More of that Ol' Time Religion

In the same 24 hours, intimidating Muslim protests draw a rebuke from the
Guardian UK which is a few bricks short of a bastion of the status quo.

One also reads that many US states have had their fill of the Vestboro Vermin
and are seeking ways to muzzle them.

There is no patience. There is a reason that institutions as superficially far
apart as American fundamentalist Christians and pick-your-own flavour of Muslim
are acting much the same way. It is that they are sensible of the same threat,
that more and more of the world doesn't take the message of their faith
seriously. There is no patience, and their response to indifference (perhaps
the underlying message of the Danish cartoons) is threats. The threats get
attention, all right: they unite Western interests in a response
escalating from annoyance to revulsion. Neither group could choose any course better calculated to hasten the demise that is their greatest fear.

That demise is just below the horizon. Recently, I had a conversation with a
medical member of the coming generation whose thinking has blown light years
past atheism. I admit freely that it's a struggle at times to be content with giving the desert religions the indifference they deserve. While the rest of us are struggling with
understanding and tolerance, this bright young clinician hopes to establish a diagnosis and treat the desire for religion as a disease.

In the meantime, note to whomever is burning Alabama churches. If you belong to
another religion, rock on: I love dissension. If you're agin religion, stuff
it. Don't forget, the desert religions thrive on persecution. Deprive them of it
and they die.

I wonder if the packers of Danish ham are quaking in their boots at the threat of a Muslim boycott. I also wonder how many Afghans even know where Denmark is.