The Issue of Idolatry in Abrahamic Religions

[The Grand Nudger]

The republic does become an idol for some people, where nationalistic paraphernalia gains function beyond it's practical or aesthetic use and becomes a focus for worship and signaling. I wouldn't spend to much time flirting with the idea that god is just an idea in the company of islamists. Not because I think it has no merit - I think that's exactly what gods are and what gives theistic religions the ability to manifest consequences in reality. But for reasons of murder. Combine those two, national and religious idols - and you get mujahideen. Every nation and every religion has them. It's not a bug, it's a feature. It gives them a chip to bargain with both within their societies and outside of their societies. Whether that comes in the form of intersectional (para)military support, or in dissident action to establish a perpetual minority rule under threat of death or damage to infrastructure.

That leads me handily into how I would explain any orthodox attempt to end democracy. An abrahamic fundamentalist doesn't believe in democracy from the word go. That's not how they think the world works, or even should work. God isn't just an idea, he's The Man..and he makes The Rules...and this is the right and proper way to organize society. The developed world is leaning into nationalism and authoritarianism in general - even outside of the religiously concerned™. That zionists might be produced in these circumstances who are willing to both strangle democracy in their own society and utterly disenfranchise..say..palestinians....is like a clock ticking from one second to the next.

FWIW - you don't seem, to me, like you're in the same zipcode. Your own magic book idolatry is probably just a latent effect of an islamic upbringing. Background noise - not doing much of anything but making you seem confused and propagandized to an outsider.