RE: Why are Atheists afraid to insult Islam and Jews?
April 20, 2015 at 12:01 pm
(This post was last modified: April 20, 2015 at 12:02 pm by nihilistcat.)
I would say, here in the US, Christianity is by far the predominant religion (so it makes sense to focus mostly on Christianity and its followers), and there is a tendency towards Islamophobia and Antisemitism that most atheists don't want to risk being associated with (which can happen inadvertently). The so called "new atheist" crowd has been very vocal when it comes to Islam (Bill Maher, Sam Harris, the late Christopher Hitchens, etc.), so not all atheists share this aversion to discussing Islam.
But there's another often ignored dynamic at play here. Most atheists are left of center on the political spectrum (and they tend to be more intelligent than the general population). So they realize that US and British intervention into the Middle East (and Islamic world more generally) has been an important factor in creating the needed space for Islamic extremism to thrive. Realizing this, they're not real happy with the "new atheist" mantra with regard to Islam (which they feel tends to ignore the role western intervention has played in this mess).
But there's another often ignored dynamic at play here. Most atheists are left of center on the political spectrum (and they tend to be more intelligent than the general population). So they realize that US and British intervention into the Middle East (and Islamic world more generally) has been an important factor in creating the needed space for Islamic extremism to thrive. Realizing this, they're not real happy with the "new atheist" mantra with regard to Islam (which they feel tends to ignore the role western intervention has played in this mess).
