[lbo-talk] Islam and Muslims (was Doug and Islam)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 3/16/07, Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
> >Christianity has been a religion of left, right, center,
> > > and the apolitical.
> >
> >Yes, just as Marxism has been a religion of left, right, center, and
> >the apolitical.
> >
> > > religious leftists here
> > > are way too likely to presume the good intentions of their enemies,
> > > and believe that appeals to their conscience will work.
> >
> >That depends on levels of political knowledge and experience, not
> >being a line between religion and irreligion.
> >
> >Many faiths have their just war doctrines and martyrs, some of them
> >who died together with godless Marxists for the same cause.  The
> >religious, including religious leftists, are not necessarily
> >pacifists, nor are atheists necessarily non-pacifists.
> >--
> >Yoshie
>
> Your way of answering specifics with generalizations shares something
> with the way of preachers I've encountered.

There's nothing specific in what Doug said: "Christianity has been a
religion of left, right, center, and the apolitical"; and "religious
leftists here are way too likely to presume the good intentions of
their enemies, and believe that appeals to their conscience will
work."  Both are broad generalizations.  Much the same can be said
about the irreligious, including Marxists.

If you are not a principled pacifist, you might have a sense of
distinction between just and unjust wars, permissible and
impermissible means, and so forth.  Where did your ideas originate?
You may not recolonize it, but, if you are a Westerner, even if you
are irreligious, parts of your ideas about legal and moral codes of
war most likely came from doctrines elaborated by theologians like
Augustine and Aquinas.  The predominantly Islamic world has developed
just war doctrines within Islam (which has had long-standing mutual
intellectual influences with Judaism and Christianity), too, and so
have many other religions.
-- 
Yoshie