"Corruptio Optimi Pessima" and why the Best Amendment is #1

A few weeks ago I was strolling through the Union Bookstore to buy highlighters. As I passed the magazine stand, I was struck by a Newsweek magazine titled the “War on Christianity.” Quite naturally, I became concerned at the idea. I thought “How on earth could there be a ‘War against Christianity’? It is never mentioned in the news. We don’t talk about it during class. It is rare that a group that is not a minority in America even makes the news.”  I opened the magazine thinking that the term ‘war’ was being used metonymically, as it so often is these days. Unfortunately, I was dead wrong. The article reported the genocide caused by Islamic tyranny in the Middle East:

“We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.”

The article also explained why “The War on Christianity” was unknown to me. Islamic Lobbyist groups have suppressed stories referring to the violence of Islam to prevent Muslims in America from having their feelings hurt:

“Over the past decade, these and similar groups have been remarkably successful in persuading leading public figures and journalists in the West to think of each and every example of perceived anti-Muslim discrimination as an expression of a systematic and sinister derangement called “Islamophobia”—a term that is meant to elicit the same moral disapproval as xenophobia or homophobia.”

The article later coins the term ‘Christophobia’ which should elicit moral disapproval to any self-respecting person. It is important for people to realize that the intolerance of Christianity has devastating effects in the world. It is common to hear people advocating for the fair treatment of homosexuals, females, and Muslims in America. This is a fine example of Democracy; however, it should not be forgotten that the damage caused by homophobia and ‘Islamophobia’ is meager in comparison to ‘Christophobia.’

Be forwarned,

This article is full of tragic stories of Islamic violence:

 http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/02/05/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html

 Below are two examples that I find relevant to Burke’s concept of creating a “symbol of the common enemy”:

“When a Christian group is suspected of transgressing the blasphemy laws, the consequences can be brutal. Just ask the members of the Christian aid group World Vision. Its offices were attacked in the spring of 2010 by 10 gunmen armed with grenades, leaving six people dead and four wounded. A militant Muslim group claimed responsibility for the attack on the grounds that World Vision was working to subvert Islam. (In fact, it was helping the survivors of a major earthquake.)

 “The newest such organization is an outfit that calls itself Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sacrilege.” Its aim is to establish Sharia in Nigeria. To this end it has stated that it will kill all Christians in the country.In the month of January 2012 alone, Boko Haram was responsible for 54 deaths. In 2011 its members killed at least 510 people and burned down or destroyed more than 350 churches in 10 northern states. They use guns, gasoline bombs, and even machetes, shouting “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) while launching attacks on unsuspecting citizens.

In the Boko Haram example, the “symbolic common enemy” of Islamic Jihadists is not limited to Christianity alone; all western thought is villified. While reading about Hitler’s use of Catholicism in conjuring up a Fascist State, I thought of similarities and differences between the Nazi's and the Muslim's tactics of using religion to create a ‘common enemy’. As we can see in Persepolis (and the CIA world fact book), Iran is a theocratic republic. The people are governed by Sharia Law (divine law specified in the Koran.) This is very common in the Middle East.

As we saw in Persepolis, Iran had an authoritarian system of government before it was overthrown to become a theocratic republic. Nazi Germany, inversely, was formerly the Weimar Republic. This was before Hitler changed the country into a dictatorship.  This means that instead of being governed by a dictator’s principle of unification, the people of Iran are ruled by Sharia Law (divine law specified in the Koran). Therefore, according to the structure of a republic, the people are free to elect leaders who operate without complete authority. These new leaders could be sympathetic to genocide, and work to mend the hateful attitudes Islamic fundamentalists perpetuate in their own societies. Why is it then that these countries allow Islamic violence to be glamorized to the point of martyrdom?  A quote from Burke says:   

Hitler appeals by relying upon a bastardization of fundamentally religious patterns of thought. In this, if properly presented, there is no slight to religion. There is nothing in religion proper that requires a fascist state. There is much in religion when misused that does lead to a fascist state (219).

 As Burke clearly acknowledges, Hitler warped Christianity into a corrupt ideology that he used to help control the consciences of people in a fascist Germany. Who is it then,that has corrupted Islam into a religion of intolerance and hate? If countries such as Iran declare themselves to be a republic, why are Christians still being persecuted as though they live in an authoritarian fascist state? I am still researching this question and I think it is important for us all to do the same, especially since Iran is on the verge of possessing nuclear weapons. Here is what I have found from the most rudimentary source at the earliest stage of research. The OED defines:

 Jihad Islam. A religious war of Muslims against unbelievers, inculcated as a duty by the Qur'an and traditions.

 Islamic Jihad  to designate a group of Muslim extremist organizations in the Middle East influenced by the teachings of the Iranian Imam Khomeini.

America’s founding fathers knew that in order to form a truly sovereign Republic; Theology and Government had to be kept separate. That is why in America we have the freedom, given to us by the first amendment, to practice any religion we would like. I have enough faith in my fellow Americans, as well as in our constitution, to doubt that anything minutely close to true fascism could arise in Western civilization ever again. I respect those that do not, because they are practicing their freedom of expression.