Douglas Reed Quotes
It looked like a pagan banner planted on a Christian rampart.
Reed, Douglas. Insanity Fair. Jonathan Cape, 1938.
In some countries political candidates run on religious platforms to convert the part of the population that is not of their religion and turn the nation into a theocracy.
The implication of a double moral standard for adherents of the faith and for others has been characteristics of many religions.
These Christians are hard-line missionaries who have inserted themselves into Islam like a parasite.
This is an important quotation because it reflects the extreme Muslim antipathy toward non Islamic missionaries. An Islamic theocracy like Iran gets itself in a bind over missionaries because Islamic law (Sharia) which they follow requires the Death Penalty for ANY Muslim who converts to another religion. There is no opportunity for repentance; death is required. Of course, modern and reformist Muslims do not follow this Koranic requirement any more than Christians and Jews today will execute for Heresy or Adultery as is required in their Bible. The lack of balance illustrates a very difficult problem other religions have in dealing with Muslims. Christian missionaries who convert Muslims are “parasites.” Muslim missionaries who convert Christians are doing the will of God.
Toleration is a relative term. The Muslim Moors made Christians (and Jews) pay a special tax. At times they were forced to wear special clothing so that they could be readily identified. And they could not build churches larger or taller than the smallest mosque in the community. At times, their occupations were restricted but at other times Christians and Jews were appointed to the highest positions like Vizier. The Inquisition, in contrast, forced all Muslims (and Jews) to leave the country without any of their property or money or be tortured and killed—usually by burning at the stake unless of course that they converted to Christianity.
The Ottoman Empire was a word Superpower for over 1,000 years, longer than any other in history, One of its great strengths was its pluralism and ability to not only absorb and assimilate people from other nations, cultures and religions, but also to utilize those people in key positions and contributions to their society. Christians and Jews rose to the highest positions under the Sultans. They became Governor’s of Provinces, manages of departments and even Grand Vizier to the Sultan himself. Jewish and Christian physicians, attorneys, traders were all valued in the Empire even though the had a second class status relative to Muslims. The opportunity was always there to convert to Islam and many did, but many did not and thrived, The Ottomans saw Christian Europe, not only in continuous religious conflict, but individual nations were never able to use the talents of the religious minority, the way that the Ottomans did, and later the United States did. Not only did the Ottomans allow immigrants from all over the world to become part of the Empire Government or Economy, but they actually send agents throughout the empire to find the best and the brightest of young men—regardless of religion or nationality—and bring them to the Sultan’s court for education, training and service. IT should be noted however, that the motivation was in no way moral or a desire for fairness. It was totally pragmatic. Exceptional manpower was not to be wasted.
France, like the other European nations had suffered through the bloodbaths and civil and other wars including the Protestant Reformation, the Holocaust and others. They. like the Untied States chose a separation of church and state—a secular government to combat the inner and intrareligious bloodbaths that have historically killed millions.
Douglas Lancelot Reed was a British journalist, playwright, novelist and writer of books with political themes. His book Insanity Fair (1938) examined the state of Europe and the megalomania of Adolf Hitler before the Second World War. By the time of his death, Reed had been largely forgotten except for various remarks about Jews. Thus, when The Times ran his obituary, it condemned Reed as a "virulent anti-Semite," although Reed himself claimed that he drew a distinction between opposition to Zionism and antisemitism. Reed believed in a long-term Zionist conspiracy to impose a world government on an enslaved humanity. He was also staunchly anti-Communist, and once wrote that National Socialism was a "stooge or stalking horse" meant to further the aims of the "Communist Empire."
