Islam as we see it in the world today is more likely than most other major faiths to encourage violence against nonbelievers, at least if we focus on encouragement that actually makes the violence materially likely (which is the sort of encouragement that I suspect most people are worried about). – Eugene Volokh (source)
Lets get one thing out of the box right away. Eugene Volokh is THE guy I would pick to put on the Supreme Court if I were POTUS. Hands down, the guy is the greatest legal mind we have in America today, and nobody who currently serves on the Court is qualified to shine his shoes or carry his briefcase.
Having that opinion of him totally makes it suck that I have to call him out on a colossal screw up.
Fair enough, I agree with EV that Islam does encourage violence. But so does Christianity. And so does Judaism (and god help the academic who calls out Judaism for what it is — the same desert superstitious trash as its two brother religions). The Israelis have imposed apartheid on the palestinians in the name of Judaism. Christians? Come on. I never exercised my Second Amendment rights until I started getting death threats from Christians when I lived in Flori-duh.
Bottom line, I don’t fully disagree with EV. It is true that Islam encourages violence against nonbelievers. But lets not be stupid about this. All three Abrahamic religions are violence prone and have the “we are the master race / master belief holders” syndrome. Singling out Islam is unfair. If we want to reach the truth, lets call balls and strikes. All three of the Abrahamic religions are encourage violence.
Of course, this does not mean that I think any of those three goofy-violence-prone-and-evil belief systems should be banned. The First Amendment is there for abhorrent beliefs too. So we have to tolerate those cults – even protect them. But, singling out Islam just ain’t fair.
So, Mr. Volokh, if I am ever, by some crazy chain of events, in a position to nominate a Supreme Court justice, you can bet that I’ll still pick you. But please dude, admit that this was either a) taken out of context, b) a misstatement, or c) a colossal screw up.
