H. L. Mencken Quotes
The objection to Puritans is not that they try to make us think as they do, but that they try to make us do as they think.
Mencken, H. L. A Book of Prefaces. Alfred A. Knopf, 1917, p. 228.
Islamic modernists like Serageldin are many among the educated Muslims but their views are often drowned out by the violence and extremist statements of the fundamentalists.
There were times and places where the Ottoman Turks forced Islam upon conquered peoples. However, much of the time, they operated with a pragmatic tolerance so that they could govern smoothly. The non-Muslims were always second class citizens however. See {635095} for another example.
The Torah comprises the first 5 books of the Bible (Old Testament). The Arab countries of the Middle East are not alone in having to content with ultra-religious clerics who want to control the government and use it to impose religious law on the entire population. Israel also has the problem. In the Arab countries to deny being religion is to put yourself in danger including risking your life. So no one really knows what proportion of the population supports the religious imposition from the government. In Israel, however, this is easily determined by polls. The majority of Israelis are secular Jews. Of the religious Jews, the majority of them believe in extensive separation between the state and the religion. But there is a minority of ultra-orthodox which would have Israel to be a Theocracy. They are a minority but they are politically very strong. They receive large financial support from extremely wealthy Americans, have religious political parties, are extremely passionate advocates, and are willing to devote huge amounts of time to make Israel a more religious state and ideally a theocracy. Ironically, there is a great religious and philosophical similarity between the extremist Jews of Israel and the extremists Muslims in many of the Arab nations. They both want a theocracy. The only difference is which religion should the Theocracy represent.
She pointed out that the contribution that demographics make to determine intolerance is small when compared with the personality characteristics of the individual. So uneducated white males or Christian Evangelists have much tolerance variability within those groups. Some have authoritarian personalities and these tend to be the intolerant people.
Henry Louis Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes Trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial," also gained him attention.
