Johan Norberg, on a blog that now commendably has permalinks but not yet commenting or trackbacks,Allowing feedback on posts is like encouraging free trade in the market of ideas: contriving to only allow the export of ideas from one’s blog to the internet is ideological mercantilism. Of course, it is a blogger’s sovereign right to dictate such policies, though all good Ricardians know this leads to sub-optimal intellectual equilibria. rightly points out that it is religious extremism of all stripes, not only (or even predominantly) Islamism, that is responsible for the world’s recent massacres and ethnic cleansing episodes, and he cites the role of Hutu Christian funamentalist incitement in the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. But then he also apportions blame thus (or, to be perfectly accurate, he cites a documentary he watched):
The Catholic Church and Western Christian democrats supported the murderous [Rwandan Hutu majority] regime before and during the massacres – especially the Belgians and their prime minister Wilfried Martens.
There is a (figurative) whiff of Michael Moore about the way in which the filmmakers, Peter and Maria Rinaldo, construct this argument. Yes, Martens is a Christian Democrat (he was prime minister only up until 1992, however, and in a coalition with the Socialists from 1988 on); yes, the west, including Belgium, supported the Rwandan government against a Tutsi insurgency from 1990 until the genocide of Tutsis by Hutu extremists began in earnest in 1994. But does the first fact have any bearing on the second? Hardly.
This does not lessen the blame that Belgium can be made to shoulder for its role prior to and during the genocide. It’s just that attributing Catholic motivations to Belgian policy in Rwanda in the solidly secular 90s is a rather outlandish charge, especially if you consider that from 1992 on, it was a Socialist, Willy Claes, who was Belgium’s foreign minister. I’m all for bashing the Catholic church, but I’d prefer not to see demons where there are none.
I am not sure Johan is aware that the Rinaldos approach their subject matter with an ideological leaning that tends to favor Marxist perspectives of current events, where imperialist western governments naturally ally themselves with reactionary conservative religious forces against progressive communist movements. I find all this a bit much — still, I haven’t seen the documentary, and so I am technically open to persuasion that the Belgians plotted to support the Hutu Habyarimana government out of a religious conviction that having lots of dead communist sympathizers was preferable to lots of dead Catholic extremists. In 1994.
Meanwhile, I myself can’t find any indication that Radio Milles Collines (RTMLC), the private Hutu radio station that directed the massacres, propelled the genocide with primarily religious invocations: Neither this extensive description of its broadcasts nor this one mention religion even just once. Radio Milles Collines did, however, start the rumor that Belgians had shot down the plane that carried the Rwandan and Burundian presidents, which led to attacks on Belgian peacekeepers that left 10 of them dead. This prompted their removal from the country, which facilitated the genocide. Hutu extremists wanted the Belgians out, and Belgium obligedHere is a primer on the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. And here is a primer on the dress rehearsal in Burundi in 1972.. This is what Belgium can rightly be faulted for (in addition, of course, to a disastrous colonial stewardship that favored the Tutsis and which institutionalized a cycle of mounting retribution between Hutu and Tutsi as soon Rwanda and Burundi became independent in 1962).
“Allowing feedback on posts is like encouraging free trade in the market of ideas…” And yet you remain so sub-optimal, intellectually. Reason enough to doubt the free trade mantra.
Or perhaps its that the analogy is atrocious, and only works in the unlikely case that you think bloggers who don’t have a comments feature are less likely to read stuff they haven’t written.
I’d argue the opposite –people who allow comments on their own site spend much more time looking at that site and not getting out into the real world where people don’t worry about videoconferencing from a plane.
There’s quite a mixing of terms here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the phrase “Christian fundamentalism” used to describe Roman Catholicism! “Fundamentalism” sounds such a bad word that its mere utterance can be used to as an excuse to unthinkingly smear the reputations of various groups in the minds of people at large. As I’m sure you agree, we need to think harder to get beyond such populist propagande to the reality that lies behind. We need to ask whether certain violent views lie at the heart of particular religions, or sub-groups within religions, or whether religious texts are misappropriated to further political ends antitheitical to those religions.
We should be aware that religious language can be used to cloak wicked political ambitions. Take, for example, Northern Ireland. There may be a lot of religious language used to cloak sectarian tensions yet at least one of the most evangelical denominations (the Reformed Presbyterian Church) forbids its members to be part of the Orange Order. Thus there is a disconnect between evangelical Christianity and the use of religious imagery to inflame hatred.
Another “for instance”. My understanding of evangelical Christians in Rwanda is that they were one of the only groups who advocated and lived out reconciliation between Hutus and Tutsis. Consequently evangelical Christians were targeted regardless of ethnicity in the massacres because of the threat they posed to those who wished to foment hatred. Consequently most of the Rwandan student evangelicals linked with the national branch of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students were killed.
I apologise for rambling but I hope this is a start in demolishing the myth that religious extremism is at the centre of ethnic cleansing. (And certainly Swedish Pentecostals have never been accused of this!:)) Rather, as the name suggests, ethnic differences and extreme ethnic identification are primarliy responsible. It may well be that religious differences happen to coincide with ethnic differences although it is interesting to note that this was not the case in Burundi or Rwanda which further weakens this thesis.
Thanks for stimulating.
Regards,
James.
My dad says I’m being hard on the Belgians. Apparently, Foreign Minister Claes tried unuccessfully to get a much beefier mandate for Belgian peacekeepers from the Security Council after those 10 were killed, much as the Canadians had tried only weeks earlier, but when his request was rebuffed, he felt he had no other option but to remove the troops.