Academia wakeup call
Academics, or anyone else, should be able to write critically about
Islam, as they have about Christianity and Western culture, without fear
of retribution by either jihadists or their own university
administrations.
Islam itself must be contained until it has reformed, if reform is even
possible. It is obvious that Islam is more than a religion, it is an
ideology. Where other religions are content to give spiritual guidance,
Islam makes exacting demands. The Taliban government was one of the purest
attempts at instituting Islamic principals. To the jihadists, democracy is
viewed as man’s attempt to replace God’s law. By definition, a
jihadist uses violence to undermine democratic society; hence, democracies
have the right to act, as they did with communism. The semantic
differences between religion, ideology and philosophy cannot be tripping
points to rational self defense. Persistent violent jihadism should be met
with overwhelming force.
A post-Islamic world
Jihadists have bet everything on violence. Should they lose and Islam
collapse, Arabs may find themselves in a state similar to the
disillusionment of Russians when communism collapsed. Arabs would do well
to recognize that Arab culture predates Islam. Just as Germans did not
need to abandon traditional German culture when Nazism fell, Arabs can
still retain the vibrant traditions of Arabia if Islam were to collapse in
disrepute—a possibility after 9/11, and a certainty if jihadists were to
trigger a nuclear weapon in the West. On the other hand, Non-Arab
post-Muslims, long denigrated as second-class Arabs, may well, like the
Soviet satellite republics, experience a post-Muslim renaissance.
Under today’s Islam, even the most liberal Muslim state like
Turkey
is for non-Muslims merely like the difference Jim Crow was to slavery for
an African American. In the future, without a strong “West” to
pressure for tolerance, even this minimal tolerance is unlikely. Then
again, without a strong West, it is unlikely Islam itself would survive a
strong (Far) “East.”
Words matter
It is folly to think words do not have meaning, as some Islamic
apologists would have us think. A radical Jain, for instance, does not
become more violent, but less so, according to dictates of Jainism. The
Koran is a violent book. Muslims have to find ways to minimize this
penchant for violence. It is questionable whether they can do this, even
if many are so inclined. That leads us to whether it is worth it.
Practically speaking, does Islam provide a good template for societies?
Muslim states seem to be of two types: rich, authoritarian and discontent,
or poor, authoritarian and discontent. The “rich” part of some states
is wholly explained by the accidental fortune of being located on land
floating on an ocean of oil.
Aside from whether Islam is practical, the Koran itself is rift with
contradictions of earlier biblical texts. It takes a true believer to
explain that Muhammad was actually correcting the earlier texts, and the
proof is the Koran itself. Such circular logic makes it nearly impossible
to reason with such people.
Is Islam truly monotheistic?
But logic has not played a strong role in Islam. Although
monotheistic, Muhammad is elevated to all but the status of God, beyond
criticism and even portrait. Muslims insist he was the perfect man, yet
his actions contradict even the most basic respect for modern human
rights. Muslims say they are the most rigorous of monotheists but believe
in angels, demons (jinns), and heavenly virgins, called houriis. What are
these but inferior gods to Allah, since they are neither man nor animal?
Logically, they are hardly different than the hierarchy of gods worshipped
by the ancient Greek polytheists, who ultimately deferred to Zeus, or
Hindus today who call Brahman, the Supreme One, their highest god. Muslim
Monotheism is thus reduced to semantics.
Mohammad: Does humanity need a violent role model?
It is already well known that humans often are inclined towards
violence if not for some restraint, such as a role model. Logically, that
model would be peaceful—and not simply with his followers—yet would
remain strong. Certainly Jesus and Buddha were both. As nearer examples,
Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. showed us the peaceful power of Hindu
and Christian principals, respectively. In Judaism, biblical characters
were often punished or rewarded according to their moral behavior. The
wealth of great Jewish minds in science and the humanities is testament to
Judaism’s utility. In Contrast, Muhammad seems to be the very antithesis
of this logic, inspiring violence even beyond man’s inherent natural
capacity. Thus, even oil-rich, monocultural Arab nations are riddled with
systemic violence in the name of Islam. In the end, it is difficult to not
view Islam as redundant to Judaism and Christianity when at its best, and
a violent, hysterical, supremacist ideology when at its most unique.
Apologists of course consider the preceding as an ignorant view of Islam,
as though only lifelong scholars, who by Islamic definition are believers
or they would be apostates, can opine on Islam. But religions are not
science; they are meant for all. An informed lay person can express a
valid opinion on religion, especially one that is threatening his or her
life, as well as any power-hungry mullah can. Indeed, in all probability more
so.
The decadence of Islam
It appears that Islam is in fact a decadent religion. The decadence
here is not synonymous with hedonism, but rather, of violent parasitism.
Even the accidental wealth from massive oil deposits cannot buy Arabs the
values needed to sustain a competent culture. The thought-stifling dogma
of the Koran, the practical impositions of sharia law, and the enslavement
of women all add up to a culture that is at once both arrogant and
incompetent at satisfying its needs without resorting to violence towards
others. It requires the continual conquest and subordination of other
cultures to feed its supremacist appetite. Once those cultures are drained
and indoctrinated, it looks for new hosts. It has been a continual pattern
for 1300 years. Muslim lands are drained of new ideas today, so it is
again on the hunt. The West happens to be in its own sort of paralysis
currently, so it may be easy prey. But we are in an age of instant
mass-death through weapons of mass destruction.
Jihadists have no hope against
China
Red
China
is the hegemonic gorilla that even suicidal Muslims fear, if only
subconsciously, because of its power and equal unconcern for individual
lives.
China
has the will to wipe every non-Han Chinese person off the globe, and
Muslims are unwittingly acting as the catalyst. Muslims have no hope
against Chinese manufacturing. Muslims cannot walk around freely in
Beijing
as they do in
London
. They cannot manipulate principals of human rights or freedom of the
press, because those don’t exist in
China
. Without a West to defend them, Muslims will have met not only their
Waterloo
with
China
, but their
Auschwitz
.
An immense tragedy nears
Jihadists are a menace to all cultures, not just the “West.” There
is a story of the person who saw that Nazis only came for others, so he
did nothing. Then one day they came for him, but it was too late to act.
Let’s not act too late. Let’s not let Islam destroy our lives and the
lives of generations yet born. It is an immense tragedy for humankind that
we are precariously close to disaster at the precise moment in history
that we are so close to the possibility of genuinely ending world
suffering through communication and constructive technology.
China
itself, sans its ideological aspects, is an early miracle of this
possibility. Many problems currently afflicting the world are now
solvable. Through biotechnology, we can end disease and hunger, and
increase intelligence and well-being. Through the Internet, modern
databases, and distance learning, we can extend education to all. Through
democracy, law and a creative use of these exciting technologies humanity
can finally live up to its potential. We can all get there together,
peacefully and contently, if only…
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