Guess What? Now We’re War Mongers.

Just when you thought baby eating was the worst thing you could be accused of, Dinesh D’Souza has attributed the Islamic terror attacks around the world and the war in Iraq in part to atheists.The other day he gave a speech complete with protestors outside at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, saying that the conflicts are a result of a “culture war” in America between religion and atheism and the world’s perception of America as an atheistic, immoral society as a result of the popular culture that America exports.

“The radical Muslims exploit the idea of an immoral America,” D’Souza said. “This is their main recruiting slogan in the Muslim world. Muslim extremists are attacking America because not everyone in the U.S. follows a moral code given by an “external being,” D’Souza said. This new moral code leads to acts such as adultery and gay marriage, he said.

I suppose this is the same “external being” who told those pious moralists to fly the planes into the skyscrapers for morality’s sake. Maybe the whole World Trade Center was filled with nothing but adulterers and gays. But don’t worry, according to D’Souza “our” war in Iraq is bound to succeed, despite the abysmal results so far:

The outcome of the Iraq war, according to D’Souza, is a matter of simple math because the U.S. has the support of the Shiite majority and the Kurds, which together make up 80 percent of Iraq’s population.”Who is going to win the war in Iraq?” D’Souza said. “You don’t have to be a West Point graduate to see there is actually no way to lose.”

Check out the article yourselves to see if you agree with my take on it. It’s not long.

–Richard

[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

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Vincent

This is proof for the alternative universe theory because clearly D’Souza is not living on the same Earth I am.
Siamang

In other words, Osama was right about their reasons for attacking us.

AWESOME!
Freelancer

D’Souza’s rhetoric is a call to action. The West has science, secularism, and equality as three values (amongst many others) that distinguish our Society from that of Muslim Extremism. D’Souza’s call to action is to repeal secularism and equality so that they feel no need to attack us. Sure, he can blame atheism if he wants and he might have a small point. The Fedayeen/Mujahadeen that expelled the Soviets from Afghanistan did so because they saw it as a Godless imposition upon land sacred to them.

D’Souza’s fix to end religious radicalism is to bow to it. In addition to being painfully stupid, not to mention obviously defeatist, he forgets the current bogeyman of his own right wing: that is, to pull out of Iraq means our enemies will follow us to our coasts and impose Sharia law. This scenario is something his fellow ideologues fear, yet he implicitly argues that it is what is needed.

The Term “Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkey” comes to mind.

Nick
Anatoly

I’m guessing all of those right wing (and left wing) presidential wanks that exploited the Middle East since WW2 were also atheists.
HappyNat

D’Souza is a D’douchebag. “Muslim extremists are attacking America because not everyone in the U.S. follows a moral code given by an “external being,” Hogwash. So what about all the countries that have a larger percentage of nonreligious than the United States? Why aren’t the Muslims attacking Sweeden, they have crazy liberal right for women and gays?
Gadren

Anyone notice how he didn’t say something like this?

“The radical Muslims exploit the idea of a meddlesome America whose foreign policy interferes in the Arab world’s affairs,” D’Souza said. “This is their main recruiting slogan in the Muslim world.”

A big reason for radicalism in the Middle East is because of the perception of America as the world’s bully, willing to instigate coups and invade countries for short-term political and economic gain. But the warmonger D’Souza could never conceive of maybe not doing that any more — that would be defeatist! We’d be giving into the terrorists!
jedipunk

OK….read this comic.
Jim RL

How can D’Souza both think that atheists cause terrorism and that the Iraq War will solve terrorism. The obvious solution from his “blame the atheists” diatribe is to institute Sharia law in the US, so that Islamic terrorists no longer feel the need to kill us. It’s a cowardly solution, but it’s coherent. If D’Souza were at the Continental Congress he’d be saying that Britain would just leave us alone if we payed our taxes. During the Civil Rights movement he’d say that the police would quit attacking blacks with dogs and hoses if they just quit being so uppity and expecting rights.
Graeme

D’Souza is quite barking mad. He is clear evidence that being religious makes you less moral, not more.
Tao Jones

The rhetoric coming out of the right-wing is continually sounding more like it is straight out of Nazi Germany.

They just want continued support of the religious right, and by extension, religious moderates for their ongoing war.

No, no.. it couldn’t possibly be American foreign policy, it is clearly the atheists’ fault. Just like it was the Jews that stabbed Germany in the back in WWI. Riiight. But people bought into it then and they’re buying into it now.

