Another day, another headline about evil Muslims indoctrinating our youth with hatred, evil, and murderous desire masquerading as devout religion. You’d be forgiven, sometimes, for reviewing our media and concluding that to become a Muslim is to become a suicide bomber.

Of course, the truth is that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful people, who just want to get on with life. Some radicals do want to blow themselves – and others – into the imaginary next life, but most of them don’t.

You can’t deny that Islamic fundamentalism is a problem with modern society, but it is part of a broader problem that we sometimes forget about. Because, overall, it is religious fundamentalism that causes so many problems today. Don’t just blame Islam, ‘cos Christianity can be such as bad.

Take a look at this article about Jesus Camp in America. It makes for eye-opening, and rather frightening, reading. For the indoctrination and radicalisation of youth described in the article isn’t happening in a Muslim training camp in the deserts of Afghanistan, but rather in a Christian summer camp in the American heartland. Yep, that’s right, at the very heart of the country that is fighting a war on terror against Islamic fundamentalists, Christian fundamentalists are indoctrinating the youth with hate filled, hideous lies masquerading as biblical truth. Two passages spring out to me in the article:

"…a slick, clever, politically ambitious preacher tells his 2,500-strong congregation of impressionable young people that they should have no use for democracy since all the law they need is in the Bible."

That’s right. Bye bye democracy. Bye bye freedom of speech. There is only one truth. The truth contained in the archaic, incoherent and ancient Bible.
And then the article goes on:

"There is no love here. No turning to your neighbour and exchanging a sign of peace. This is not Christianity as we know it. What we see in the movie is children in their hundreds being indoctrinated by nutcases, encouraged to hate and fear and ready themselves for ultimate war."

That’s right, "ultimate war". That’s the sort of phrase that you just can’t spin in a positive way. Preparing the youth for ultimate war is a totally terrifying concept.

I’m tired of reading about how bad Muslim fundamentalism is when other radical wings of various religions are just as bad. Religious fundamentalists of all creeds are unthinking, ignorant creatures, who cling to the ancient words in their out of date texts believing them to be an absolute and indisputable truth. It doesn’t matter whether you follow the teachings of Mohammed or of Jesus. The former strap back packs to themselves and blow up trains to enter paradise, the latter blow up abortion clinics to preserve the sanctity of life. The fundamentalist nature of the religious beliefs is the problem, not the idiosyncratic semantics of the individual creeds.

UPDATE:

And this article shows another example of religious fundamentalism gone hideously wrong. I can understand - and almost admire - this woman for dying for her beliefs. Then I think of the new widower, of the kids who will never grow up knowing their Mum, and who, no doubt, will be indoctrinated with the same warped, archaic beliefs that killed their mother. I know I should support the rights of anyone to have any beliefs they feel are right.

But I will also support my right to tell them that those beliefs are, not to put too fine a point on it, fucking stupid.