why fundamentalists (Christians as well as Muslims) cannot compromise

[bobbieinok]

http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_2_when_islam.html

Thomas Dalrymple, 'When Islam Breaks Down'

Ironically, this is in a jounal of the Manhattan Institute, a neo-con think tank.

His analysis of fundamentalist Islam's place in the modern world is eerily similar to that of fundamentalist Christianity. I don't think Dobson, Robertson, Falwell, etc. would appreciate his following comments about the necessity of the separation of church and state:

...In the West, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, acting upon the space that had always existed, at least potentially, in Christianity between church and state, liberated individual men to think for themselves, and thus set in motion an unprecedented and still unstoppable material advancement. Islam, with no separate, secular sphere where inquiry could flourish free from the claims of religion, if only for technical purposes, was hopelessly left behind: as, several centuries later, it still is.

The indivisibility of any aspect of life from any other in Islam is a source of strength, but also of fragility and weakness, for individuals as well as for polities. Where all conduct, all custom, has a religious sanction and justification, any change is a threat to the whole system of belief. Certainty that their way of life is the right one thus coexists with fear that the whole edifice—intellectual and political—will come tumbling down if it is tampered with in any way. Intransigence is a defense against doubt and makes living on terms of true equality with others who do not share the creed impossible.

more....

[OneBlueSky]

1. the emotion motivating fundamentalists of all stripes . . .

is fear . . .

some theology suggests that humans are capable of only two emotions: love, and fear . . . all other positive emotions are merely subsidiary to the former, all negative emotions to the latter . . .

and the bottom line is . . .

where one exists, the other cannot . . .

fundamentalists are afraid, mainly of deprivation . . . of their prejudices, of their "place" in society, of their cultural heritage and beliefs, of their material possessions . . . anyone motivated by love rather than fear is a threat to them, and therefore their enemy . . .

love, on the other hand, believes that we live in an abundant Universe, with enough to meet the needs of everyone . . . if only our abundance were evenly -- or even fairly -- distributed . . . and not hoarded by those living in fear and controlling vast amounts that abundance . . .