Fundamentalism

LONDON — A radical cleric encouraged his followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims in taped sermons found in his home after his arrest, prosecutors said Wednesday at the start of his trial on charges of encouraging murder and fomenting racial hatred.

The story about Abu Hamza al-Masri reminded me of an interview in Der Spiegel "There is a Real Fear of Radical Imams" with Jytte Klausen, a Danish-American academic who spent the past two years exploring the issues surrounding the integration of Muslims in Europe.

Klausen: There is a real fear of radical imams. I spoke to a lot of people who were worried their children would fall into the hands of the radical imams because they are already alienated -- one woman told me her son had come home and said to her, "They all think I am a Muslim, they all expect the worst from me, that I am a radical, so I might as well do it."

The danger is when Muslim youth fall under the sway of "Koran believing, Koran teaching" fundamentalist Imams. Hal Lindsey, author of The Everlasting Hatred - The Roots of Jihad has stated that the great majority of Muslims are like Christians; they don't know what their Holy Book says. The trouble, according to Lindsey, is that the Koran and the Hadith have over one hundred calls to violence and jihad. For Christians, the Bible is a call to repentance and the peace of a loving Savior. For Muslims, the Koran is a call to Holy war. For too many others at the BBC Have Your Say website, there's no difference between the two:

If a Christian fundamentalist like George Bush is allowed to have nuclear weapons, why not Iran ? And, don't forget, the most extreme fundamentalist to have his finger on a nuclear button was Ronald Reagan, who believed that the end of the world (which a nuclear war could bring about) would lead to himself and the 'true believers' being lifted up to heaven in rapture. After those two, anyone would be less extreme and more trustworthy with a nuclear stockpile !
JFM, LONDON