American Wahabbis and the Ten Commandments

William Thatcher Dowell confuses the Saudi Wahabbis with the American Wahabbis and the Ten Commandments could become one of the graven images forbidden under the first commandment.

In the United States as in the Middle East, the core of this Puritanism stems from a nostalgia for an imaginary past -- in our case, a belief that the U.S. was a wonderful place when it was peopled mostly by pioneers who came from good northern European stock, who knew right from wrong, and weren't afraid to back up their beliefs with a gun, or by going to war, if they needed to.

The founding fathers, of course, had a very different vision. They had seen the damage caused by the arcane disputes which triggered the religious wars of the seventeenth century. They preferred the ideas of the secular enlightenment, which instead of forcing men to accept the religious interpretations of other men, provided the space and security for each man to seek God in his own way.

The idea that religious values should affect, and indeed control politics, is something that you hear quite often in the Islamic world. But perhaps the strongest rationale for separating these two dimensions of our daily lives is that politics inevitably involves compromise, while religion involves a spiritual ideal in which compromise can be fatal. The conflict is easy to see in contemporary Iran. Iran's rulers have had to choose whether they consider politics or religion to be most important. Ayatollah Khomeini himself once stated that if forced to choose between Islamic law and Islamic rule, he would choose Islamic rule. The effect of that decision was to betray Islamic law and ultimately God. Iran's genuine Islamic scholars have found themselves under continual pressure to change their understanding of God in order to conform to political realities.

One of the political realities is that the ruling class (Feudal or Capitalist) needs to justify its existence to the oppressed. This is done through control of the education system, the mass media, and religion. All of these are strongly encouraged to support the status quo else they are persecuted if they do not. Witness the attacks on universities, the indymedia and deviant sects such as the Branch Davidians, Quakers, etc.

Here the similarity between the Saudi and US fundamentalists end. The Saudis are propping up a system in which everyone has an unchanging place it while the US system has the myth of self-advancement (i.e. you are the master of your own fate). These two ideologies cannot exist side by side. One must destroy the other. Historically, Capitalism triumphs over Feudalism unless there is a strong countervailing force. Nowadays, this force is the US military.

Now this is a contradiction. In the early stages of Capitalism, Capitalists are evangelical - everyone should be a capitalist (self-motivated, striving, achieving, risk-taking). This is the power of early Capitalism. It thrives on competition. It is literally revolutionary. As wealth accumulates in fewer and fewer hands, competition is seen as an evil so the spread of Capitalism must be curtailed lest a superior economy should emerge. Now we are in the reactionary phase of Capitalism. The advanced Capitalist countries must actively destroy all potential Capitalist economies in the rest of the world. This is being achieved through the crushing third world debt, and corporate globalisation.

The very success of the Capitalist economies makes them the ideal to be achieved. Almost everyone wants to live like an (white) American with all that wealth. (The white trash have vanished). People of drive and initiative are leaving their home countries to seek opportunities in order to test their mettle. But they are facing restrictions and discrimination in the host countries. So they return to fester in their home countries. They become the explosive elements in the reaction against the Islamic Fundamentalism. All this awaits a Martin Luther to nail his theses to the door of a mosque somewhere and an emir to give him shelter.

This explosion, when it comes, will further erode the US hegemony as the Europeans and Chinese watch the US flounder in the face of the Islamic Reformation.

Communism and Religion

There is a misunderstanding about Communism and Religion (especially by Communists): Religion is a personal choice - the State should not define what Religion is nor seek to make a person follow a particular religious doctrine (including atheism).

My personal opinion is that Religion cannot be free unless it practiced in a Communist society else Religion is being subverted to serve the State.