Is the UK Overthrowing the Christian Basis of the West?
>> Elena ``of Valhalla'':
“Well, technically the UK, or at least England, is a theocracy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Governor so I guess that as a country they do have a religion :)
As for the article, well, nowhere it does give even an hint of data that suggests that Islam is actually taking over, as opposed to very european agnosticism, atheism and religious indifference (iirc it was Douglas Adams who described a stereotypical Englishman who was a strong aderent of the Church of England: he wouldn't attend the services, but the services he was skipping were definitely the ones of the Church of England, not anything else; evidentely an exageration for comical effect, but based on observed reality even of a few decades ago)”
Relatively speaking some of the harder-line religious leaders in the USA would still have a problem with a woman being in charge of church affairs, but I digress.
>> JanKusanagi:
“Religions for the churches, mosques, synagogues, etc, not for the countries, please.”
Well, that wasn't all that long ago. Perhaps less than one hundred years ago for some nation-states.
Oh, and if we want to nitpick, this is european religion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Willendorf (maybe. unless it's a toy, or a decoration, or...)
And this is the religion of the invaders from the east that are ancestors to a significant part of the current ethnic europeans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyeus
Everything else is just the influence of immigrants from the middle east :)
(In other words, cultures are made of multiple influences, and if one is selective enough they can “prove” whatever they want to, but it doesn't mean they're right.)
[Edit: removed commas that weren't supposed to be there]
BTW, at least in italian political speech “protecting the Christian roots of Europe” tends to be a way to promote a kind of religious approach based on:
* discriminating anybody that can be easily discriminated with no consequences (IMHO in quite an un-christian way);
* fighting secularism, which is much more typical of European thought than religious extremism, at least in the last couple of centuries.
Of course, this approach makes it easier to use religion as an excuse to justify anything when the real aim is to gain money and power, and this is also quite rooted in european traditions, just not one of those traditions that we should be proud of and emulate.
I agree that there are strong christian roots in european culture (even european atheism can be said to come historically from a negation of the christian God, after all), and the phrase in itself would be neutral or even agreeable, it's the wider context that makes it bad.