Demographics in Israel are strongly favouring the fundamentalists. the fundamentalists believe the Talmud which states that gentiles are donkeys (soulless animals), That according to Maimonides when Israel is strong all gentiles should be expelled. The fundamentalists despise the secular Jews of America so even though they try to pull American Jews (and the very powerful lobby ) into the politics of the Middle East (eg the Yinon plan), at some stage in the future there will be a break between them. While the link exists, there is a likelihood that Israeli politicians will try and pull America into conflict in the middle east.
"As conservative forms of religion became more prevalent in the period since the Iranian revolution,..." yes, and I concur with all your broad points, however honestly and objectively none of these are religions, they are all anti-religions. Like a cheater in sports. Anti-sport.
I think most fundamentalist Muslims (or Christians) believe their take on their faith is a truer form of the religion. Jihad goes all the way back to the beginning of Islam in the 8th century which provided an external outlet for the violence Arab tribes had been doing to each other, giving them a common "other" against whom they could unify.
Three centuries later, the breakup of the Carolingian Empire had resulted in the emergence of warlords who warred on each other, making Church operations difficult. Church leaders had tried various religious programs such as Pax Dei and Treva Dei in the 11th century, before "Crusade'. Crusade was modeled on Islamic Jihad. It originated in Spain where Christians had been sporadically fighting Muslims since 711. The pope rolled out their version of Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095. The first one was a stunning success, and they were more after that.
I believe Crusade played a role in the development of modern Europe. The pope had largely been in the background, focused on Italian matters during the previous centuries, for example the leaders of Pax Dei had been monastic leaders not the church in Rome. But Crusade was preached by pope Urban II. Its success led to enormous prestige for the church (few monarchs when on the first crusade, but they dominated the next ones). Such success led to its growth as an institution, with attention paid to the development of a body of law to govern religious affairs and a bureaucracy to manage church programs. This created a need for more trained lawyers, theologians and other professionals, Universities were founded to train these people. Secular rulers followed suit and began to set up governmental structures and legal frameworks. They expanded into commercial law. In a sense we can say Crusade played a role in the creation of Western Civilization much as Jihad played a role the creation of Islamic Civilization.
Demographics in Israel are strongly favouring the fundamentalists. the fundamentalists believe the Talmud which states that gentiles are donkeys (soulless animals), That according to Maimonides when Israel is strong all gentiles should be expelled. The fundamentalists despise the secular Jews of America so even though they try to pull American Jews (and the very powerful lobby ) into the politics of the Middle East (eg the Yinon plan), at some stage in the future there will be a break between them. While the link exists, there is a likelihood that Israeli politicians will try and pull America into conflict in the middle east.
"As conservative forms of religion became more prevalent in the period since the Iranian revolution,..." yes, and I concur with all your broad points, however honestly and objectively none of these are religions, they are all anti-religions. Like a cheater in sports. Anti-sport.
I think most fundamentalist Muslims (or Christians) believe their take on their faith is a truer form of the religion. Jihad goes all the way back to the beginning of Islam in the 8th century which provided an external outlet for the violence Arab tribes had been doing to each other, giving them a common "other" against whom they could unify.
Three centuries later, the breakup of the Carolingian Empire had resulted in the emergence of warlords who warred on each other, making Church operations difficult. Church leaders had tried various religious programs such as Pax Dei and Treva Dei in the 11th century, before "Crusade'. Crusade was modeled on Islamic Jihad. It originated in Spain where Christians had been sporadically fighting Muslims since 711. The pope rolled out their version of Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095. The first one was a stunning success, and they were more after that.
I believe Crusade played a role in the development of modern Europe. The pope had largely been in the background, focused on Italian matters during the previous centuries, for example the leaders of Pax Dei had been monastic leaders not the church in Rome. But Crusade was preached by pope Urban II. Its success led to enormous prestige for the church (few monarchs when on the first crusade, but they dominated the next ones). Such success led to its growth as an institution, with attention paid to the development of a body of law to govern religious affairs and a bureaucracy to manage church programs. This created a need for more trained lawyers, theologians and other professionals, Universities were founded to train these people. Secular rulers followed suit and began to set up governmental structures and legal frameworks. They expanded into commercial law. In a sense we can say Crusade played a role in the creation of Western Civilization much as Jihad played a role the creation of Islamic Civilization.