the reason the Christians accepted it, when forced to, is that it is in the Bible.
I'm not terribly familiar with the doctrines on either side, but I am painfully familiar with the history, and I know very well that when Christian religious leaders sought temporal power they never had any problem coming up with doctrinal justification. Christian groups that would like to see the current separation of Church and State ended have no problem citing kilometric Biblical passages in support of their view. Fortunately, because we have effective secular government, only the obsessed will ever listen.
I am shaking my head as I write this, Atheist that I am, to find myself defending Christianity, but it has gone through a reformation and been domesticated.
Precisely my point. Christianity, in its day, produced as much violence and as much oppression as Islam does today, until the rise of secular government forced the clerics out of power.
Islam never will.
Never is a big word. I'm sure a Jew living in Spain during the inquisition would have had a very hard time imagining the domesticated Christian churches of today. Islam will be domesticated: the question is when, and how violent the process will be.
Any exclusivist and/or absolutist ideology, whether religious or secular, carries in it the seeds of tyranny. The trick is not to select the "right" exclusivist/absolutist ideology, but to prevent any of them from achieving power. |
