HONEST TO BLOG

Fascist Religion

While Qur'anic Islam advocates war with non-Muslims (see 11 Sept post), other religions are intrinsically tied to a specific militaristic nationalism. Recently, there has been a lot of fuss about Japan's Prime Minister's involvement in the revival of Shintoism. It may indeed be that Koizumi was worshipping as a private citizen and not in any capacity as a government official. But given the nature of Shinto as a religion and the history of Japan, there is tremendous reason for concern.

Sadly, John ML Young's superb work, The Two Empires In Japan, on Japanese Christianity and the Church-State conflict is long out of print.