"Unlike Christians and Jews in most Muslim nations, Muslims in America are free to practice their faith." .. this may be true, but in Iran and Syria, Christians and Jews are free to practice their faith. Iran, in fact, has the second largest Jewish population in the mideast. My question is .. why did Canadian David Frum emphasize those nations as part of his "Axis of Evil" (in the speech delivered by George Bush)? It's Saudi Arabia that is easily the most intolerant of Muslim nations, regarding the Shia, for example, as heretics. Yet, neo-Cromwellian Cal Thomas is hardly a disinterested party when it comes to the Saudis. A Saudi prince, after all, owns 7 percent of Fox News and i'm sure Mr - er, *Prince* - bin Talal keeps those...

Small surprise that .. neo-roundhead Thomas would be allied with fanatics like Richard Dawkins and the Saudis. It shouldn't be necessary to remind everyone that we were attacked by Saudi nationals on 9/11 and that the state religion of Saudi Arabia is the 18th century Wahhabi cult, cousin-in-law to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Thomas happens to appear regularly on FoxNews, 7 percent owned by a Saudi prince. These are the people endlessly spoiling for war with Iran, the Saudis' regional rival. The influence of Saudi wealth on America - and not the Shia minority within Islam - is the real kick in the shins to the 9/11 families.

For Cal Thomas, extremism equals religion: Cromwellism is the essence of Christianity, Revisionist Zionism is the heart of Judaism and, yes, the Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi cult is what Islam is all about. Like any other Hegelian (Marx, etc), he thinks progress is impossible without conflict. His "holy warrior" persona gets to look a little absurd, however, when one takes into account the deleterious effects of Puritanism on Christianity itself. By exiling God from Nature - which was deemed "sinful" - it was only a short step to full-on atheism, Puritanism's logical conclusion. Medieval Christianity began to die in the West in 1600 and one only finds echoes of it in the Eastern ("Orthodox") Church and in Shia Islam, with its saints and...