July 24 2010
A church in Gainesville, FL has declared September 11, 2010 International Burn a Koran Day. This is part of an increasing tide of anti-Islam rhetoric in the popular media. Many books and websites clamor for our attention with claims that Islam:
- is not a religion;
- is of the devil;
- seeks world domination;
- and they also claim that Koran and Hadith teach hatred.
Often such claims are accompanied by images of and quotes from Muslims or quotes from the Koran and Hadith that seem to support them.
These are the same claims made against the Judaism by Nazi propagandists in the 1930s and 40s.
- is not a religion;
- is of the devil;
- seeks world domination;
- and they also claim that the Torah and Talmud teach hatred
These propaganda materials are also accompanied by images of and quotes from Jews and from the Torah and Talmud that seem to support them.
Propagandists never tell the whole story, and what they do tell is demonstrably false misleading. Careful examination of the claims of propagandists, both past and present, demonstrates that they are engaging in logical fallacies, using selective partial quotes without regard to any larger context, or even outright misquotes, claiming the text says something it does not.
There are some important differences in the rhetoric that result from differences in times and circumstances. The first is that in case of anti-Jewish propaganda, Judaism is identified not as a religion, but a race. This reflected the widely accepted notion that personal moral characteristics could be attributed to race, an idea which was popular at that time. Today, that notion is no longer acceptable. However, it is acceptable to attribute personal moral characteristics to political ideology. Because of this, anti-Islam propagandists claim, “Islam is not a religion. It is a political ideology.” Both of these are logical fallacy, false and deceptive reasoning.
Most people easily see how the first is a fallacy because different people of the same race can have markedly different personal and moral characters. Fewer people are aware that there is no political system defined by the Koran and Hadith, and that because of this, different Muslims often hold markedly different political and ideological views. That is why Anjem Choudary argues that democracy is an anathema, while Abdulaziz Sachedina argues for the Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism.
Another difference is the ways the propagandists claim their target group is using to accomplish its goals. For the propagandists of the 1930s and 40s, the target group was attempting to accomplish its world domination through infiltrating the realms of art, culture, and medicine, and by controlling the financial system. The propagandists to prove the “truth” of their claims used the fact that there were many members of the target group in these areas. This is also a clear example logical fallacy, false and deceptive reasoning. It does not follow that having a large representative presence in these areas leads to world domination.
In our time, it is not through arts, culture, medicine, or finances that the target group is said to be accomplishing domination, but through political participation. This too is a fallacy because participating in a political process does not lead to world domination. In order to succeed in domination through political participation, those wishing to dominate have to succeed in the process. As Fareed Zakaria pointed out in his interview with Anjem Choudary, those Muslims who hold anti-democratic worldviews do not win in democratic elections.
Are there Muslims who espouse a militant intolerance? Absolutely. Is this something unique to Muslims? Absolutely not. There are militant Christians and Jews as well who see it is as their divinely appointed duty to take over and rule in the name of God.
Take this quiz and see if you can tell which religious figure said what. You may be surprised.
The problem in all of this is the intolerance and ignorance that allow propaganda to overcome reason. When that happens, then religious militancy becomes a threat to us all, no matter what religions are involved.