I saw the darndest thing on TV the other day. John Hagy was talking about Ezekiel 38-39 and how it says Russia and the Islamic World are preparing to attack Israel. Those were Hagy’s words. He said the bible said that, but only the KJV. I read those passages and it sounded more like Zombies to me.
Mike C

D’Souza is the Christopher Hitchens of religious conservatives.
writerdd

hahhahahahAHHAHAHHA. HA.
Maria

D’Souza is an idiot-even if the entire country were xtian, the Muslims would STILL hate us, just for not being Muslim. It doesn’t matter what you are-if you’re not Muslim, you’re nothing, as far as they are concerned, even if you do believe in an external being.
FromUpNorth

D’Souza is an idiot-even if the entire country were xtian, the Muslims would STILL hate us, just for not being Muslim.

The latest rhetoric out of Osama bin Laden is that he hates the West, not because it is atheist, but because it is capitalist. D’Souza, an ultra-capitalist, would undoubtedly draw a quite different moral from that than the one he drew from the dubious premise that the West is hated because of atheism.
Robert Bowland

I agree with D’Souza mostly.
Being that I was a muslim for about three years. I know this much. Islam and Terrorism are as close to one anothers in relationship as an apple and an orange. There is no relationship. And atheism in this country is such a small issue in comparison to the immoral problems that are surrounding America. The Christians are the downfall of this nation as usual, especially the fundamentalist and their hypocracy. But the Islamic radicals and extremists hate America fundamentally because of our rich and their involvement in foreign oil and whatever else they can rip off from the Middle East. It’s our greedy rich and those that support them that put this nation at risk. History proves this from the very beginning of civilzation. They are the one’s behind war, racism, inhumanism, nazism, etc…etc…etc. There are tons of evidence relating to that. Period!
Linda

I was going to pass up this post, but then I saw that it was Richard Wade’s first one (correct me if I’m wrong.) So I had to comment and put in my two cents to show my support. 🙂

A big reason for radicalism in the Middle East is because of the perception of America as the world’s bully, willing to instigate coups and invade countries for short-term political and economic gain.

Yep. And the fact that we are using religion and “morals” to justify all that we do. We say we are always doing the “right” thing because God is on our side. Can we please leave God out of our selfish motives? The rest of the world is not stupid. That’s why a large portion of it hates us. It’s the piousness that they hate, not the godlessness. (in my opinion)

It doesn’t matter what you are-if you’re not Muslim, you’re nothing, as far as they are concerned, even if you do believe in an external being.

Maria, you are absolutely right. Ummm… now that I look at it, that sort of sounds like another religion that I know. If you take out the world Muslim, and insert the C word in there… hmmm… Sound familiar? Maybe it’s just me. Am I being too harsh?

Other than the radical fundamentalists who resort to terrorism, Muslims are peace-loving people just like us. They love their families, and they shed tears just like us. Have you read the book The Kite Runner? One of the best books I’ve ever read. It changed my whole perspective of the Muslims. It made me realize that they are loving human beings who are no different than us. They just live in a different culture with different values. We definitely cannot expect them to think like us.
Darryl

D’Souza is tripped up by his ideology. He fancies himself an intellectual, but ideology makes a person stupid and a liar–how can you be intelligent that way? His culture war argument makes no sense. Conservatives misdiagnose the sickness of our society as they turn a blind eye to the part extremist capitalism plays in it. He has a problem with modernity, or post-modernity. The world is in transition and people who don’t want the change that’s coming are resisting it; people like Bin Laden and D’Souza.

Mike C., D’Souza is no Hitchens.
Richard Wade

Linda,
You’re sweet to lend my post your support. Actually it’s my second post, the first was The Flip Side: What Do You Wish to Say to Your Parents? I did that one last week as a counterpoint to the post about what we wish our parents would say to us.
Linda

Richard Wade,

That was you? Sorry – I didn’t even realize that when it was the first post I started commenting on… hmm… Thank you for pointing that out. It’s significant because, as you probably guessed, I try to find meaning in every little thing…
cautious

I wanted to add to something Tao Jones said above

The rhetoric coming out of the right-wing is continually sounding more like it is straight out of Nazi Germany.

Just in case anyone had any doubts about this, recently Alan Dershowitz defended the usage of torture for a few reasons. One of which was: because it worked for the Nazis.

There are some who claim that torture is a nonissue because it never works–it only produces false information. This is simply not true, as evidenced by the many decent members of the French Resistance who, under Nazi torture, disclosed the locations of their closest friends and relatives.

I wonder how many other conservatives support torture because it worked for the Nazis?
Karen

Mike C., D’Souza is no Hitchens.

No, not hardly.

He is going to be debating Michael Shermer next month at CalTech, however. (D’Souza, not Hitchens.)

Anybody here planning to get tickets?
Greta Christina

Can I be the first to say it?

Can I? Can I?

If we don’t have adulterous gay atheist sex, the terrorists will have won.
cautious

Does it have to be both gay and adulterous atheist sex? I’m only willing to commit adultery, I’m not really feeling the gay vibe.