Warning! Not Politically Correct!

Allow me to preface this rantzilla with a bit of explanation: My father, raised a devout Catholic and converted later in life to a feel-good version of Christianity, is quite the philosophy/religion scholar and in particular is an expert on Islam. Since my mom, and therefore I, am Jewish, he and I have had many an enlighting discussion on the topic of religion. A massive chunk of what I've learned, I've learned from him.

Dad is a kind and generous man who almost always has a sunny disposition. I say almost, because he gets feral when watching hockey on TV. Everyone at his church adores him, and he's a big favorite at the Bible College, due probably to his bottomless love for his faith and his phenomenal knowledge of the world's religions.

My father told me the Koran is a fictionalized account of the life and times of a dangerously violent lunatic. My (admittedly) half-hearted attempts to read the Koran and root out some meaning from it came to naught. I have Muslim friends, including an especially sweet and rosy-cheeked girl from Oregon who became a Sunii Muslim as an adult. They tell me true Islam is a peaceful, meaningful religion. I don't buy it. I'm inclined to think my father is right about the Koran being a madman's diary, something amended and appended over time according to who was using it to control their populace.

You may be thinking: "Gee, that sounds familiar!" I'm getting to that. When I try to espouse my opinion to Dad that I feel more or less the same way about Christians and the Bible (although I don't suppose Jesus of Nazareth was a madman, rather a well-meaning and probably ideologically ahead-of-his-time street corner prophet)You certainly can draw parallels between Christian terrorism in other centuries to Islamic terrorism today.

Which is why I have no tolerance for criminals of any religion. To my mind, it's equally hard to tell a peaceful Christian or Muslim from a deranged one. In both cases, the deranged ones try to pass themselves off as the peaceful ones in order to carry out their despicable acts. To crazy Muslim credit, they are generally straightforward in expressing their intent, where crazy Christians delight in subterfuge and bald-faced lies.

These extreme versions of religion, both offshoots of Judaism, which is in turn an amalgamation of oral history and ritualistic paganism, are running things in their respective religious communities. They manage this the same way: fear. Why the vast, peaceful majorities of each faiths do not assert themselves is what they should be asking themselves, instead of What Would Jesus Do? or How do I get my 40 virgins?

The other world's religions, those that survived forcible conversions by the Christians and/or Muslims, are by-and-large thriving, peaceful communities. Go figure! Ever hear of Tibetan Buddhists strapping explosives to themselves and blowing up a Chinese nightclub? They probably have more incentive to do so than those Arabs in Israel who like to call themseles "Palestinians", but they don't. Hindus running into Southeast Asia and forcing agrarian natives to accept Hinduism or die? Nope.

Anyway, what I'm getting at, and what makes my wonderful Superfly boyfriend gnash his teeth, is that I don't trust Muslims or Christians. They may look nice and normal, but how do I know they aren't on their way to blow up my subway train, or lobbying Congress to take away my rights that are at odds with their personal belief?

Does that make me a bigot? I don't care if it does. Besides, they're probably looking at me and thinking, "Infidel/Dirty Jew/American scum/Feminist/etc."

:end rant"