the Roman Catholic Church actually teaches. But that's a different topic, for a different blog.
I also don't doubt that rather disgusting things happened in Croatia, and Serbia, and other places in that part of the world.

But I don't regard Paveliç's "Catholic" concentration camps as typically Catholic, any more than I regard the 9/11 attack as typically "Islamic."

9/11, by the way, wasn't a CIA plot. According to akhter, it's America's fault. And the fault of the Jews. Specifically, Israel:

"...The reason for the appearance of these anti-Muslim attacks is linked to the active or passive support of Western powers of the invasions of two Islamic countries, Iraq and, previous to that, Afghanistan. Supposedly, this was in revenge for the murderous Muslim attacks on the USA in 2001. However, those attacks were themselves in revenge for the American support of the State of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of Arabs which that State has carried out in Palestine for nearly sixty years. Thus began the present spiral...."
(February 7, 2009 - again, you'll have to search in akhter's comment)

'Simplistic,' and Loving it

Quoting myself again (a bad habit, I'm told):

"...I've been informed, from time to time, that my views are 'simplistic.'
"If it's 'simplistic' to deviate from the assumptions of Professor Churchill, Code Pink, ANSWER, and people who are upset by the use of draftees in Bush's war on Iraq, then my approach to reality is simplistic.

"And I wouldn't have it any other way...."
(January 11, 2009)

I've corresponded with enough Muslims, and have studied what has (and hasn't) been happening enough, to believe that "Islam is a peaceful religion." At least in some cultures. And, I've known enough Christians to believe that the Ku Klux Klan and the Westboro Baptist Church (the one in Topeka, Kansas) aren't typically Christian organizations.
But, I also don't believe that the CIA blew up New York City's World Trade Center, that the Middle East imbroglio is the fault of the Jews, or that America is a racist oppressor. In fact, I am at best extremely skeptical of all 'it is the fault of the---' belief systems.

That makes me "ignorant" or "unintelligent" in the eyes of quite a few of the 'right sort' of people. But, I'm okay with that.

Does this Post Sound Familiar? There's a Reason

I just remembered: I wrote a post recently, on roughly the same subject: "Retard! Or, How Not to Make Your Point" (January 20, 2009).

Related posts:

• "What is Islam? Even Muslims Don't Seem to Agree"
  (February 6, 2009)
• "Retard! Or, How Not to Make Your Point"
  (January 20, 2009)
• "Another War-on-Terror Blog and Simplistic Views"
  (January 11, 2009)
• "Ayman al-Zawahiri: The Face of Islam?"
  (January 6, 2009)
• "'Why is Everybody Always Picking on Me?' - The United Nations, Muslims, Zionists, and 'Those People'"
  (October 5, 2008)
  Particularly "A Secret Enemy Makes Life So Much Easier "
• " 'Self-Satisfied Ignorance?' Eucharist, Quran, and Atheist Book Trashed"
  (August 5, 2008)
• " 'Will the Real Islam, Please Stand up?' "
  (February 6, 2008)