Religious Radicalism

Re Nicholas N. Kittrie’s Dec. 30 commentary, “Religious Radicalism Is Back, in Full Force”: Kittrie’s claim that the 21st century will usher in a new “global conflict” between “Western values” and “Islamic religio-political zeal” is but the latest rehashing of a facile dualism which for too long has colored European and American perceptions of the world.

Far from commencing a new “apocalytic era,” the rapid expansion of global communications technology and the resulting flows of information, ideas and cultures, which no doubt will be the real hallmark of our new century, pose the exciting possibility of an age in which the old ideology of East versus West is finally transcended by a new world in which cultures overlap and histories become intertwined.

When our posterity look back on the beginning of this century I have no doubt that pharisees of authenticity--men like Osama bin Laden and Kittrie--will surely be judged as passe relics of the 20th century.

AFSHIN MARASHI

Northridge

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Does Kittrie fear radical secularism? Do the names of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler or Pol Pot help him recall recent 20th century history? The monsters were responsible for the murder and torture of nearly 200 million people. This was done in the name of fascism, Nazism and communism--otherwise known as radical secularism. I too fear religious radicalism and so do 99% of all religious people.

GREG BELLUOMINI

Hawthorne