If holy war is a serious problem in the Middle East and in the world today, the French atheist Michel Onfray knows where the whole thing started: with the Jews. Onfray's Atheist Manifesto, a bestseller in Europe, has a section called "The Jewish Invention of Holy War." Onfray traces a direct line "from the bloody sword of the Israelites killing off the Canaanites to the use of airlines as flying bombs in New York."
One might think the radical Muslims perpetrated 9/11 and other contemporary atrocities. But Onfray holds monotheism responsible for the Islamic mindset, and since Judaism came before Christianity and Islam, he insists that the roots of religious intolerance and conflict are in Moses and Abraham. First, the Jews declared themseves God's chosen people, implying that their enemies were the enemies of God. According to Onfray, "Yahweh blessed war and those who waged it. He sanctified combat, supervised it...sanctioned crimes, murders, assassination." Onfray goes on, "Yahweh steps in to justify the Jews in their extermination of certain peoples explicitly named in the Torah: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites and Jebusites." In an inflammatory way, Onfray even holds the ancient Israelites responsible for what he calls "the first genocide": the wholesale destruction of Jericho. If Bin Laden ever wanted a model, Onfray suggests, he could easily find it here.
I'm not suggesting Onfray is anti-Semitic: he is equally hostile to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In this, Onfray resembles America's atheist troika of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. But in the process Onfray--like his British and American counterparts--fails to make necessary distinctions. The Old Testament depicts a harsh world, but it is no harsher than that of ancient Greece and Rome, with their Melian expeditions, savage wars of conquest, large-scale slavery, gladiatorial contests, and persecution of the Christians. So why hold monotheism responsible for practices that were hardly distinctive to it?
Moreover, the punitive tribal ethic of the Old Testament is specifically repudiated in the New Testament which replaces it with an ethic of universal brotherhood. Onfray flails away at Jesus, but he can find nothing in Christ's teachings that condones violence or terror. Yes, there were historical abuses committed in the name of Christianity, but even here Onfray goes overboard, attempting for example to blame Christianity for the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Finally Onfray does not even mention that there are important differences in the way the three monontheisms have evolved. These differences help to explain why much of the terrorism is the world is being perpetrated by Muslims and not by Jews or Christians. Where is the Jewish Bin Laden, the Christian Ahmadinejad? They exist only in the atheist imagination.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 7)
1. The Ayatollah D;Souza writes: "Where is the Jewish Bin Laden, the Christian Ahmadinejad? They exist only in the atheist imagination."
This is truly hilarious -- there are of course many Christian Ahmadinejads. In fact, Dinesh actually slept with one! I refer of course to the repellant Ann Coulter, who famously wrote of Muslims: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." She followed that up with the following exchange on Hannity & Wuss:
COLMES: Would you like to convert these people all to Christianity?
COULTER: The ones that we haven't killed, yes.
COLMES: So no one should be Muslim. They should all be Christian?
COULTER: That would be a good start, yes.
Now how does this differ from the philosophy of Ahmadinejad?
richter at 4:58PM on Jul 23rd 2007
2. Dinesh makes a good point. In fact, one can cite the Soviets' massacre of millions upon millions of people for completely secular, power-hungry (NOT COMMUNIST!) reasons. In fact, some estimates point to the Soviets' continuous slaughter of dissidents as taking more lives than all the religious wars COMBINED.
Once again, religion is NOT the problem; ideologies are. People willing to die for their beliefs WILL, and they will take the rest of us down with them.
Seth at 5:21PM on Jul 23rd 2007
3. Things would be way better if everyone looked into this instead:
http://www.fakebuddy.com
Button at 5:32PM on Jul 23rd 2007
4. I find this especially funny:
"Israelites...use[ing]...airlines as flying bombs in New York."
This guy is a total moron. Doesn't he know that radical Muslims carried out the attacks on New York? I would bet that he doesn't know that there is a huge difference between Judaism and Islam in that they both claim to be God's chosen people. Islam follows the lineage of Ishmael and Judaism follows the lineage of Issac. Perhaps the French Moron should study a little about world religions before he makes totally ignorant statements.
