By Neil the Ethical Werewolf The whole Muhammad cartoon situation does more to depress me than to infuriate me. The cartoons themselves range from uninteresting to dumb, and there's nothing good about violent religious fanatics anywhere. Everyone ought to object to the illiberal and antifeminist aspects of Islamic culture, and people across the world ought to work together to change them. The great delusion of right-wing bloggers is that this change can be achieved by military means. That can sometimes work against a nationalistic ideology, where the complete defeat of a nation in battle can break the will of its people. But religion puts its highest value on things outside the world, far beyond the blast radius of laser-guided bombs. Mere conquest won't eradicate a fundamentally religious ideology, unless you're willing to enslave the people for a century or two and kill anyone who doesn't give up the faith. I have enough faith in human decency to believe that even the majority of right-wing bloggers don't want that.
