Until the advent of materialism and 19th c. dogma, Western Civilisation was superior to anything Islam had developed. Islam has not aided in the development of the modern world; in fact civilisation has only been created in spite of Islam. Proof of this resides in the 'modern' world and the unending political-economic and spiritual poverty of Muslim states and regions. Squatting on richer civilisations is not 'progress'. Islam is pagan, totalitarian, and irrational.
With an ideology that extols the lustful wonders of the next world we have a death cult. How does a 'moderate', who happens to enjoy life, reform it? If an ideology mandates violence; hate; and engages in endless anti-Jew and anti-American propaganda impelling people to martyrdom; or paying people to wage jihad; how can it be reformed? If the violence of the ideology elevates death over life, what chance is there it can be changed? Is the attraction of a death cult that much more powerful than a life cult? Is Islam even capable of being saved?
These are more than existential questions. They impact all matters pertaining to the Middle East. The Middle East is now aflame with revolts. What do the people really want? Is it a change to secular, pluralist Constitutionalism as I would argue? Or will the fanatic rumps who follow the moon cult of Allah be able to impose Sharia totalitarianism and further crush whatever is left of morality, rationality and freedom in the Muddled East? No one knows.
Iraq now has Islam embedded in its constitution. Is this wise and does it lead directly to the attacks on Christians, and the 1000 Christians killed or wounded each year since 2003? Pakistan is profoundly Islamic and nuclear. Is democracy what we need there or are we better off with a bribed and quiescent dictator who can keep a lid on the boiling pot of Islamo-fascism? Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Syria and other Arab states are ruled in part by Islamist coalitions. How do we reform or deal with these states? Iran is preternaturally pre-medieval. Hamas runs Gaza and Hizbollah is the fascist parallel state in Lebanon. What can be done to defuse this radical Islamism? Can we possibly reform the underlying ideology of death?
A larger question thus looms - can an ideology which has blessed death over life for 1400 years be saved?
Christianity went through many revolutions of the mind, the economy, society and of course the spiritual. Christianity, contrary to critics, has rarely been static. Acquisitive, political, opportunistic, aggressive or inventive, yes. But confined to statis, no. The Reformation is one clear example of Christian development. But others exist. In fact for the past 1400 years, the history of Christianity has been one of growth, fragmentation, change, and dynamism. Some for the better, some for the worse.
Islam has seen no change since Koranic law was codified and put away as complete, in the 13th century. All of life was explained by submission to an Arab moon cult. Allah or the abstraction of power over humanity would determine all. Please Allah and maybe you too would enjoy the hot virgins in the after-life. This is the ritualisation emblematic of Muslim praying. Muslims pray not for enlightenment or improvement, but to appease ali-ilah – the moon deity – ensuring one hopes, a good chance at the pleasures of the other-world. Conducive to free-will, inquiry and innovation, it is not.
Such a concept ineluctably, leads to an indifference about life.
If the next life is so darn interesting, then getting there is the point of this life. Or at least that is the deductive logic of Islam. Focusing on something in the great beyond makes current life optional. Islam, following in the tracks of the Nazis and Communists, elevates death over life. Islam is in the Western sense, one large abortion laboratory.
Children are taught in state owned propaganda factories [schools]; that martyrdom and appeasing Allah is the main point of existence. Jihad, anti-Americanism, and anti-semiticism, are encouraged through the exhortation of universalism; inevitable domination; and racist, supremacist superiority. Blacks, the largest group converting to Islam in the world, might be interested in knowing that Islam and Arab culture have long hated Blacks; have enslaved 11-15 millions in the past 1300 years; and condone anti-Black sentiments as written in the Koran.
Islam dominating the world is the overarching goal of the radical Muslim. Getting there is the objective. Death is not a concern; neither is protecting life.
The rewards are fantastic. As Bernard Lewis of Princeton has long observed, fascist concepts imported from Europe – one people, one state, one leader – have long influenced the construction of state politics in the Arab and Muslim world. These ideals are premised on the pagan death cult ideals of fascists – ones that were entirely compatible and supportive of Islam. Medieval Islam – frozen in 7th and 13th century ideological and juridical concepts – energized by modern European ideas of will to power, and unceasing fascistic warfare.
Such a frozen ideology emboldened by modern fascist ideals, will never be reformed from within. Moderate Muslim – quiet and powerless as they are – will never unfreeze Islam's anti-modern program of death. That will only happen from exogenous factors – including military conquest and reconstruction.
So much, so obvious. But what of the Muslims themselves? Do they really support a death cult?
Surveys, informal polls, anecdotal evidence reveal conflicting trends within Islam. Maybe 30-40% of Muslims living in the West desire some sort of Sharia law implementation. This is totally unacceptable. Outside of the West, the desire for real reform is even smaller. State and ideology are co-mixed in Islam. Propaganda, lies, deceit, force and all the trappings of the fascist program are found in the Islamic world to an incredible degree.
Death cults are only reformed by military defeat and the presentation of a superior and attractive ideology. Romans accepted all the pagan gods of their conquered populations. This was practical and reflected Roman prudence. Islam, contrary to myth does not. Subject peoples are under male Muslim rule. That is what peace means in Islam. Submission to male Muslim rule.
Historically death cults – those of the Hittites; the ancient Assyrians [moon worshippers like the Arabs]; ancient Persians; Egyptians; and various Turkic empires, amongst others -- were only destroyed via war and imperial reconstruction. So it goes with modern Islam. Appeasement is not an option. Neither is naivety or ignorance about the threat of Islam.
Moderate Muslims – whoever they are – might desire Islamic reform and change. But they are powerless. The powers that be in Islam have vested interests and ideological obsessions about racist, supremacist and cultural domination.
Talking to such a creed will not, as it did not with the Nazis or Communists, yield much in the way of results or reform.