Religious Liberalism
Saturday, November 04, 2006
For some reason, I was dreaming about Iraq on Friday night.
It seems to me that certain streams of Islam are totally incompatible with liberal democracy (no surprise there). The question Western societies have (and Iraq too) is how to deal with these streams of Islam. If their Imams call for murder (or their flock participates in it), then they can be arrested - but that is often too little too late. The Imams from these groups know it, and so know how to say what they want to say while dancing around these rules. I know it sounds a little radical, but I wouldn't mind extending the limits on speech and religion in this case. I would argue that any church that preaches certain illiberal concepts (primarily unequal rights for different classes of citizens) ought to be censored in some way.
You can then put a cap on radical groups, like the Muslim Brotherhood and its many children, while allowing other streams to grow and succeed.
There are two sides to the separation of church and state. In the US, the state can't have any involvement in churches. But isn't it reasonable to say that the church ought not try to fundamentally change the liberal nature of the state?
Thoughts?
Joseph ΒΆ 4:32 PM 4 comments
It seems to me that certain streams of Islam are totally incompatible with liberal democracy (no surprise there). The question Western societies have (and Iraq too) is how to deal with these streams of Islam. If their Imams call for murder (or their flock participates in it), then they can be arrested - but that is often too little too late. The Imams from these groups know it, and so know how to say what they want to say while dancing around these rules. I know it sounds a little radical, but I wouldn't mind extending the limits on speech and religion in this case. I would argue that any church that preaches certain illiberal concepts (primarily unequal rights for different classes of citizens) ought to be censored in some way.
You can then put a cap on radical groups, like the Muslim Brotherhood and its many children, while allowing other streams to grow and succeed.
There are two sides to the separation of church and state. In the US, the state can't have any involvement in churches. But isn't it reasonable to say that the church ought not try to fundamentally change the liberal nature of the state?
Thoughts?
Joseph ΒΆ 4:32 PM 4 comments
