The Provocation: The Norway Massacre: When Fundamentalism Runs Amok [View All]

[Skidmore]

This is a most excellent analysis of events like the tragedy in Norway which so often damage our world. Too often western nations focus on the fundamentalism of "the other" and turn a blind eye at that which exists within.

http://www.theprovocation.net/2011/07/norway-massacre-when-fundamentalism.html


The Norway Massacre: When Fundamentalism Runs Amok


THE NEWS: A picture is starting to emerge of the suspect in Norway's horrific twin tragedies that have left nearly 100 people dead. Anders Behring Breivik appears to be, in the words of police investigators, "a fundamentalist Christian" with a chip on his shoulder against Norwegians who dared to practice a religion other than the one he considered the true faith. Particularly Muslims.

THE PROVOCATION: We have seen the enemy, and it is us.

It's not Anders Breivik, any more than it was the late Osama bin Laden, or the KKK or even Adolf Hitler. It's the arrogant belief that we are somehow better than other people because we believe a certain doctrine, look a certain way, speak a certain language or regurgitate a certain dogma.

I have been saying this for some time: Christian fundamentalism has the potential to be just as nasty, hateful and violent as anything al-Qaida can muster. It's not the religion that is the danger, but the fundamentalism attached to it - the nearly blind, uncompromising belief that a single idea, system or view of the divine has a monopoly on the truth. And if you think your particular belief system isn't vulnerable to such an interpretation, that makes it all the more dangerous.... more at link