Islam doesn't laugh

What Christianity establishes is a division between throne and altar, not an order of precedence with the throne above. To my mind, the mastery of the state over the church is one of the principal reasons the West suffers from civilizational fatigue, if not exhaustion. As I believe Rod has mentioned earlier, it is hard to take a culture seriously that sublimates faith to a political order.

I wonder if Scruton is merely reflecting the Erastian underpinnings of his own Anglican church?>

Classic Scruton, half a point masked by bad history. State over church in the west wasn't due to anything innate in Christianity but in the power politics of Europe.>

Except on matters of abortion and gay marraige, apparently.

Not to mention theft and murder.>

I see you have been writing allot on the subject of Islamic over-sensitivity. Thomas Freidman has written some interesting pieces on this subject in which he describes the problems of manifest victory in the latter part of the first millennium and the consequential blow back of manifest defeat in the 19th and 20th centuries. Anyway, the real problem the Muslim world has run into is the paradox of the "infidel" being more modern and more successful then themselves, Allah s favorites. So instead of adjusting there view on the world to deal with this fact and playing catch up they have decided to go the other direction and de-modernize, at least in a cultural way.

I honestly believe that the Muslim world really thinks that the west only exists to "tempt" them, as if we were a bone thrown to them by Satan. Anyway thanks for writing about this, it is important for the west to understand just how different the two worlds we live in really are.>

Being humorless and sensitive is a Muslim characteristic?

Spend an afternoor listening to O'Reilly or Limbaugh, or read through the screeds of Ann Coulter, or Michelle Malken, the female Ann Coulter. Remember the "War on Christianity" last winter? Try to say something less than flattering about Israel, and you'll be smeared as an anti-semite.

Kim M>

Kim,

I agree with the point you are making. However, at the moment, the humorless, thin-skinned fanatics do not constitute the majority of Christians, and certainly do not speak for Christianity. Unfortunately, at the moment, the humorless, thin-skinned fanatics do seem to be the ones speaking most loudly for Islam.>

Say you what you like about their politics or ideas, but the notion that Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are "humorless" is just deranged.

One might not *like* their humor or think it mean-spirited or ugly (one would be wrong for thinking that, but whatever) ... but to call them "humorless" is a statement of either ignorance or ideological a priorism. Coulter and Limbaugh (the other mentioned conservatives are on the earnest side) are nothing if not entertainers.>

Christianity and Judaism emphatically do not have a history of keeping their noses out of government nor taking irreverence with good humour.

What they do have is a lot of centuries behind them. Judaism is very old, and Christianity at least middle-aged; they've had their sharp edges worn off, for better or for worse. Islam is young, younger than Christianity by six hundred years. Think of where Christianity was in the fifteenth century, and Islam's current difficulties cease to be mysterious.

I agree 100% with this post...it hits the nail on the head! That is a point I have been trying to make, to little avail, in these comboxes for quite some time now.>

This is inane. How can one prove humor is more prevalent in one religion as opposed to another. Humor is a pretty subjective judgment. Based on my experiences, if you ask me which Christain denomination is the most humor impaired, I would rank Catholicism right up there. I would attribute this to "one true faith" orientation of Catholicism. I would regard Unitarians as having their sense of humor intact, but then they don't believe in much of anything either. Fanatics exist in every religion. Why they even exist in my own family, and we're not even Muslim.

The column gives the impression that Islam is being accorded special protection from ridicule in Europe. I note a recent news item in which German prosecutors considered prosecuting Madonna for "insulting religion" for portraying the crucifixtion during her recent act. It would appear some European cultures may be more conservative about discussion of religion in general, and have gone so far as to embody these sentiments in their penal codes. This has nothing to do with Islam, but with European culture.>

German prosecutors considered prosecuting Madonna for "insulting religion"

And did they?

I mean ... is that the best you can do in your Hunt For Moral Equivalence? Not a single stoning, whipping, beheading?>