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| Diarmaid MacCulloch is a Church of England deacon |
The "pressing of sexual imagery on to the world" means western culture is hated in the rest of the world and leads to jihadists wanting to "kill people in the name of purifying the world", Diarmaid MacCulloch said.
The gay Oxford theological historian and presenter of the BBC's Sex and the Church said the hatred of western culture reaches far and wide and can be seen in Boko Haram in Africa, in the Middle East and in Vladimir Putin's Russia.
He said: "It seems to me that it is about sex.
"A unique feature of western culture is that it loves talking about sex, it obsesses about sex, it presses sexual imagery on to the world.
"Other cultures think about sex a lot but they do not talk about it and they find it intensely embarrassing and frustrating that the West talks about it."
The enhanced role of women in society is another reason Islamic State comrades hate western culture, the professor added.
He said: "The anger that other cultures feel towards western sexual openness, it is so much of the murderous anger which we are seeing in Boko Haram, Islamic State and other revivalist movements of the 20th century.
"Islam, in particular, is the religion of angry young men who are terrified by the way in which women's roles have changed in the last 50 years." » | Alix Culbertson | Wednesday, May 27, 2015