The sad part is that there are going to be a group of ignorant people who buy what this guy is saying. If only they would take ten minutes to read an article online.
And Atheists claim that Christians are ignorant...
Death of Reason at 5:40PM on Jul 23rd 2007
5. Oh my, another European so-called thinker has "discovered" that everything is the fault of the Jews.
Yawn; that European secularists don't like Jews is not really news.
The fact of the matter is the anti-religious crowd down through the ages has hated Jews because Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from the mountain. Before that time, basically anything the pharoh or emperor allowed was Ok.
In a real sense, Jews introduced the notion of responsibility and guilt before God, and atheists and secualists and other low-brow types have hated them ever since.
Over the centuries, various secularists have accussed Jews of tricky economics, and other anti-social things, and and have very successfully rallied other groups of morons (including Christians and Muslims, and communists and fascists) to persecute the Jews whenever it seems convenient or expedient.
Because they come in so many stripes, one needs to keep a sharp eye for the Jew haters. They can be capitalists or communists, Muslims or Christians and usually, somewhere in the mix driving the bigoted and/or the ignorant and stirring the cauldron of hate is a secularist who, while he wants power and wealth or course, also on some level delights in one religion fighting another to the discredit of all.
And satan laughs his head off over all this.
Ken Berg at 5:52PM on Jul 23rd 2007
6. "Holy" wars have been around since religion was invented. It becomes a "holy" war when people reach for a deity as justification for what is really a conflict based upon nothing more than political beliefs. It is also an "error" to limit "wars" to physical conflicts. A "holy war" is being conducted in this country by the theocratic wing of the Republican Party, and for the same reason. They seek dominion over others.
RLaitres at 5:56PM on Jul 23rd 2007
7. Richter,
True, Coulter did say that. However, she had just lost a good friend in the 9-11 attacks. I'm sure hers wasn't an isolated angry reaction, just the one with the biggest media platform. She's the bomb-thrower of the GOP: her job description involves saying out-there stuff. Also, she's never been elected to anything, so her opinion carries no more weight than what individual readers/viewers allow. If Pat Robertson had been elected, maybe we would have had a Christian Ahmadinejad. Didn't happen, though.
Gonna get me a fake buddy, name him Biff.
Barry at 6:01PM on Jul 23rd 2007
8. Barry, it has been quite some time since 9/11, and Coulter still spouts precisely this same triumphalist anti-Muslim bigotry. I also do not accept your (and Steve's) notion that becuase she wields less power than Ahmadinijad or Bin Laden, she is not of their ilk. Hitler was every inch a Nazi before he came to power in 1933. That we have an enlightened democracy that prevents the worst of us from coming to power (except illegally, as in the 2000 "elections") is a credit to America, not Coulter.
richter at 6:18PM on Jul 23rd 2007
9. I am not an atheist, but it is still abundantly clear to me that that any fundamentalist Christian, Jew or Muslim believes that God favors them over all others and believes in the supremacy of their religion above all others. Accordingly, those who don't share their beliefs and faith are not worthy of salvation. And it is the making of those distinctions that creates the foundation for holy war. It doesn't matter which religion came first; "religious" warfare undoubtedly occurred long before there were monotheistic religions. I suspect the extent of religious warfare has grown along with the spread and pervasiveness of the principal religions. The leadership of these religions use the concept that God is speaking to them to promote the supremacy of their religion over others and to create the very dangerous illusion that there are meaningful and irreconcilable differences between them, to the conclusion that they cannot exist and survivie side-by-side. It is the creation, promotion and exploitation of those differences that allows that leadership to pit members of one faith against another for the fundamental purpose staying in power. And it is fundamentally illogical.
As a matter of historical fact, Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe in the same God. And as a matter of simple logic, they must: since there is only one God in every monotheistic religion, they must all, by definition, believe in the same god. If we are going to stop scourge of holy war, it will only be because the true believers of these religions accept that there are no meaningful differences between them, and that their common goal is the elevation of our existence on earth.
