On Boston suspects: Maher To Defender Of Islam: Equating Christianity And Islam "Liberal Bullshit"

[Deep13]

254. We haven't, but that really isn't the point, or at least not the whole point.

I'm sure religious zealots have pointed out that officially atheist regimes have committed mass atrocities, even though they were not specifically religious in nature. They were, however, quite irrational and accepted the dogma of the regime as an article of faith. Likewise, those who do kill in the name of a god are similarly irrational, partly because they believe they have a religious imperative for violence, but also for reasons Westerners would consider secular. The reaction to Western imperialism and Middle Eastern nationalism are often conceptualized in religious terms. Further, practices and ideals that either were barely religious or only peripherally so became part of the sectarian thinking in the 19th and 20th centuries. So while Islamic fanaticism is expressed in religious terms, it is often a stand in for other issues. Nevertheless, I have to think that without a religious rationale, much of that violence would not go as far as it does.