Noam Chomsky - "Is Islam the Enemy?"

Chomsky responding to a common reactionary argument; that the US is "at war with Islam."

Excerpt from "Propaganda And Control Of The Public Mind" (1998)

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• chomsky
• islam
• arab
• middle
• east
• war
• on
• terror
• dissident
• leftist

[gspaulsson]

@DerBlitzStag That is an oversimplification. Towards the end, Islamic Spain split into four states, which were then reunited under a fanatical sect, the Almoravids, who then fell to a still more fanatical North African sect, the Almohades. Both sects persecuted the Jews, who escaped to the Christian north, where they enjoyed the "Silver Age of Spanish Jewry". That lasted until around 1400, when the success of the Reconquista was assured and the Jews became dispensable.

[Mysteryskatin]

@musikali1 Look up Al Qaeda's 1998 fatwa. Even that Suharto would try to rally people under the banner of Islamic extremism tells you something. Religion can be used to justify or condemn anything because of God's omnipresent and all-knowing nature. I'm obviously not saying Islam is a marauding bunch of cretins who wish to destroy civilization, which is why I gave modern Indonesia as an example, but it can make a rational man do things he knows would be wrong without religion's endoresement.

[musikali1]

@Mysteryskatin

I can't find any reference for that. Can you direct me?

What I found says Suharto tried to gain the support of Islamists by Jihad porpaganda, but most Muslims didn't buy it.

[Mysteryskatin]

@musikali1 Because when the UN intervened in the late 90's to make East Timor a UN protectorate it took land from Muslims. It is one of the reason holy war was declared against the United States. (Even though the US shamefully supported the Indonesian invasion.) The fact that sometimes you can be brainwashed to commit atrocities does not make the claim that religious fundamentalism also breeds hate, and that religion also implements a certain sadistic zeal, untrue at all.

[musikali1]

@Mysteryskatin

Abuses happen in any third world nation. They're prone to religious extremism because they're poor and not industrialized. Look at the wars in Africa, like Congo. Kid are brainwashed to be killers, without religions involved. Enlightenment comes with wealth and technological development. Western countries don't make an effort to change that unless it's in their self-interest.

How was East Timor a reason for Jihad? the victims were Catholic, the killers Muslims

[Mysteryskatin]

@musikali1 I've read Manufacturing Consent too, buddy, lol. I'm not looking for historical prospectives on religion because they are so easily dismissed by those in the religion. Modern day Indonesia is a relatively progressive Muslim nation. (For a Muslim nation.) It is not burdened by religious fundamentalism to the degree Saudi Arabia or Egypt is. Women and gays are not being stoned in the street.

I know all about East Timor. (It's one of the reasons fundamentalists declared holy war on us)

[musikali1]

@Mysteryskatin

How is Indonesia an exception? Didn't their kill 1,000,000 of their people in 1965, destroying democracy? Didn't they erase a third of the population of East Timor just to expand their power?

Oh right, they're an exception because they did ALL this with the support of USA, UK and Australia (known by declassified documents), so they're the good guys in the Muslim world.

Indonesian dictator Suharto was worse than Saddam Hussein, and any Muslim leader of our time.

[teevanator]

@oldstock1607 Where did you get that figure from?

[Mysteryskatin]

Religion is the enemy of civilization, though more specifically, Islam. Westerners simply ignore the bad parts of their holy books, though it is often not the case in Islam. You obviously have exceptions, such as Indonesia, and I'm obviously not suggesting all Muslims are bad folks, but the ideology itself, as well as the vast majority of religions, is detrimental to our species. The US is not "at war with Islam," but all rational people should be at war with religion.

[oldstock1607]

@teevanator yet he gets anywhere from $600,000 to 1 million dollars per speaking engagement. If he doesn't care about money, he's certainly getting paid like he does.