by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
Jihad Watch<\/em><\/p>\n During the pope\u2019s recent Mideast visit, the media reported that he has \u201cdeep respect for Islam.\u201d That exact phrase appeared in the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0AFP<\/a><\/span>,BBC<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0Jerusalem Post<\/em><\/a><\/span>,\u00a0Washington Times<\/em><\/a><\/span>, and\u00a0Al-Jazeera<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n Yet he said no such thing; instead, he mentioned his \u201cdeep respect for the Muslim community.\u201d There\u2019s a world of difference between respecting a religious group and respecting their religion, and the pontiff knows this.<\/p>\n As a Christian \u2014 indeed, as pope \u2014 by evoking his \u201cdeep respect\u201d for Muslims, Benedict probably meant that Muslims, who believe in one God, pray, fast, and follow a strict set of moral principles, are, from a religious perspective, worthy of \u201cdeep respect.\u201d<\/p>\n Even the non-religious uphold this position. In fact, that is what makes the secular West unique: the right to follow any (or no) religion is guaranteed, is \u201crespected.\u201d<\/p>\n Due to this, however, a subtle conflation has come to dominate our way of thinking: respect for people\u2019s\u00a0right<\/em>\u00a0to believe any religion has somewhere along the line \u2014 and thanks to political correctness \u2014 morphed into respect for the\u00a0religion<\/em>\u00a0itself (excluding, of course, cheek-turning Christianity, the secular West\u2019s \u201cpunching bag\u201d). It was therefore only natural for the (increasingly sloppy) media to portray Benedict\u2019s respect for\u00a0Muslims<\/em>\u00a0as respect for\u00a0Islam<\/em>.<\/p>\n But is this logical? Does respecting a person\u2019s\u00a0right<\/em>\u00a0to believe necessarily lead to respecting\u00a0what<\/em>\u00a0they believe?<\/p>\n Consider: billions of non-Muslims adhere to other religions or are simply atheistic; by default, this means they do not believe in the veracity of Islam. A Christian following Christian doctrine, such as the Trinity, cannot\u00a0also<\/em>\u00a0believe that the Koran, which fiercely denounces the Trinity, is the word of God, while an atheist believes all religions and their scriptures are not divinely inspired (i.e., all euphemisms aside, are built on lies).<\/p>\n At the same time, however, Christians and atheists cannot \u201cempirically\u201d prove their position; faith is required \u2014 even for the atheist (accounting for the origins of the universe requires \u201cfaith\u201d). As such, it is only logical that non-Muslims should respect Muslims\u2019 right to believe what they will \u2014 and, ideally, vice versa.<\/p>\n But short of truly\u00a0believing<\/em>\u00a0Islam\u2019s first premise \u2014 that the Koran is the verbatim word of God and Muhammad his messenger \u2014 how can one \u201crespect\u201d Islam itself, considering it is entirely built around this assumption? In other words, if you yourself believe a particular system of belief is built atop lies, how can you also respect it?<\/p>\n If the Koran was\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0dictated by an angel to Muhammad, what is it? If Muhammad was\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0sent by God, who was he? As with all who profess to be men of God, Muhammad must have been either who he said he was (prophet of God) or else the antithesis: a false prophet, a fraud. The first possibility is not a logical option for active non-Muslims. Nor are silly \u201cpostmodern\u201d mantras \u2014 \u201cjust because\u00a0I<\/em>\u00a0do not believe something does not necessarily mean it is\u00a0not<\/em>true, in its own existential way” \u2014 very meaningful.<\/p>\n Of course, this position applies to all religions and their founders. Without believing that the Bible is the inspired word of God, everything contained therein becomes suspect, including the person (and nature) of Jesus. As Christians themselves have long maintained, Jesus can only be viewed as lord, liar, or lunatic \u2014 nothing in between. Likewise, Muhammad was either messenger, mendacious, or moonstruck. Admittedly, most people are not comfortable thinking out such thoughts to their logical conclusions; they\u2019re happy to end it with an \u201cit\u2019s not for me\u201d attitude, without any further ado.<\/p>\n So why scrutinize Islam and its founder in the first place? Because unlike all other major religions, Islam is daily associated with violence, beheadings, misogyny, child marriage, and hostility for infidels and their ways. Pseudo-respect shields it from open analysis.<\/p>\n Moreover, though non-Christians must ultimately conclude that either Jesus or (as Islam maintains) the Gospel writers were deceivers or delusional, the fact remains: As with most religions, Christianity revolves around the spiritual, the metaphysic; true or false, it does not impose itself on politics. Islam, on the other hand \u2014 as embodied in Islamic law \u2014\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0politics, indeed, dominates all aspects of human affairs.<\/p>\n As such, Islam\u2019s connection to \u201cunpleasant\u201d daily headlines becomes clear once non-Muslims allow their thoughts to develop logically and sequentially. Stripped of its hagiographic veneer, the history of Islam is the history of a warlord and his followers who conquered, subjugated, and plundered much of the old world, insisting that God told them to do it. For Muslims, it is only logical to rationalize this 1,400-year jihad as a means to an end \u2014 the establishment of Islamic law, from a Muslim perspective, the embodiment of all good. Non-Muslims do not have this luxury and must interpret the origins and essence of Islam a bit more cynically.<\/p>\n But why this philosophical exposition in the first place? To show that, while there have been countless talking heads, books, debates, seminars, and hearings dedicated to evaluating whether Islam is intrinsically at odds with the modern world, good old-fashioned common sense could have put the matter long to rest.<\/p>\n After all, do you really find it shocking that a comprehensive way of life, where right and wrong are meticulously based on the improvised \u201claw\u201d of a seventh-century warlord \u2014 who, according to your own unspoken conclusions, was an opportunistic liar or deluded megalomaniac \u2014 just so happens to be riddled with complications, especially vis-\u00e0-vis the 21st century?<\/p>\n This seemingly simple consideration has profound implications. Former Al-Azhar Muslim scholar and imam Mark Gabriel abandoned his faith by simplymusing on such matters<\/a>:<\/p>\n Did the true God of heaven give him Islam, or did Muhammad invent it? … Did Muhammad express the heart of the true, merciful God, or did he merely express the dark corners of his own faulty human heart? The implication shook me to the core: If the true God never spoke to Muhammad, then I am a slave to the manipulative imagination of a desert tribesman from the seventh century! These were dangerous thoughts, and I had crossed a dangerous bridge in my mind that all Muslims are taught to walk away from.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In closing, let us respect everyone\u2019s right to believe what they will; however, let us at least be sincere to our own convictions. It\u2019s one thing to let political correctness stifle free speech; it\u2019s quite another to let it stifle the development of our very own thought processes, to the point that we fail to connect such clear dots in the privacy of our own minds.<\/p>\n And while we\u2019re at it, let\u2019s not distort the well-measured words of the pope, who most surely knows the distinction between respecting the\u00a0Muslim community<\/em>\u00a0and respecting\u00a0Islam<\/em>.<\/p>\n