What God of whom we can conceive would send out his creation to blow himself up in order to kill old people at the beach, or teeagers in a night club, or shoppers in a crowded market? Such a God is no better than a mob boss. But the Jihadists are not alone. You ask where is the Christian Ahmadinejad? He's sitting in the White House. Our tragic attack on Iraq is no less irrational and barbaric than those suicide attacks, and no less of an intentional act of terror. Why do you think they called is "shock and awe?" Moreover, our so-called "war on terror" is no less a violation of Christian principles. when Jesus said to turn the other cheek, I believe he was quite rghtly saying that retaliation simply does not work. even if we did not start the current holy war, our leadership is doing its best to perpetuate it. My cynical view of the reason for that is the same reason I put forth earlier with respect to the religious leaders; it is the easiest way to stay in power, by creating an atmosphere of fear and pitting those who should be allies against one another. Collapse the currente worl situation into a simple statement: we have the Muslim fundamantalists who say "You,the west is a vile and corrupt culture and we're going to kill you. And our response is "You think you, you vile and corrupt Islamists can spread terror? Wait till you see what we will do to you!"
So don't ask where is the Jewish Bin Laden or the Christian Ahmadinejad; ask where is the leadership, including religious leadership, that will drive us to our highest level of conduct.
John Nestico at 6:25PM on Jul 23rd 2007
10. If you want more clarification on 9-11, try
http://www.hugequestions.com
http://iamthewitness.com/DarylBradfordSmith_ZionSummary.html
looksbooks54 at 6:30PM on Jul 23rd 2007
11. Every week I read your blog and every week I wonder, How did you get into Stanford?
You missed the WHOLE point of the book.
Your misguided, status quo and illogical conclusions are hilarious.
Are you really serious? Or are you satirizing?
Tony at 6:41PM on Jul 23rd 2007
12. Although it's difficult to disagree that Ann Coulter is "repellent," it seems a little specious...or at least a real stretch...to equate her to either Bin Laden or Ahmadinejad. She can say any crazy, misguided or bizarre thing she wants because nobody listens and nobody cares! the only thing Ann Coulter can kill is airtime. The other two not only have followers who hang on their every word, we've seen that they can galvanize thousands of Muslims who'll light themselves (and untold others) on fire to be beacons of "holiness!"
Steve at 6:46PM on Jul 23rd 2007
13. Yes, I would chalk this one up to just one more European using his public position to express his anti-Semitism. Like D'Souza says, maybe he's "anti-everything" religious, but it's particularly interesting that he takes the hottest, most disturbing topic of jihad and basically pins it on the Jews. Not to mention that it is the most imminent crisis Europe itself faces, with a very large, unhappy, unstable Muslim population. So, this topic of "let's take our greatest fears and blame them on the Jews" is really more reminiscent of the tone in Europe less than 100 years ago.
If you've been listening and watching the news from Europe with a watchful eye over the last 5 years or so, you can hear the drumbeat of anti-Semitism ever-increasing. So this is no surprise. It's not something to ignore as just a voice "over there" but it should be observed as another piece of evidence of a disturbing movement on the rise, once again.
eM at 6:47PM on Jul 23rd 2007
14. The fact that America won't ever have a Bin Laden or Ahmadinejad in a position that matters, is a tribute to our spectacular democracy. It's a form of self-policing that assures that someone like either Pat (Buchanan & Robertson)or either Hitler (Ann or Adolph)will ever be a factor in our public life to the same extent that Bin Laden or Ahmadinejad are in the Muslim world. And no matter how much you despise him (and I do) don't give me...please...George Bush! We've had some terrible presidents, but thank God (unless you're Michel Onfray) we've never had a hitler.
And by the way, does the Muslim world have any "self-policing" mechanism?
Steve at 6:48PM on Jul 23rd 2007
15. The Jews are very intelligent people and they know how to make money. Jealously seems to be at the core of hatred for the Jews.
fran at 6:54PM on Jul 23rd 2007