Notes from Ky Author Forum--Karen Armstrong

Theology is poetry.

Socrates would say that confusion is the beginning of the spiritual quest.

Hillel

It is difficult to be creative religiously when you are under attack.

Religious fundamentalism is under attack, by Harvard and Yale secularism.

Realize that today's brand of "terrorism" is not Muslim, but Arab.

If religion becomes an ego-maker instead of an ego-loser, it goes bad.

QUESTION: How can we learn compassion for those who are fear-based?
(we ourselves are threatened).
Decode the fundamentalist fear-based imagery. An individual who gives such emphasis to violent end-of-time catastrophies would be considered mentally disturbed.
When we feel attacked, know that the other side, fears the anhillation of religion.

Historically, fundamentalism, when attacked, becomes more extreme.
Before the Scopes trial, fundamentalist Christian activists worked with the left (including communists). After the Scopes trial, they swung to the "right."
Consider the British/IRA conflict. British were always careful NOT to characterize it as a religious conflict. Progress began to be made when the British began to understand that not only were they being attacked, but also that they were at fault.
In USA, you could make it a spiritual process: learning about the "other" and wanting the best for them.
Use 'women's experience' of discrimination to understand those who are excluded and dispossessed.
At the beginning of the 20th century, every major Muslim mullah was in love with the West.

QUESTION: How do I raise my own children in the faith as Muslims in America given that we are being attacked from without and within?
(affirmation from author and from audience)
The best asset the United States has is its own Muslims in the [not "war"] with terrorism.