by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n C<\/span>oming hard upon the heels of the cartoon riots and the election of the Hamas terrorists, the destruction of the Shi\u2019ite mosque of the Golden Dome in Samarra by Sunni jihadists, and the subsequent Shi\u2019ite bloody retaliation, should put to rest Western delusions about the true nature of Islam. But don\u2019t hold your breath. Such displays of Islam\u2019s violent intolerance have been coming thick and fast the last few decades, and can be found on every page of history going back to the 7th<\/sup>\u00a0century, when Islam began its expansion with the blood of several hundred decapitated Jews.<\/p>\n Yet still some Westerners, enthralled to their own materialist assumptions and multicultural \u201cwe are the world\u201d sentimentalism, wave away this evidence and reduce this destructive behavior to any and every cause except the one that counts: spiritual belief. So we hear that the violence is caused by a lack of jobs, or a lack of liberal-democratic institutions, or \u201cfrustration\u201d and insecurity about the dismal backwardness of most Muslim states, or wounded pride in the face of Western success, or resentment of Western imperialist and colonialist sins, or oppressive autocrats, or . . . take your pick. The same therapeutic mentality that thinks destructive behavior in teens results from a \u201clack of self-esteem\u201d reduces the religious values of Muslims to mere \u201cepiphenomena,\u201d as the Marxists see it, symptoms of some underlying condition rooted in material deprivation, political impotence, or psychological trauma.<\/p>\n The problem with Islam, however, is not a lack of self-esteem but too damned much. This is a faith fanatically certain of its truth and righteousness, the culminating vision of God\u2019s relations with humanity, the ultimate meaning of human existence on every level, including the social and political. As such, its destiny is to spread over the whole world until the benefits, both in this life and the next, of submission to God are bestowed on all humans, and the dysfunctional man-made values\u2013\u2013 including democracy, materialism, \u201cequal rights,\u201d and freedom\u2013\u2013 are swept away. For however alluring, these do not deliver true happiness or true freedom, but mere hedonism and license that create misery and degradation in this world, and put the soul at risk in the next.<\/p>\n If, then, you are in possession of this truth that you are absolutely certain holds the key to universal happiness in this world and the next, why would you be tolerant of alternatives? Why should you tolerate a dangerous lie? Why should you \u201clive and let live,\u201d the credo of the spiritually moribund who stand for everything because they stand for nothing? And why wouldn\u2019t you kill in the name of this vision, when the infidel nations work against God\u2019s will and his beneficent intentions for the human race?<\/p>\n This is precisely what the jihadists tell us, what fourteen centuries of Islamic theology and jurisprudence tell us, what the Koran and Hadith tell us. Yet we smug Westerners, so certain of our own superior knowledge that human life isreally<\/i>\u00a0about genes or neuroses or politics or nutrition, condescendingly look down on the true believer. Patronizing him like a child, we tell him that he doesn\u2019t know that his own faith has been \u201chijacked\u201d by \u201cfundamentalists\u201d who manipulate his ignorance, that what he thinks he knows about his faith is a delusion, and that the\u00a0true<\/i>\u00a0explanation is one that we advanced, sophisticated Westerners understand while the believer remains mired in superstition and neurotic fantasy.<\/p>\n And of course, it doesn\u2019t help that the Westernized Islamic apologists and propagandists, having taken the measure of the West\u2019s own superstition and fantasy, speak in our terms and manipulate our materialist causes. So we hear that Western support of autocrats is really to blame for terrorist discontent \u2014 but overthrowing Saddam Hussein, one of the most brutal murderers of Muslims ever, and creating for the Iraqi people an inclusive, law-based government, earn us absolutely nothing other than more hatred and murder. Ah, but the neo-colonialist Zionists are responsible, we are told. Yet billions of Western dollars given to the Palestinian Arabs, decades of obsessive, fawning attention on the part of the Western media and the U.N. even as millions have suffered and died elsewhere, have not moved us one inch closer to resolving the crisis or removing the existential threat to Israel. Give us jobs, we are told, an excuse echoed recently by Thomas Friedman, and we will be happy. Yet the terrorists in the main are not poor or dispossessed. Their leaders are billionaires, surgeons, engineers, and the college educated. But the West disrespects Islam, they cry, all the while our apologetic gestures of admiration for Islam do not stop the persecution and murder of Christians, do not elicit reciprocal apologies for the vile insults to Judaism that appear in state-run media throughout the Muslim world.<\/p>\n M<\/span>eanwhile, all our attempts to bolster Muslim self-esteem, our desperate protestations of respect for their wonderful religion, our groveling apologies for exercising our own rights and values, our donning of the hair-shirt of racist, colonialist, or imperialist guilt, do nothing more than convince the jihadist that his spiritual superiority is justified. He looks at our appeasement, our fear, our rationalizations, our self-doubt, our unwillingness to defend the values we preach to the world, and sees the craven inferiority of the\u00a0dhimmi<\/i>, the conquered infidel who must acknowledge by his public actions the superiority of Islam, and who must pay the\u00a0jizya<\/i>, the \u201cpoll tax\u201d that purchases his trembling security. Only we call the poll tax \u201cforeign aid\u201d or \u201cwelfare payments,\u201d and the gestures of submission \u201crespect for diversity.\u201d We think our submission buys us affection and gratitude and respect for our interests, but in fact it purchases nothing except more contempt for our spiritual bankruptcy, more scorn for our belief that money and material comfort trump spiritual truth.