Posted on 04/16/2006 9:10:01 PM PDT by familyop
Western imperialism, pervasive poverty, a reaction to oppression, etc. — contain kernels of truth but ultimately fail to satisfy. Such explanations identify some of the problems afflicting Muslim societies but don’t adequately explain why so many in those societies have responded with terrorism when others afflicted throughout history by similar problems haven’t. The search for a more comprehensive explanation might begin with the proposition that the fusion of church and state that Islamism represents is actually part of a broader absorption of all aspects of life into a religiously defined existence. The idea that religion explains everything about existence is as central to the more extreme versions of Islam as it is foreign to other cultures, including Christianity, where religion seldom provides all of the answers to life’s dilemmas or such an all-encompassing form of personal identity. For many Muslims, Islam is not only a comprehensive belief system and object of allegiance, but also the only aspect of life that provides meaning and dignity. Within this scenario, the “Islamification” of Islamic societies witnessed in recent decades represents a turn to religion in response to a range of undesirable social and political conditions, including tyranny, poverty and perceptions of foreign domination. Having retreated into religious piety and dogmatism as a means of providing meaning to otherwise dismal lives, Islamists must then find a way to explain the discrepancy between Islam’s allegedly superior tenets and the all too often ugly reality of Islamic life. For Islamists, Islam is not simply one belief system among many; rather, it is the one and only belief system, such that all other beliefs constitute blasphemy and insults to the integrity and truth of Islam. Any explanation of the fanaticism of the suicide bomber must start, then, with an understanding of the special religious zeal and intolerance that defines Islamism and is found in virtually no other sects.
But therein also lies the conundrum. If Islam is superior, then how to explain the horrific conditions in and the palpable weakness of most Islamic societies ? How can a belief system that is superior produce so much political tyranny, economic backwardness and social decay?
Within this context, much of the Islamist rage against the external world can be encapsulated in the fact that tiny Israel every year produces more scientific patents and publishes more books than all of its Muslim neighbors combined.
The cognitive dissonance produced by the gap between belief in the superiority of Islam and the reality of the backwardness of Islamic societies is so profound as to require a reinterpretation of the failures of Islamic societies in such a manner as to absolve Islam.
We come, then, to the fundamental source of Islamist terrorism—the need to find scapegoats outside of Islam in order to retain a belief in Islam’s superiority. Only Western perfidy and deceit can explain the appalling real-world conditions of Islamic societies, never any elements intrinsic to Islam. Put differently, a psychological need is satisfied by blaming Western imperialism, Israel and the “Great Satan” for the decay of Muslim civilization. Within this context, governments like those in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan that maintain good relations with the West are culpable for both consorting with evil and for failing to properly implement Islam in their realms. If Western predations are to blame for the problems of Islamic societies, then any means of resistance can be considered justified, including terrorism, jihads and the videotaped beheading of captives. Because they operate under such powerful psychological impulses and with such all-consuming hatred, Islamists feel that no aspect of Western life is innocent or immune from attack. At the risk of being overly flippant, it is Flip Wilson’s claim that “the devil made me do it” which lies at the heart of Islamist rage and violence. Retention of belief in the superiority of Islam in the face of countervailing evidence requires the identification of real-world devils. What we consider Islamist evil, Islamists view as a legitimate defense against evil. Islam has met the devil and the devil is us.
—–––––•–––––—Free-lance columnist Bradley R. Gitz teaches politics at Lyon College at Batesville.
dk/coro alerted me to the editorial, FRiends. ...good find!
Read, will read again and bookmarked, thanks.
This is why Islam needs to be considered unconstitutional, anti-American and put on the terrorist watchlist.
Good find. Thanks!
Bookmarked and thank you, this the world has to know.
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