And some reason to hope

As we drove to LA we listened to the unabridged version of The Looming Tower Lawrence Wright's massive and informative book on the development of Al Quaida. It is a chilling tale. Bin Laden and the other characters in the plot become loonier and loonier, but as that conversion occured they also became more dangerous.

But in this morning's Chron there is an article on someone who should offer hope. As noted in my earlier posts on the threats we face from "Commies and Islamofascists" the threat we face from the Islamofascists is not a monolith. The Islamic Society of North America elected a Canadian, convert from Catholicism, Ingrid Mattson, as its president. Mattson explained her conversion to Islam thusly "Religion wasn't ever to me about dogma," she said. "It was more about how I felt, my own spiritual connection. How much my inability to grasp Catholic theology had to do with my fading spiritual connection, I don't know."

It seems hard for me to believe that any society today would support the ultimate exclusion of a large group from itself. That does not mean that there are not appropriate roles for men and women that may be different in society - but the primatives want to subjegate. The example of the Islamic Society of North America - presents a much different reality and one that I believe is ultimately more sustainable.