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May 11, 2011

Contrary to What They'd Like Americans to Believe the War of the Two Religions Is Still On

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Starting in 1979, we have misread the renewal of jihadist fervor in the Muslim world, attributing it to the material causes we in the secularized West prize: economic development, political freedom, or individual rights, all notions at some level inimical to the profound beliefs

of many Muslims. Thus we have dismissed the careful theological justifications of jihadist violence and terror offered by Muslim Brothers founder Hassan al-Banna, jihadist theorist Sayyid Qutb, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, and al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. We have called their pronouncements "distortions" of Islam and mere rationalizations for the material aims and needs that we value and privilege. But as Khomeini said, "We did not start a revolution to lower the price of melons."

On the contrary, the motives of jihadists are spiritual, their war one of conflicting religious creeds and beliefs: "Muslims must rise up in this struggle," Khomeini said in 1979, "which is more a struggle between all unbelievers and the Muslims." Twenty-two years later, Osama bin Laden would say the same thing after the attacks on 9/11: "This war is fundamentally religious. Under no circumstances should we forget this enmity between us and the infidels. For the enmity is based on creed." -- Bruce Thornton: The Wages of Appeasement | Hoover Institution

Posted by Vanderleun at May 11, 2011 1:41 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

A good book on this topic is "The Strong Horse" by Lee Smith. The Arab/Muslim culture is just very damn different than Western Civilization. Just as fish don't spend much time thinking about being wet, we in The West assume others are also bathed in the same environment as we.

This is a clash of civilizations, if you ascribe to the Dar al islam a civilization. Their religion is categorically different from any familiar to us. Their world view is categorically different than any familiar to us. Their hopes and dreams are categorically different than those familiar to us. We can't wish any of that away and we shouldn't exxagerate any of the similarities between us so as to avoid troubling conslusions.

The West and Islam will have to be separate or one will have to change the change. They are not compatible, even if one knows a nice Muslim. The nice Muslims are not driving their civilization and a plain and orthodox understanding of Islam is far closer to the view of the jihadists than the Muslim version of "cafeteria Catholics" which is the nice Muslim.

There is a reason why we don't have a Muslim version of Martin Luther King, or Martin Luther, for that matter.

Posted by: Scott M at May 11, 2011 1:58 PM

Cruelty springs from weakness. The book of Islam and the book of Marx guarantee unlimited supplies of both.

Only the fool and the foolish try to reform what is unreformable. The alchoholic's prayer is in order...to know the difference.

Posted by: james wilson at May 11, 2011 5:06 PM

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