From: "cwright" <cwright-AT-21stcentury.net>
Subject: AUT: Fundamentalism A-go-go
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 22:44:08 -0500


 Cuz I can't let it go.  Harald, on this fundamentalism thing we really
disagree...\\\

Subject: [BlueEarForum] Re: Rise of fundamentalism

 Jim Austin wrote:
 I agree completely that this is more a fundamentalist/non-fundamentalist
divide than a Christian/Muslim one. But there's one other major distinction
that needs to be made: the extent to which one is willing to use violence to
achieve one's ends. Pat Robertson is ideological bedfellows with bin Laden,
but I doubt he sees genocide as a legitimate means of achieving his goals.
That's a very important distinction.

Bin Laden is an evil man who supports the use of terrorism to achieve
Muslim revolution, but he has not explicitly called for genocide. And
actually, Pat Robertson *has* supported genocide. Take a look at the gross
slaughters committed in Guatemala under Efrain Rios Montt, a born-again
Christian who became president after a military coup in March 1982. Rios
Montt was a convert to Verbo Ministries, which runs several schools of
evangelism and has a master plan of evangelism directed to  convert the
Latin American continent for Christ. Hap Brooks, a preacher from Florida,
hailed the Rios Montt coup as "the greatest miracle of the twentieth
century, formed in heaven before it was formed on earth." Rios Montt
announced that his movement would "moralize national life from the top
down." During the counterinsurgency campaign which he initiated, Verbo
Ministries were valuable allies of the military while it murdered some
200,000 people, mostly Mayan Indians. Rios Montt was also supported by Pat
Robertson, Jerry Falwell and the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries.

 You can also find a sizeable population in the United States, which openly
advocates genocide. For starters, there's columnist Ann Coulter with her
recent call to invade Muslim countries, "kill their leaders and convert them
to Christianity." I could add a list of prominent people in the United
States who have suggested that we ought to retaliate against Bin Laden by
nuking Afghanistan until all life there has been exterminated -- a final
solution that would kill 20 million people. Not only has this recommendation
been publicly broadcast by influential political figures and conservative
think tanks, you can walk into any tavern in the United States, and odds are
you'll find someone there who agrees with it. Thankfully, this type of
thinking is still a minority viewpoint, but I think it is as widespread
within the American population as Bin Laden's heretical version of Islam
within the world population of Muslims. And it's not a new phenomenon. For
example, I remember seeing "Nuke Iran" T-shirts when I was in college during
the Iranian hostage crisis, and I've heard people periodically opine that we
should deal with Castro by nuking Cuba.

 I don't think the evidence supports a conclusion that Islam as a worldwide
movement is any more supportive of violence in the world today than
Christianity or Americanism.
 --------------------------------
Sheldon Rampton
Editor, PR Watch (www.prwatch.org)
Author of books including: Toxic Sludge Is Good For You (1995), Mad Cow
USA (1997), Trust Us, We're Experts (2001)



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