Phillips on Global Fundamentalism

Re Kevin Phillips’ “The Menace of Religious Zealotry,” Opinion, May 10: The implication is that there is some sort of worldwide Muslim conspiracy, aided and abetted by Chinese forces. It’s worth noting that, as official atheists, the Chinese are the enemies of Islam, just as the Soviet Union was. True believers will understand this.

Meddling and troublemaking may be useful for China and achieve the short-term aims of some radical Islamic groups. Nevertheless, the Chinese are not the long-term allies of Islamic fundamentalism. Their own Muslim minority is actively showing resistance to religious repression. Ethnic Uighurs, for instance, have been responsible for a string of bomb attacks, not only in their own region, but in Beijing.

The Soviets made mischief for the West in the Muslim world, but ultimately went to Afghanistan to stop the spread of fundamentalism into the Soviet Union. Their failure there directly contributed to the breakup of the Soviet empire. The Chinese are aware of this example. The reality is that there are very narrow limits on any Chinese-Muslim axis.

FRANK MARTIN

San Clemente

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* As a pantheist who situates himself within rather than under God, I am painfully aware of the religious bigotry practiced in the U.S. on a daily basis. Since the 1950s--when all manner of oaths to God became a requirement of public life--anyone who is not Judeo-Christian has effectively been barred from full participation in the civic sphere. From the Pledge of Allegiance to the Boy Scouts of America, people of minority faith are marginalized, stigmatized and shut out of the social arena by a majority that ironically sees itself as a defender of religious liberty, and that regularly boasts about its own righteousness in this regard to the world. The fact that religious bigotry in America is for the most part unconscious only intensifies the persecution of those who suffer from it.

Before U.S. officials go trotting around the world to chastise religious bigots in other lands, they need to take a look in their respective mirrors. “First, put your own house in order,” is sound advice to anyone, of any faith.

LANCE JENCKS

Costa Mesa