Much well-deserved attention has been given to the role of political corruption in starting the war in Iraq. The role of big oil, Halliburton, Bechtel, and a host of contractors and arms dealers in getting us in Iraq and keeping us there gets plenty of discussion online, if not in the corporate media.

However, the religious roots of this war often are ignored. The pretext of the war, as absurd as it was, involved the farcical notion that Al Qaeda and the Iraqi Baath Party were in collusion, even though they were mortal enemies. The 911 attacks certainly never have been a valid reason for the Iraq conflict, but they created an enormous amount of anger in the US that could easily be exploited.

Yet, the most significant religious origins for US war fever have had more to do with Christian extremism than anything else. The attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a plane flying over rural Pennsylvania caused a reaction that tapped into long felt fundamentalist Christian desires to subjugate, torture, and kill Muslims. A war that has lasted longer than WWII has yet to satisfy these hungers.

From the bizarely named “American Jihad” blog:

KILL!

KILL!!

KILL THE MUSLIMS!!!

View the works of these MURDEROUS MUSLIM BASTARS at: http://terrorwebs.blogspot.com/ then surf on over to http://michaelsavage.com/ and watch a few BEHEADING VIDEOS!

* MUSLIMS ARE PRIMITIVE SAVAGES
* MUSLIMS ARE PERVERTS AND QUEERS
* MUSLIMS ARE CRAWLING WITH VD AND AIDS
* MUSLIMS ARE DUMB AND IGNORANT
* MUSLIMS ARE DRUG DEALERS AND WHORES
* MUSLIMS ARE THIEVES AND KILLERS
* MUSLIMS ARE CHILD MOLDESTERS AND RAPISTS
* MUSLIMS ARE SATANIC SATYRS!
* MUSLIMS ARE EVIL TERRORISTS!!!

It would be easy to dismiss this as the rantings of a lone extremist, but it would be inaccurate. If you follow uncensored and anonymous Internet forums, you will find far too many postings expressing the same point of view. It also is interesting to note the homophobia of the poster, which is identical to that of militant Islamists.

The underlying problem here is that religion poisons politics and policy discussions, though not always by such extreme degrees. People who depend on absolutist religious ideologies always will be threatened by people who do not share those beliefs and by those who live their lives in ways that fail to conform to those absolutist religious beliefs.

Thomas Jefferson's Wall of Separation between church and state makes more sense with each passing day. If we cannot stop people from believing in religious ideologies, we can create cultural and legal boundaries that protect society as a whole from many of the consequences of such thinking.

• Churches that engage in political activity should have their tax-exempt statuses removed. The IRS needs to start following the law in this area.


• Courts need to do a much better job in enforcing the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, rather than crafting dishonest exemptions in it to appease religious majorities.


• A cultural taboo needs to be put in place about bringing religion into politics.