Buildings Not Cartoons That Inspire Real Religious Fervour

Is Religious Extremism just plain old bigotry just dressed up modern, and have we all been hoodwinked with the need to consider everybody’s feelings on everything?
I’m having trouble with worrying about how extreme Christians and Muslims feel about a cartoon. When the Catholic bishops drag the troops out to threaten TV3 over South Park but don’t seem nearly as active over priests involved in choir boy vileness, it just makes them seem like the Mullahs raging over a cartoon in a country most couldn’t find on a map, yet seemingly not nearly as upset when Iraq is invaded.
Given that the Iraq invasion was ordered by a fundamental Christian President without any particularly good reason and resulted in the deaths of thousands of Muslims, it really begs the question of whether religion at the extremes is the first sign of losing one’s perspective.
Are we heading for the wars of the Conquest again after centuries of indifference? Was the Reformation only a passing phase and could the nightmare of the Dark Ages be waiting somewhere behind the oncoming oil shortage? I hope not.
The bit that appeals about religions is the peaceful and iconic nature of the buildings. I like to occasionally sit by the window in our lovely old local church and gaze out the window at the harbour, while the service carries on around me. It’s peaceful and reminds me of my roots. Sort of nearest thing I can get to a marae. It is cultural for me rather than any blinding vision and the building is an important local symbol with a stronger emotive bond to me than any of our so-called, community council owned buildings. There’s the added bonus that the congregation all seem nice and caring and never drop hints of disapproval over my long absences.
While travelling overseas I’ve noticed the same nice calm in the mosques I’ve visited, all peaceful and contemplative without necessarily understanding the depth of belief that these buildings must have engendered to get them built. It’s the same with the cathedrals, vast structures that have often taken hundreds of years to complete, showing that generations must have held to the belief systems that valued such long-term superhuman effort and devotion to the construction task.
The Sunni destruction of the Shiite Golden Mosque in Sammara in Iraq and the response to it shows the depth of feeling over these buildings as powerful religious and cultural symbols. Rage was at the level expressed by USA at the time of the fall of the World Trade Centre, that powerful symbol of America’s true religion, Capitalism.
Extremists know the power of symbols. If you are going to attack a building choose one that generates real emotional heat and the response is immediate. No need to work hard for three months to get an anti cartoon movement. Just bring down a well-loved building and nobody questions the media for fully showing and publicising the attendant destruction regardless of whether that may upset believer’s feelings.
Mindless anger is what the extremists seek from their followers and the destruction of that beautiful old mosque tilted Iraq dangerously close to civil war in a flash, while accidentally taking the heat of the US invasion force. The speed of the widespread response compared to the manufactured trouble over the cartoons at least put some perspective around real versus imagined insults.
Rather than worry over TV and newspaper cartoons, the recent religious troubles should make us aware of which buildings here, if damaged could ignite real community anger and consider what responses we have planned to keep public order. Some misguided fool burning a well-known and loved marae, church or mosque would immediately inflame passions, which only well prepared leadership could control.
We have enough classroom arson each year to know that the loss of an iconic building is not just an outside possibility. Are we prepared?