RELIGION

MANSOUREH TAJIK—Questions (be they real, cynical, or rhetorical) forming in the mind of those without real familiarity with Quran and Islam might include the followings: If Islam as a religion and Quran as a Book of God have qualities that they could produce such contrary products and opposite leaderships as a wise leader like Ayatullah Khamenei and a weasel like Sultan Erdogan Junior, then what good is such religion and of what use is such Book?! Random and lottery picking could have a 50/50 chance of either of the two outcomes, too. So, why bother with God, Islam, the religion, and the Book?

These are rational questions and I am glad that some are asking them, albeit with their inner voices. The short answer to these questions is that the two are not both products of the same religion and Book. They are the products of the degree to which they stay on or astray from the Right Path as set by this religion and this Book. The Leader is an example of someone who is genuinely striving to be on the Right Path to the best of his abilities.

ERIC ZUESSE—But Republican Party news-media also show a religious focus, by their focusing on sex and other personal matters, and by what they won’t point out, regarding the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee, Joe Biden, thus distracting even their own followers away from Biden’s bigger and more significant wrongs — wrongs that billionaires of both political Parties don’t want the public to focus upon (such as Biden’s neoconservatism, his consistent support for America to invade and conquer other countries).

Religiosity —chiefly Christian fundamentalism of a variety of sorts—has long been a feature of the American social and political landscape. Its effects have been nefarious, not just for the culture as a whole, but for the faithful themselves, who are often victimised by reactionary ideologies and outright predatory preachers.  The impact of these people—as a voting bloc —has helped to elect the likes of George W Bush and similar types, with consequent injuries to American society in the form of support for criminal imperialist wars (Billy Graham set the pattern for this in the postwar), delays in badly needed medical advances (blocking of stem cell research), and so on.

JOHN FOLLIS—Evidently, the end of the Cold War and the passing of 60-years has not softened America’s attitude toward atheists. According to a 2016 University of Minnesota study, Americans have actually sharpened their negative views. It showed that atheists are still perceived as cultural outsiders who “have rejected cultural values and practices understood as essential to private morality, civic virtue, and national identity.” They were chosen “the most disliked religious minority” in the U.S. Clearly, Eisenhower and company embedded an anti-Atheist cultural bias that still remains strong today.

DOUG BOLTON—n a trip to South America where he declared that the world should move to a more just ecological system where riches are shared by all, the Pope has received a crucifix mounted on a wooden hammer and sickle, from Bolivian President Evo Morales. He received the Communist crucifix while visiting La Paz in Bolivia, during his ongoing tour of South America. When he met the President, he was handed a wooden hammer and sickle, the symbol of Communism since the Russian Revolution.  Morales explained to Pope Francis that the cross was created by Jesuit Father Luis Espinal, who was assassinated in 1980 by paramilitaries during the short-lived dictatorship of Luis Garcia Meza. A Vatican spokesman confirmed that it is unlikely the Communist crucifix will be displayed in a church.