<\/p>\n The true measure of our failure adequately to respect spiritual motives can be taken from the Bush administration\u2019s steadfast refusal to put the crisis with Islam in these terms. The materialist left, of course, has been taught by Freud and Marx that religion is an \u201cillusion,\u201d so obviously we can\u2019t expect them to grasp how powerfully spiritual imperatives can move people. But when a self-proclaimed born-again Christian either can\u2019t or won\u2019t see the clash of spiritual goods underlying the conflict, then we know how thoroughly the materialists have done their work of marginalizing religion in the West.<\/p>\n Perhaps the best example of this contempt for our spiritual foundations came when the President apologized for using the word \u201cCrusade.\u201d The demonization of the Crusades is a historical distortion that acquiesces in the jihadist rewriting of history in order to exploit Western self-loathing and spiritual emptiness. Whatever the sordid or brutal motives and actions of the Crusaders, they were still for the most part driven by a spiritual imperative to restore the Holy Land to the Christian civilization that had defined the Middle East for six centuries before being violently transformed by the armies of Allah. For the most aggressively imperialistic culture in the history of the world to whine now about Western imperialism \u2014 and be taken seriously by Westerners \u2014 testifies to the intellectual corruption endemic in the West.<\/p>\n If we continue down this road of appeasement, apology, and blackmail, then our outlook is indeed grim. A culturally weaker and ruder Europe turned back the Islamic tide because it was united by its Christian faith, the spiritual strength of all those before us who died and killed so that this prosperous, free world we enjoy could exist. But what unites the West now, when our credo seems to be that juvenile sentiment from John Lennon\u2019s \u201cImagine\u201d: \u201cNothing to kill or die for, and no religion too\u201d? Is this the belief that can resist an enemy who knows with absolute certainty what is worth killing and dying for?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Think Islamic fanaticism arises from material want? Think again. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers Coming hard upon the heels of the cartoon riots and the election of the Hamas terrorists, the destruction of the Shi\u2019ite mosque of the Golden Dome in Samarra by Sunni jihadists, and the subsequent Shi\u2019ite bloody retaliation, should put to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[779],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1ls","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5383,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/common-sense\/","url_meta":{"origin":5174,"position":0},"title":"Common Sense","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Who needs \"intelligence\" to know Iran wants nukes? by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers Much of the current debate surrounding Iran\u2019s nuclear aspirations centers on the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report which \u201cjudge[s] with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.\u201d While such reports tend to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6057,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":5174,"position":1},"title":"Muslim Persecution of Christians: March, 2013","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Gatestone Institute The Islamic jihad against Christians in Nigeria is proving to be the most barbaric.\u00a0 A\u00a0new report\u00a0states that 70% of Christians killed around the world in 2012 were killed in the African nation.\u00a0 Among some of the atrocities committed in March alone, at least\u00a041 people were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nigeria"","block_context":{"text":"Nigeria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/nigeria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2477,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/rationalizing-pedophilia-in-islam\/","url_meta":{"origin":5174,"position":2},"title":"Rationalizing Pedophilia in Islam","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch Earlier this month we saw \u2014 or rather, were once again reminded \u2014 that Islam permits pedophilia in the guise of \"marriage\": Top Saudi cleric, Dr. Salih bin Fawzan,\u00a0issued a fatwa\u00a0asserting that there is no minimum age for girls to marry, \"even if they are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5537,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/warning-quote-history-at-your-own-risk\/","url_meta":{"origin":5174,"position":3},"title":"Warning: Quote History at Your Own Risk","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pope's Remark Revisited by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers The Pope is under attack.\u00a0 Once again, riots, demonstrations, and \u201cretaliations\u201d have sparked throughout the Muslim world.\u00a0 Major Muslim figures \u2014 political and religious \u2014 have condemned the Pope. The \u201cMuslim Street\u201d is burning his effigy. What great crime did the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1370,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/top-muslims-condemn-ground-zero-mosque-as-a-zionist-conspiracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":5174,"position":4},"title":"Top Muslims Condemn Ground Zero Mosque as a ‘Zionist Conspiracy’","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media In a recent\u00a0article, I argued that the Ground Zero mosque is counterproductive to Islam. The following day, on August 5th, the Egyptian newspaper\u00a0Al Masry Al Youm\u00a0reported that none other than Al Azhar \u2014 one of Sunni Islam's most authoritative institutions \u2014 agrees. My translation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2448,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-are-christian-girls-converting-to-islam-in-egypt\/","url_meta":{"origin":5174,"position":5},"title":"Why Are Christian Girls Converting to Islam In Egypt?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch Few things in Islam are as liable to provoke passion and violence as the issue of conversion. The health hazards involved in converting out of Islam \u2014 apostatizing \u2014 are well known. But even the issue of converting\u00a0to\u00a0Islam is fraught with drama. Consider Egypt alone:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5174"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5175,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5174\/revisions\/5175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}