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[fallabout]

Second opinion: this guy is insane, right? I mean, why else would you adopt the acronym SANE for your hatemongering mission "to map every mosque and Islamic day school in America and to index the Shari'a threat level

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America is seriously getting fucked up... looking at things now, we persecute out most successful and fear anything that is different (quite contradictory to a land that is supposed to covet opportunity and freedom, respectively). What bothers me, is this is not just the Bush administration (incompetent as they are), its a national mindset. I've honestly almost lost all will to vote. We are forced to choose between two 'prepackaged' sides: the islam-hating, "my grampw wazunt no ape" (as you so eloquently put)right wingers who at least value american business, and the hippie liberal everyone is entitled to everything without working for it and, oh yeah, Wal-Mart is the devil lefters. While there are varying degrees of those sides (like the rather millitant 'gentlemen' you mentioned), both are national mindsets.

ON a side note, while I do think this project is ludicrous, I don't think you can compare the islamic situation to that of evangelical christians (I'm not one, btw). Our own country finally saw that the more militant sects of christianity (KKK, etc) were a huge problem and America took steps to get rid of them (yes, they did take their sweet time, but the KKK is no where near what they were 40+ years ago). I personally think the KKK is a good parallel to the jihadists, a small group within the same religion that are in no means a representation of the whole. It would be nice if countries with large jihadists groups would see what they are doing to the islamic religion (whether this view is warranted or not) and do something about it.

However, I would like to once again itterate that I do believe what this NPO is doing is in no way sane.

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Arggghhh! I had a huge, in-depth response to your comment, but livejournal ated it. Bastards.
Basically:

* The parallel isn't between evangelical christianity and jihadism; rather, as noted above, all evangelical ideologies (secular western democracy included) are similar insofar as they would ideally like the whole world agreeing with them. The difference is that some of these ideologies advocate the use of force in this matter.

* It's interesting that you've noticed a polarisation in the US political game... most of what I've heard seemed to imply a massive centrist shift, to the point that 'no matter who you vote for, it turns out the same'. That said, as far as public perception goes, I'd rather take the opinion of a trusted man-on-the-street than of a politiblogger. Personally, I've always distrusted rigidly bipartisan politics; if the trend is becoming more extreme, then I'm worried.

* The KKK/jihadi parallel is solid enough, insofar as extremists of all stripes tend to resemble one another. The problem: the KKK was limited by the government, and likely wouldn't have toned down the cross-burning of its own accord. For those countries with a concentration of militant islamic sentiment to actually 'do something about it', they'd first have to feel that it was a bad thing. And the problem with that is that they've got to come to that conclusion on their own; any overt pressure from any other nation to hurry them along would be seen as exactly the same kind of imperialism that fomented jihadi feeling in the first place!

Blah blah blah. My original version kicked so much more ass. I got to use the phrase 'ideologically homogeneous hegemony' and everything.

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* The parallel isn't between evangelical christianity and jihadism; rather, as noted above, all evangelical ideologies (secular western democracy included) are similar insofar as they would ideally like the whole world agreeing with them. The difference is that some of these ideologies advocate the use of force in this matter.

- Being a believer in natural rights I would say that the use of force is almost the difference between night and day. Yes evangelicals (hell, even many cults) are annoying and persistent... but the mind set is not that one of "if you are not like us, then you are an infidel that cannot be tolerated and must die." There should always be room for a 'live and let live' philosophy.

As far as the polarization goes... there is still a central tendency in policy, but not in attitude. There are noticeable factions in the US, and this divide is only growing. If you ever have time, pick up a copy of Orson Scott Card's Empire (more or less its about a new US civil war without boundaries, ex. leftists vs rightists). It tends to pander to the right, but if you can wade through his agenda (it honestly isn't that bad), it paints a pretty accurate picture of what could happen.

In my opinion, we're so far off from where we started as a country. I've always been intrigued by the concept of 'tyranny of the majority' as discussed by the founding fathers (and, no, I'm not convinced that they are these all-knowing policy makers that created the greatest form of gov't ever)... think about it, if you have a country that promotes democracy and success at the same time, and only 10% of the population have the drive to acquire the most success (ie. people willing to rick being in the poor house by starting their own company), what's to stop the majority from making policy that takes wealth away. I know I've gone off topic, but this is a sore subject for me, given I am going to work for Wal-Mart in June. At any rate, this conversation is better suited over coffee, liquor, or both. Get your ass to Arkansas this winter and we'll pick up where we left off.

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>>I would say that the use of force is almost the difference between night and day.
Oh, for sure! I was speaking in the broadest of terms.

As to Arkansas this winter: tentative plans at this stage to stop over in the States in January before continuing on to Germany. Yay for corporate travelperks!

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So much ground to cover! So many people to see! I'm desperately excited.