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The Times has a sobering story about the number of potential Al-Qaeda sympathisers that might be found among British Muslims or other Muslims who now live permanently in Great Britain. This ties into our discussions of “moderate” Islam, radical forms of Islam and the double-edged sword of assimilation in the West.
I don’t know what to add to this Associated Press story (hat tip to Rod FOTB Dreher), except to say that we Baby Boomers are not going to go into middle age and beyond quietly. Is this a Godbeat story? Trends in Baby Boomer entertainment rituals? The liturgy of the media?
That was the caption that got morning radio hosts Corey Deitz and Jay Hamilton suspended from the “Corey and Jay Show” in Little Rock, Arkansas. The pair had posted a cartoon on the show’s website. This AP story strongly hints that Clear Channel Communications, owner of the hosts’ station, did not take kindly to the gesture. They were kicked off the air for one day, which led National Review‘s Stanley Kurtz to ask, “Is nature our new religion, then? Or, to put the question in a slightly different way, can a woodpecker be the victim of hate speech?”
Driving back from the North Carolina mountains tonight, I heard an amazing commentary on NPR that fits into our discussion of the MSM’s heated search for a “moderate” version of Islam that it can hold up as some kind of majority viewpoint. This is part of the whole template that there are “fundamentalists” in all faiths who are equally dangerous in their often violent quest for the illusion of certainty and moral absolutes and then there are “moderates” who, if they all had their way, would all get along as they search for the Eternal Other.
Kevin Eckstrom of Religion News Service does a brilliant job this week of contrasting the United Church of Christ’s “God is Still Speaking” ad blitz with its historic image:
I understand the tension caused by young Master Jeremy’s hell wish. Christian believers should, of course, pray for evangelism, debate, repentance, conversion and dangerous stuff like that. Free speech, even.
I’m now heading into my day job in Washington, D.C., and a bunch of terrorists have decided to make the commute all the more fun by killing people in London. I hope the culprits don’t give up when the police come knocking, so they can start their stints in hell early. Meanwhile, why do I have a feeling that this story will soon help reinforce the lore about all those Jews who didn’t die at the World Trade Center? Feel free to discuss in my absence.
It appears to be abortion week at GetReligion, so I don’t feel too bad about this shameless plug. Several weeks back, an editor from Beliefnet (host of Blog Heaven) approached me about a project that her website had in mind. There was this new book called Freakonomics, maybe I’d heard of it . . .
