The Ugly History of Dual-Loyalty Charges - Ilhan Omar recently deployed an accusation that’s been used against religious minorities for years. ( www.theatlantic.com )

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16414235

The Ugly History of Dual-Loyalty Charges Ilhan Omar recently deployed an accusation that’s been used against religious minorities for years.

Interesting article, showing how treating Muslims as non-loyal to a country is the same bullshit already done against Catholics, Jews and other religions in USA.

dditty ,
@dditty@lemm.ee avatar

recently

Article from 2019

elbarto777 ,

Awful headline formatting. Put a full stop after "Charges" next time.

caveman OP ,

My app doesnt allow me a newline, but I've added a dash

elbarto777 ,

Awesome! Thanks.

retrospectology ,
@retrospectology@lemmy.world avatar

It's an issue with religion in general, any of the Abrahamic religions, by their nature, demand loyalty to the religion above all else, whether it's country or even family.

But I'm more concerned with the loyalty of evangelicals in this country than any other religious group, they are the group proving to be the most erosive to our democracy.

As with nearly everything the right says, every accusation is a confession.

elbarto777 ,

I've said this before and I'll say it again: evangelicals are considered so nutty in my home country, that no one takes them seriously. They're not a threat. They're a joke. I'm baffled that they have so much influence in the U.S.

Buffalox ,

It's kind of weird, we have 12 parties in "Folketinget" (Danish Parlament), and it only requires 2% of votes to get in. But our only religious party "Christian Democrats" has not managed to get in for decades.

Religion has very little power in politics here, despite (or maybe because?) the biggest church by far, is the government controlled "Peoples church", that even has it's own minister in the government!

The widespread religious fanaticism in USA seems insane here.

caveman OP ,

Somehow US is a hotbed for religious fanatism.

Maybe it has to do with their history, as they left England due to religous reasons, than you have a whole inheritance tree of people who are still on the same mindset of regious war.

Read about the "Bible belt", which are states with most religious activism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt

elbarto777 ,

Denmark sounds like a secular paradise!

Buffalox ,

Yes that's weird too, because we have an official state church which is protestant, and the King and Queen are required to be members by law. We also have an official minister for religion, (it used to be for the state church), so we aren't 100% secular, but Denmark is now among the least religious countries in the world. But despite that 71% remain members of folkekirken "people's church", but not for religious reasons, more for weddings and funerals, baptism also remains tradition, maybe because the church is responsible for registering names any way.

So it's a weird mix of keeping religious traditions but without religious beliefs. I'll go so far as stating that most consider it almost secular ceremonies, and outside special holidays, most churches are almost empty. The whole system is only held up by taxpayer money.

For instance we had the political debate about abortion rights in the 70's, and there is no way that can be reversed now, there's such a huge majority for abortion rights that even the Christian Democrats stopped opposing it a few years ago.

There is not a single anti abortion party in Denmark anymore. It's absolutely insane for us to see how that basic right has been stripped away in some states in USA. As a matter of fact the limit for abortion was recently increased from 12 to 18 weeks.

elbarto777 ,

In other words, your use of the church is aimed towards community-oriented or community-building activities instead of proselytizing. I can get behind that.

My mom likes to go to church because she's a hard-core catholic, for which I roll my eyes. But then she has met people in it who genuinely care for her, and that's the community part I can support.

The rest of it, the fear mongering, the anti- this or anti- that, can go straight to hell.

billiam0202 , (edited )

Given that the first modern(ish) colonizers in the US were religious assholes who were kicked out of Europe, it kinda makes sense.

Eldritch ,
@Eldritch@lemmy.world avatar

We even have a holiday celebrating the natives saving their Pilgrim asses from starvation. Natives whom they think by slaughtering and running them off their land. Really brings a tear to your eye. America is a lot more nuts than even Americans realize.

BrianTheeBiscuiteer ,

There's enough of them to make a difference and they actually show up when it counts. I don't know how taxes on churches work in other countries but they're basically tax shelters in the US.

retrospectology ,
@retrospectology@lemmy.world avatar

They're easily brushed off until they start becoming a major demographic or unite with other fascistic groups. It's like any religious group, they are harmless as a minority but when the ideology takes hold at a large scale it starts to become a problem.

The US has, unfortunately, been stuck with religious fundementalists since its inception. Not exclusively, but the element has always been here.

Over the last century our Republican party was quickly losing political relevance, so they switched their primary target demographic to southern religious groups and racists, building on those groups' sense of aggrievement that fewer and fewer people believed in their ideas. It was called The Southern Strategy and it explains a lot about what's happening in the US currently and how these fringe groups become mainstreamed.

The evangelicals in the US also concoted a kind of toxic mixture of capitalism and religion, they built massive mega churches that run like corporations, and they did so in areas where there wasn't a whole lot going on economically or culturally. They run almost like company towns where everyone in the surrounding community is part of the cult.

Take it as a lesson, it can happen wherever you might be however far fetched it seems, be assurred that fascism is a global effort and the fascist fringe groups in your country are taking notes whenever there's a fascist victory in some other country. They learn from eachother and will exploit whatever form of irrational fundementalism, latent racism or culture of tradition that exists in your country.

elbarto777 ,

Yeah, unfortunately where I come from, there's some major shit the country has to deal with before the evangelicals can even start to organize in a meaningful manner. Catholics remain on top, and that's another can of worms, but at least they don't take the whole controlling in the name of God bullshit that seriously.

I'm a U.S. citizen now, and I moved away from both places (birthplace and America) a while ago, and I don't miss that religion aspect one bit!

caveman OP ,

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201810/how-religious-fundamentalism-hijacks-the-brain

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