holy wars: are we in one?

from: Who Is Us? | Talking Points Memo

The only way this makes sense is if you imagine we're actually involved in a sort of global half-racial holy war against Islam. From this perspective, it's sort of like some 'good' Germans trying to set up a Beer Garden in Tel Aviv in 1950 or perhaps 1944. To which folks might say, 'Look, we know you guys didn't do the Holocaust yourselves. And maybe you mean well. But it's just not right. Go somewhere else.' And most of us would probably see the logic of that sentiment.

Now, I get it. Quite a few people think this is precisely the point. (Not a lot of TPM readers. But a lot of people. Let's not kid ourselves.) We are engaged in a half-racial holy war against Islam. It's not us versus a series of interconnected terrorist networks which are relatively small but episodically quite lethal. It's us, the white Christians and our Jewish junior partner sidekicks versus the brown Muslim people. (If you're keeping score at home, let's call it the Judeo-Christians -white jerseys- vs. the Muslims -brown jerseys.) So isn't it a bit soon for these Muslims, even if these are some of the good ones, to come over here from wherever they're from in the Middle East and set up shop on Judeo-Christian territory? Particularly where the first battle of the Holy War was fought? Soon? ... heck, the Holy War is still on. As Eric Cantor said a couple days ago, C'mon!

Sometimes I wish that it were possible to have an open and honest discussion about worldviews. I think there's a lot of stuff like this that could use a few gallons of sunlight dumped all over it.

For the record, I do not believe that we should consider ourselves to be in a holy war. I find the controversy over the Mosque to be embarrassing. But considering this point of view is illuminating. It's a good reminder that other people see the world differently.