Arraya: Hell, its the Catholic Church. Does it really surprise you that they might have found common cause with the Iranians? No, I’m not being snarky.
I would like to pose a question to you and Dan, and follow up on an observation of Dan’s. Here’s my question: Both Christianity and Islam started off “under the gun”, so to speak. The early Christian (what I would call Catholic) church was heavily persecuted and prosecuted under Roman rule (it was a proscribed faith and practiced under pain of death) and yet Christianity not only emerged from this as a peaceful faith, it went on to convert the very empire that subjugated it (becoming the Holy Roman Empire in the bargain).
Islam had similar beginnings, although starting out later than the early Christian/Catholic church (7th century, if I’m not mistaken). Once it gained a foothold, it spread quite rapidly (almost virally) and was “evangelized” at sword point. Its gains were predominantly martial and it rapidly overtook Christianity in terms of “preparing the way of the Lord” (in this case, Allah).
Don’t you find the dichotomy interesting? I do, and the respective histories of both faiths HAVE to inform not only the early teachings and writings, but carry forward to the present day.
Hence the use of the “Crusader” meme in not only Jihadist invocations, but mainstream Islam as well. There is a persistent strain of victimhood present and it rings clearly in interviews, articles and references to the collisions of Christian and Muslim faiths and cultures.
I would argue that Islam’s virulent reaction to modernity (as seen in dress, mores, strictures, etc) is a direct result not only of the teachings, but a culture tied to the Qu’ran in terms of government, law and society.
