Rod Dreher on Journalists and Religion
The DMN’s Rod Dreher has penned a great column about Islamic fanaticism, including this part which concludes with my nomination for Sentence of the Week:
That routine is, alas, not alien to American Muslim leaders with whom I’ve clashed since. They obfuscate what they really believe and try to intimidate critics into silence with accusations of bigotry. They cannily understand that’s kryptonite to many journalists, who find Baptists scarier than Wahhabists.
22 Comments to “Rod Dreher on Journalists and Religion”
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That’s, uh, three sentences. Which one were you nominating? (For the record, I vote for the middle sentence.)
Well, Baptists *are* scary.
@RAB: The part of the column I cited concludes with the sentence that begins, “They cannily understand …” Sorry that wasn’t more clear (though I agree that second sentence is pretty good, too).
Glenn:
To be fair, you did say in your post “which concludes with my nomination . . .” — so my snark was unwarranted (although I still like the second sentence better).
Obfuscate is one of my favorite words. I don’t know why, just like it.
I’m a lapsed Baptist — haven’t been to church in years, but geeeeezus h. christ why are people always slamming Baptists? Some of the most decent, splendid, kind and honorable people are Baptists… They’re not nearly as scary as snakehandlers, people who dress in robes and swing smoking pots while winking at little boys or people who insist that their women cover their faces and if their daughters date out of the faith, they kill ‘em.
So, how about laying off the Baptists?
Yes, how courageous for Dreher to condemn Islamic fanaticism. Poor child, being attacked by all those American Muslim leaders. He must feel so isolated, so embattled. Writing for a conservative paper in a conservative town in a conservative state, Dreher surely faced considerable opposition getting that column in. Which ones on the News’ staff, do you think, tried to stop him?
And how wise — to be able to delineate so crisply Major Hasan’s motivations at a distance, dispensing with any personal, psychological pressures Hasan may have felt and committing totally to the hate-filled, anti-American, Islamic-madman scenario. That always explains a lot.
Baptists are the ones trying to feed, clothe, house, employ and (yes) save those in need. Islamic extremists have honor killings for their females and live to blow up infidels.
Anyone not seeing this is touched.
This is not really on topic, but I couldn’t resist:
Q: What’s the difference between a Baptist and a terrorist?
A: You can negotiate with a terrorist.
*zing*
Dear Surly –
Finding the time to shout “Allahu Akbar” while you are otherwise fully engaged in fatally gunning down a dozen or so unarmed folks pretty much tells the story.
Wise or not — Dreher is spot on.
not just baptists do they find scary, they find most christians scary, but most especially fundamentalists.
yes Rod hit the nail on the head with that column
@Surly you forgot to put this at the end of your comment
Last I checked:
Dr. Tiller was killed by a Christian Fundamentalist.
The Olympic bomber was a Christian Fundamentalist.
The KKK were Christian Fundamentalist.
Operation Rescues’ staff includes a woman convicted of attempting to bomb clinics.
Using Rod’s logic: Christians are violent terrorists too.
The remarkable thing about Islam is that it generally recognizes that humans can be total nutjobs but instead of condemning, reforming, or even just forgiving that behavior they harness it and use it for their ultimate advantage. I’m not saying its morally ‘right’ but its a pretty clever tactic in Gods big “Religion Idol” contest.
Grumpy Demo,
And you’ll also find that mainstream Christian leaders are more likely to condemn these kinds of attacks than Muslim leaders are.
Our Pacific coast has earthquakes.
The south has the heat and the north has the cold.
Atlantic coasts have the hurricanes.
Texas has baptists.
Wait, did you take these lines from an Intelligent Design blog? They fit…
@ Mike Ramsey
Yes, he did shout “Allahu Akbar.” But then, Hasan also joined the Army and rose to the rank of major. Why? If you posit some sort of “sleeper cell” initiative, then why did he go berserk now? And why this rush now, when, with a little planning, he could have caused much more damage? No, what he did suggests a deeply conflicted person, conflicted over faith and country, who finally snapped.
But all this is besides the point. Dreher and Hunter really aren’t writing about Islamic fanaticism. They’re attacking liberal journalists because they didn’t rush to denounce Hasan as a home-grown terrorist. Therefore, they’re aiding the enemy.
Muslim suicide bombers killing Muslims are “conflicted” as well.
Maybe they need more conflict resolution counselors or something.
@ Grumpy:
This is a nation comprised of great majority Christian, so the existence of radical Christians is a statistical expectation.
For comparison, look at the data on extremist actions in Muslim countries that have the same percentage of Christians as we have Muslims.
How many attacks such as Nasan’s are committed against Muslims by fundamentalist Christians in these nations?
How many are committed against Muslims by Muslims?
How many attacks on Muslims in the US has there been since 9/11?
Now, just how dangerous are our home-grown religious radicals today?
Not jumping to conclusions is the soul of American (indeed, post-Enlightenment Western) jurisprudence. While I have worked among and called friend numerous wonderful Muslims, I’ll state unequivocally that the present state of Islam disturbs and enrages me, and Hasan was certainly close enough to a terrorist for me to call him one. But I’m not a journalist — and while journalists aren’t jurists, they have a responsibility not to taint due process.
The Army failed in not weeding this guy out. The “PC media” have done their collective job, by my lights.
Pot/Kettle/Pot