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Calmeyer would battle tyranny. Among the many forms, Theocracy is a danger all too similar to Dictatorship, Fascism, Communism, and all the other forms of centralized control using God as an ultimate self-justification for government arbitrariness. Whether it is an appeal to an emotional doctrine or a doctrine of intimidation by force, such power-based societies have never yet succeeded in creating anything but brutal Empires and even more brutal failed States. Neither Christianity nor Judaism, religions of the heart and the individual with G_d, currently strive for Theocracy, though the oft-encountered appellation of Christian Nation or Jewish Nation reflects a hopeful intent to have government morality reflect the religious morality of its citizens, and if a plurality of citizens believe in a certain way, there will naturally be impact on how the nation is run.
America, with its rights to freedom of religion but a clear warning against a state-sponsored religion, has thus paradoxically been an experiment created by wise Christians and Biblical Deists. It has never developed into a Theocracy of any sort, despite dominance of Christianity and Judeo-Christion values since its elegant constitution and founding after 1776. Interestingly, America in its 234 years is now the longest-running historical example of a single-constitutional government on the planet, everyone else having undergone multiple revolutions and forced changes in governance that make other systems look unstable in comparison. The experiment has created the wealthiest nation and citizenry in history, spreading capitalistic wealth-creation around the globe and enhancing the standards of living of everyone around the globe, not to speak of saving quite a few non-Americans from the excesses of their own governments.
Calmeyer however did not much admire the Americans, they treated him badly as their military found him in the Netherlands, not knowing what to do with someone like him when they captured Den Haag, and seemingly (according to him) not caring much. He was imprisoned without notification to his wife until some 6 months later. Post-war discovery processes were slow, and he was eventually spoken free based on testimony from his wife, colleagues and some of the Calmeyer Jews. Calmeyer also was not comfortable with institutionally organized religion, this had no apparent draw for him. So it is not clear what he thought of Americans who so predominantly practiced their personal religion even when their State did not. He was perhaps grateful for the American sacrifice in opposing tyranny, but he was also livid with the Americans for keeping many of the Nazi tyrants in place for the rebuilding of the economy. His anger was sustained throughout the postwar Adenauer years where he recognized many key Nazi figures still in power.
It is precisely the sort of Calmeyer-held conviction and revulsion that transitional remnants of tyrants in power are unsupportable morally, that led the Americans to first attempt a non-Baathist new government in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Both military and police forces were initially disbanded because of suspicions of lingering loyalty. George Bush was widely faulted for this “cleansing” which left a power vaccum that lengthened the post-war instability and recovery process. But Calmeyer would have approved of the sacrifice in time, in exchange for the rightness of the policy.
Today, he would be most appalled at the Iranian Theocracy, not just because of his discomfort with forced theology, but through his deep familiarity with Iranian/Persian culture. He and his son Peter were archaeologists at heart, historians of cultural anthropology. For Hans Calmeyer, this was another passionate hobby. Peter would turn this hobby into a lifelong profession at the University of Munich, becoming a Professor but also a researcher in Iran itself, in Teheran and various sites and ancient text sources. During the times of the Shah, an autocrat king who was in retrospect unfairly maligned for his state police tactics, Calmeyer and his son Peter did not indicate much dissatisfaction with that regime, as it was largely a free society when compared to the current theocratic oppression there. The theocracy of Islam in Iran is every bit as brutal and unyielding as Nazism, and vocally just as anti-Jew. The fact that Iran tries to make a distinction that they are only anti-Israel-Jew (to reverse the claimed injustice against the Caliphate) and not anti-Semitic across the board, rings hollow when one combines the Iranian policies with their denial of the Holocaust: they are anti-Jew through and through.
The most deep-seated form of Theocracy in prospect in the modern world is Islam. That is because Islam is a complete system of religion and state and politics and behavior, more permanently entwined, more intolerant of any religious or cultural diversity, and most virulent in its willingness to convert or conquer non-believers. Even in Australia, the message is clear: Members of Hizb ut-Tahrir say country is "god-forsaken," and that Muslims must shun "secular and erroneous concepts such as democracy and freedom." "We must adhere to Islam and Islam alone." "We should not be conned or succumb to the disingenuous and flawed narrative that the only way to engage politically is through the secular democratic process. It is prohibited and haram." He said democracy was incompatible with Islam because the Koran insisted Allah was the sole lawmaker, and Muslim political involvement could not be based on "secular and erroneous concepts such as democracy and freedom"."
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