Unitarian Jihad

Unitarian Jihad is a nascent satire religion/humanism movement which opposes religious extremism of all kinds through peaceful means.

The concept of the Unitarian Jihad originated in a column by writer Jon Carroll which was originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 8 2005. The column intentionally juxtaposed the Unitarian Universalism principles of a creedless faith and rational discussion with the Islamic concept of (militant) Jihad, and used the conceit of having received an anonymous communique from the then non-existent group.

Excerpt: : The following is the first communique from a group calling itself Unitarian Jihad. It was sent to me at The Chronicle via an anonymous spam remailer. I have no idea whether other news organizations have received this communique, and, if so, why they have not chosen to print it. Perhaps they fear starting a panic. I feel strongly that the truth, no matter how alarming, trivial or disgusting, must always be told. I am pleased to report that the words below are at least not disgusting:

: Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States of America. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary.

Both links to Carroll s column, and the text of the column, were distributed on the Internet. Some people who read this proclaimed themselves to be members of the Unitarian Jihad. Whether Carroll condones or endorses the movement inspired by his article is not clear at the present time. It is also unclear whether any of the self-proclaimed members of the Unitarian Jihad intend to take action other than communicating with each other online.

Following Jon Carroll s satirical lead, the people who have declared themselves members of the Unitarian Jihad talk about committees, a model common in Unitarian Universalism congregations. They also follow Carroll s lead in using names like Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation in order to parody both the language used by Islamic militant groups and the principles of Unitarian Universalism.

=External links=

*[http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgifile=/chronicle/archive/2005/04/08/DDG27BCFLG1.DTL Original article by Jon Carroll] *[http://www.livejournal.com/community/unitarian_jihad LiveJournal community for Unitarian Jihad (known as the International Unofficial Unitarian Jihad)] *[http://www.leakedpracticevideo.com Video Communique for World Peace by Unitarian Jihad cell (not worksafe)] *[http://groups.myspace.com/unitarianjihad Myspace group for Unitarian Jihad] *[http://www.livejournal.com/community/uk_cell/ LiveJournal community for the UK cell of the IUUJ] *[http://www.livejournal.com/community/sfba_cell/ LiveJournal commmunity for the San Francisco/Bay Area cell of the IUUJ] *[http://www.livejournal.com/community/ny_cell/ LiveJournal commmunity for the Greater New York region cell of the IUUJ] *[http://www.livejournal.com/community/sea_cell/ LiveJournal Community for the Seattle area cell of the IUUJ] *[http://homepage.mac.com/whump/ujname.html Unitarian Jihad Name Generator] *[http://www.elsewhere.org/cgi-bin/jihad First Reformed Unitarian Name Generator] *[http://www.cafepress.com/uu_jihad A Unitarian Jihad Cafe Press store] *[http://www.uuism.net/uuwiki/index.php/Unitarian_Jihad Unitarian Jihad at UUWiki] *[http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UnitarianJihad/ Unitarian Jihad at Yahoo Groups] *[http://everything2.com/index.plnode=Unitarian%20Jihad Unitarian Jihad at Everything2] *[http://www.uua.org/aboutuu/ About Unitarian Universalism] from the Unitarian Universalist Association (USA) *[http://www.cuc.ca/who_we_are/whoweare.htm Who We Are] from the Canadian Unitarian Council (Canada) *[http://www.unitarian.org.uk/about_ga.htm About the GA] from the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (UK) *[http://www.icuu.net/aboutus/index.html What is ICUU] from the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists