The problem is fundamentalism

An ontological pervert has to be an atheist but not a new atheist. No, s/he is too dirty-minded to hang around with that clean-cut crew. S/he doesn't share the same smug disdain for religion and the religious. Her hostility is more measured and targeted--at fundamentalism!

I won't take on all new atheists here, only one oh so superior bastard: Sam Harris. Moreover, I'll just look at his raced reaction to the mass Norwegian killings this past summer.

So, what did Harris say about the massacre of 77 people? Well, Harris takes this teachable moment to tell us that the real problem is, always has been and always will be Islam:

'The emergence of 'Christian' terrorism in Europe does absolutely nothing to diminish or simplify the problem of Islam--its repression of women, its hostility toward free speech, and its all-too-facile and frequent resort to threats and violence. Islam remains the most retrograde and ill-behaved religion on earth.'

First, notice how Christian is placed in quotation marks. Harris does not believe that Breivik is a 'Christian fundamentalist' or even particularly Christian. See, Breivik doesn't really believe and that somehow is a hang-up here. Sweet zombie Jesus! What do his beliefs matter if his actions do the bombing and the shooting all in the name of Christian civilization? Does it really matter whether he was a fundamentalist or not? He walks like one, he talks like one...he sounds like one, even if he didn't have the faith. Harris' quibbles here seems too much like those of Christian apologists who would like to dismiss Breivik: 'Well, he isn't a real Christian, so this isn't an example of Christian terrorism--and that shows how this whole thing is idiosyncratic and not a real terrorist threat.'

Now that Harris has confused matters here, he can go on to the more important business of making sure that everyone doesn't forget about the horror that is Islam: 'one now fears the swing of another pendulum: We are bound to hear a lot of deluded talk about the dangers of 'Islamophobia' and about the need to address the threat of 'terrorism' in purely generic terms.' Yes, we wouldn't want to do that. I mean deal with terrorism as if it was like a tactic or deal with fundamentalism like it was a general problem.

A lot of non-Muslims like to talk about the problem of Islam. But Western civilization I ask you, is it really our problem? Sam Harris et al, shouldn't we really worry about Christian fundamentalism? Doesn't it pose a bigger threat?

Everything Harris and other Muslim-bashers accuse Islamic fundamentalism of is equally true of Christian fundamentalism. Dominionists and reconstructionists and all those other cranks and wierdos connected with the Religious Right deliberately seek to undermine secularism and impose a Biblically-based order. You're worried about Sharia, well, fuck, it is the Christian fundamentalists who stand a fucking good chance of actually introducting their version of it--and are doing their best to implement it step by fucking step. Look at all the laws restricting abortion across the USA right now, what else are those but part of the Christian assault on the modern world?

If you want to find out more about just how crazy, misogynistic and reactionary these Christian fundamentalists really are, read more about: Christian patriarchy, the stay-at-home daughter movement and Quiverfull. Anything supposed Islamic fundamentalists do, these guys do just as well--and unlike 'Islamists' they have connections, resources, and respectability as they attempt to create a society where blasphemy, sodomy, adultery, etc. are punished by death and women must serve their fathers first and their husbands later while they have gaggles of children.

Now, you could object that these groups haven't committed violence--but what the fuck do you call what Breivik did? Oh wait, he wasn't a real Christian so we can dismiss him. So what about the killing of abortion doctors or anti-abortion violence in general? Or the murder of shamans? The Lord's Resistance Army of Uganda?

There is enough evidence here of Christian-motivated terrorism to match any Islam-motivated terrorism. Add that to the movement to return Western societies to the Bronze Age and we have enough here to take the threat of Christian fundamentalism seriously. So why don't we?

Christianity is like whiteness in our culture. Just as whites are the racial universal that goes un-raced and unnoticed, Christianity is the background religious radiation that generally stays invisible because it's just assumed to be normal. That's why Harris sees the Islamic threat but remains blind to the far more immediate threat right before his eyes. That is Islamophobia--demonizing the other while ignoring or downplaying the same junk in your own backyard.

They wear hijabs. Ooooo spooky! We have the stay-at-home daughter movement. Well, that's just normal, isn't it?