Critics of Islam usually demand a Western style reformation to drag the Arab creation out of the 7th century pre modern pagan mind-set, into the modern world. There is little chance of that happening. Islam is an ideology – a political project first and foremost. A reformation is impossible when you are dealing with ideas which are closed to discussion; repetitive; ritualised; and inherently imperialist. The myth of an Islamic reformation is one of many which abound about this so-called 'religion'. [Perhaps Hitlerism is also a religion]. 

 

Some general myths held about Islam by the media and the general public within the Western world: 

1. Islam is open to a reformation

No it isn't. Islam is a total project. 'Total' meaning that the social, civil, spiritual, and intellectual life are governed by pre-set rules and rituals. Total mandates that all things in a Muslim's life belong to Islam. Individual Muslims will opt out of many or even most of Islam's demands. But the ideology does not opt out of its totality. Any system of thought which is total in nature is by political extension totalitarian. And as anyone who has read the history of such concepts, these systems of living are not open to change. 

It should be noted that the Western 'Reformation' was no such thing.  The nationalist movements usurped Church authority and established national churches.  The 'Reformation' was based on only scripture, or 'sola scriptura'.  The entire edifice of Christian history, including miracles, traditions and even art and architecture was attacked, debased, and in many locales destroyed.  Books were also committed to the fire. What the Protesting movement did was to remove eccelsiastical power from Rome and situate it in the local.  Hence, the massive transfers of wealth in England under Henry VIII, from the Church to the State, which was replicated across Europe and an important factor in the upper middle class revolt against the 'system' called the French Revolution.  

2. Islam's violence can be reformed

No it can't be. Islam is based on 2 ideas: 1. the word of the Quran and 2. Mohammed as the last prophet of 'God'. Both ideas are supremacist meaning that the Quran is the superior book and path of living because it comes from Islam's perfect man – Mohammed. Neither idea is going to be jettisoned. This supremacism justifies violence and aggression. 

 

3. Muhammed was just like Jesus

Christianity has little in common with Islam, if one looks at what Christ actually taught and what the apostles attempted to teach to others or 'Gentiles'. Christ is a good example of how men might wish to live and what moral values they might wish to hold. Mohammed was the opposite of Christ of course.  Christ enacted the second covenant around love and forgiveness.  Christ deployed an endless array of miracles and healing.  The Resurrection is the greatest miracle in history and has only been replicated by Catholic saints such as Saint Francis of Assissi or Saint Vincent de Ferrer. 

Mohammed was a political – military leader who lead 80 odd military campaigns; slaughtered caravans; stole gold and property; adjudicated violence; broke agreements; killed with his own hands; was an anti-semite; had sex with a 9 year old girl; was a voracious womanizer; an owner of sex-slaves; an accomplished liar; and a role model only for a violent, pagan, war like and immoral society. Much of Islam wants to emulate Mohammed – or so Islamic writings and teachings profess. It does not take a great deal of imagination to fear the type of society which would be created through the production of little Mohammeds. 

 

4. Islam is only fighting back against Western oppression

The great imperialist project is of course Islam. The Arab 'wave' took over the Near East, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of India, North Africa, and Spain. The Turkish wave invaded the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Russia, central Asia, and even parts of China. The Crusades were simply a very feeble, and rather dilatory response to 400 years of Muslim aggression against Europe. 

 

As stated by Gregory M. Davis author of Religion of Peace? Islam's War Against the World:

“Following the defeat of the Ottoman army outside Vienna on September 11, 1683 by Polish forces, Islam went into a period of strategic decline in which it was overwhelmingly dominated by the European powers. Much of dar al-Islam was colonized by the European powers who employed their superior technology and exploited the rivalries within the Muslim world to establish colonial rule. 

While many of the practices of the Western imperial powers in the governance of their colonies were clearly unjust, it is utterly unwarranted to regard Western imperialism -- as it often is -- as an endemic criminal enterprise that is the basis of modern resentment against the West. It was only due to the assertive role of the Western powers that modern nation-states such as India, Pakistan, Israel, South Africa, Zimbabwe, etc. came to exist in the first place. Without Western organization, these areas would have likely remained chaotic and tribal as they had existed for centuries. 

When one looks at the post-colonial world, it is apparent that the most successful post-colonial nations have a common attribute: they are not Muslim. The United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Israel, India, and the South American nations clearly outshine their Muslim-majority post-colonial counterparts -- Iraq, Algeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, etc. -- by just about any standard.” 

Davis is of course right. Islam has been a failure - a complete one - on any standard one cares to use to measure life, freedom, free speech, and individual worth - not to mention material comforts. But for many in the revisionist, self-loathing, multi-cult loving West, reality is too hard to face. 

5. Islam 'invented' civilisation!

This is my personal favorite. The Arabs and Muslims have invented everything – according to Western Islamo-apologists – from ice cream, to flying, to math, to science, to medicine, to architecture and pretty flowers. Wow. Who would have guessed that the Muslim world which is mired in poverty, violence, hate, anti-Semiticism, anti-Americanism, corruption, failed economies, and totalitarian systems of civil organisation, is the heir to this resplendent and wonderful cultural civilisation ?! Islam's complete modern failure, makes it obvious that it was Islam and cultured, advanced, peaceful, and smiling Muslims who had created the modern world ! 

As Gregory Davis so rightly wrote in his great book referenced above, “The achievements of Islamic civilization are pretty modest given its 1300 year history when compared to Western, Hindu, or Confucian civilizations. Many Islamic achievements were in fact the result of non-Muslims living within the Islamic Empire or of recent converts to Islam. One of the greatest Islamic thinkers, Averroes, ran afoul of Islamic orthodoxy through his study of non-Islamic (Greek) philosophy and his preference for Western modes of thought. Once the dhimmi populations of the Empire dwindled toward the middle of the second millennium AD, Islam began its social and cultural "decline." 

Muslims invented very little. They squatted for centuries on richer, more advanced and intelligent societies, starting with the Byzantine lands, Persia, northern India and then across what was once Romanised North Africa and Spain. 

 

6. Most Muslims are peaceful !

My second favorite. How do you know ? Do you know what goes on in the minds of Muslims ? Ever been to a mosque ? Ever been exposed to Arab culture and its shrill demands to kill Jews ? How do you explain recent surveys of university educated Muslims – 40% of whom want Sharia Law in England for instance. Is that peaceful ? How do you explain the 18.000 Muslim attacks across the world since 2001 and the 1400 years of war, jihad and Islam's bloody borders ?

It is the ideology which counts and who controls that ideology. Someone's wish or demand that all Muslims are peaceful and happy, is simply not supported and is refuted by 1400 years of history and recent Islamo-fascism which is a global phenomenon, predicated on the idea - first espoused by Mohammed - that Islam will dominate the world. There is no proof that all Muslims are moderates and that all Muslims want co-existence. 

 

These are some of the core myths which pervade Western society and education. They are utterly wrong. Islam is a direct threat to civilisation and even to Muslim's themselves. There is no chance of an internal reformation. It has been stated many times and needs repeating – Islam will only be reformed from without through exogenous change, initiated by military intervention. That is the reality, sad as it might appear to the legions of multi-cultural devotees and their cultural Marxist friends.