One of the biggest loads of b.s. peddled by the far right is that progressives like myself are sympathetic to Islamic extremists just because we don't buy the lie that the Muslim religion is inherently evil and violent. Just because we don't make a disingenous distinction between international terrorism and wars of aggression.
Basically, they try to sell the line that if you don't support Christian fundamentalist extremists, then you necessarily support Muslim fundamentalist extremists.
The fact is that far right theocrats are the ones close to Islamist ideology, not progressives. Islamists hate progressivism just as much as Christian theocrats do.
Progressives believe in women's rights. Islamists and Christian theocrats believe the female's place is in the kitchen and submissive to her husband. Except when she's cranking out babies. Heaven forbid a woman want to get a "man's job" or play a sport.
Progressives believe in gay rights. Islamists and Christian theocrats believe that gays are genetically defective or conscious moral degenerates who should be stoned (or at least shunned shunned for their "perversion"), not treated as human beings.
Progressives believe in secular government. Islamists and Christian theocrats, by definition, oppose the separation of church and state.
Progressives believe in a free exchange of ideas as the way to find the best solutions. (Well, most do.) Islamists and Christian theocrats believe in the Koran or the Bible or the Pope or clerics, not as a guide, but as a substitute for independent thought. Discussion or dogma?
Progressives oppose violence as a primary means to solve problems. Islamists and Christian theocrats quite evidentally do not.
The idea that progressives back Islamists is just as nonsensical as the idea that religious fanatics al-Qaeda and radical secularist Saddam were in bed with each other.
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