Fundamentalism: All Mental, No Fun

Submitted by D. Benjamin (United States), Feb 5, 2006 at 22:09

Marx said religion was the opiate of the people but Islam is more like crack. It doesn't seem like the frenzied masses in Syria and elsewhere realize their behavior is just the kind of behavior the cartoons are mocking, mirthlessly. The cartoons aren't really meant to be laughed at, they're not really funny; they're more of a grim observation. Muslims who are lighting things on fire and calling for beheadings are certainly missing the point.

I searched for quite a while to find the images. No mainstream press in the US is running the cartoons, not that I could find. They must be intimidated, which is not a good thing.

I was hoping after 9/11 people in the US would say 'enough is enough' with fundamentalists of any stripe, including the vocal and self-righteous Christian fundamentalists right here in the US, who insist all sorts of preposterous ideas be taught in schools and made into law. They may not burn embassies and consulates but they do blow up women's health clinics.

The parallel between Muslim fundamentalists and Christian fundamentalists is they are both regressive, both punitive and both think that god is behind them. It's pretty arrogant, and to quote good ol' Oscar Wilde, 'Selfishness is not living as one likes; selfishness is wanting others to live as one likes.'

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