Tuesday, October 19, 2004

NY Times doesn't really grasp the idea...

So I'm reading the feature article in the New York Times on Monday, which was about Europe's efforts to regulate Islam and try to create "positive" religious leaders to counteract the hate spewed by the mullahs and imams of today.

Now I know the bible-thumpers and God Squad leaders in America are having their hairs stand up on end over this idea of the government "regulating" their faith. But also bear in mind where this is taking place: Socialist France! And in all honesty at least they recognize the abuses of religion. They don't BS these things by declaring the abusers to be "not TRUE followers". They also recognize the value of secularism in society, which is also something that American religious leaders are too damned egotistical to admit to. Unfortunately, France has way too many other government issues to deal with... Socialism itself being one of them.

But there was one comment made by a theology student that just blew my mind! He wondered just WHY anyone would want to become an imam. After all, the pay sucks. There's no security. And all that most people expect of an imam is just someone to lead off with prayers and officiate certain services. It blew my mind as to how CLUELESS this student was!

You want to know why anyone would consciously want to become an imam? Well writing off divine inspiration and a fanatical desire to do good, the essential reason behind the vocational desire can be summed up with just one word: POWER!

An imam is a religious leader. People turn to him for advice and guidance. He has influence over them, thus he has POWER over them. He can use that influence to his advantage, just like the Taliban did in Afghanistan.

That's why religious leaders crave government power, because it's not enough to just have influcence over your faithful. They need government to have influence over everyone else as well.

Why can't the NY Times get it?
And of course it's not just the Muslims who do this. They're just the uncontrollable brats right now in sore need of a social spanking. Trust me, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Wait until the Christians kick things up a notch.

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