Inspired by
Meteor Blades' diary on the anti-Islamist manifesto, I thought I'd come up with a manifesto that targets the totalitarians who have real power in this world: The Christianist fascists who have control over the ruling party in the strongest country in the world.
(more below)
Here's the manifesto:
Together facing the new totalitarianism
After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Christianism.
We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.
The recent events, including the installation of a number of Christian theocrats on the US Supreme Court, the control by Christianist theocrats of the US Congress and of the White House, the call by Christianists for the imposition of "Biblical Law" on the largest and strongest country in the world, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values.
This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of red states vs. blue states that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.
Like all totalitarianisms, Christianism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world.
But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Christianism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present.
Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man's domination of woman, the Christianists' domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.
We reject "cultural relativism," which consists in accepting that men and women of Christian culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions.
We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of being "anti-Christian," an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Christianity as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.
We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.
We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.
So for all the rightwingers out there who are denouncing Islamism:
Are you willing to denounce a fascist, totalitarian ideology that actually controls real power? That is actually affecting how the world works? That is threatening the freedoms of Americans as well as of people around the entire world?
This is where we will see whether these people are truly driven by principles, by a commitment to a secular society, or whether they are hypocrites driven by anti-Muslim sentiments. I'm not betting any money on them.
(for more information on the agenda and power of the Christianist theocrats, see TheocracyWatch and Talk to Action
Update: I should have made very clear that this "manifesto" is the anti-Islamist manifesto mentioned in MB's diary, with "Islamism" replaced by "Christianism" plus a couple of other minor changes so it would make sense.
My main point: If the signers and backers of this kind of anti-Islamist manifesto are truly concerned about these issues of secularism, they will be just as willing to denounce Christian theocrats as they are to denounce Muslim ones.