Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Is Islam a pagan religion or ideology covered by a vaneer of monotheism?
Asia Times Online ^ | 24 August 2010 | The Complete Spengler

Posted on 08/24/2010 6:55:58 PM PDT by CharlesMartelsGhost

In a review of the book "The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis" by Robert R Reilly , Spengler raises some excellent theological questions about why Islam is a cultural wasteland.

Mainstream Islam rejected Greek-derived philosophy at the turn of the 12th century, when Abu Hamid al-Ghazali established a theology of divine caprice. In the normative Muslim view of things, Allah personally and immediately directs the motion of every molecule by his ineffable and incomprehensible will, according to the al-Ghazali synthesis, directly and without the mediation of natural law. Al-Ghazali abolished intermediate causes, that is, laws of nature, leaving great and small events to the caprice of the absolute tyrant of the universe.

In place of Hellenistic reasoning, Islam turned to a literal reading of the Koran. Robert Reilly recounts Islam's abandonment of Hellenistic reason, and blames it for the subsequent decline of Muslim civilization and the rise of radical Islam.

Reilly argues that Western civilization, is founded on reason, whereas normative Islam embraces irrationality.

(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: culture; groundzeromosque; ideology; islam; military; muslims; obama; theology
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last
After reading the book review op-ed written by Spengler I sent a sample to SULTAN KNISH for his opinion. His opinion: Spengler and Reilly both focus on theology, when the problem is somewhat more basic. Islam is more ideology than religion, it served as a way to try and unify regional families and clans under one banner. This is really the part of the article that matters.

"There is no Islamic society in the Western sense of the society, only nested layers of blood loyalty. Three-fifths of Iraqi (and two-thirds of Saudi Arabian) marriages are between cousins, for the object of the institution of marriage is to maintain the political integrity of the clan."

"...Islam is a layer on top of that. It's made up of stolen bits and pieces of Judaism, Christianity and the pagan religions is absorbed and destroyed. But none of those really matter. Islam is not a religion, so much as a common flag for quarreling tribes and a social system to maintain conformity..."

Is more in line with mine, in that Islam is an ideology not theology nor religion.

1 posted on 08/24/2010 6:56:01 PM PDT by CharlesMartelsGhost
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: CharlesMartelsGhost
Islam is a fascist political system under the guise of a religious cult.
2 posted on 08/24/2010 6:59:49 PM PDT by Apercu ("A man's character is hs fate" - Heraclitus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Apercu

I agree an ideology that has more in common with Nazism or Marxism.


3 posted on 08/24/2010 7:01:07 PM PDT by CharlesMartelsGhost
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: CharlesMartelsGhost

it’s a totalitarian ideology disguised as religion! It is the anti freedom!!


4 posted on 08/24/2010 7:01:22 PM PDT by timetostand (Ya say ya wanna revolution -- OK!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CharlesMartelsGhost

it is no way a religion, it’s a theocrcay looking to impose hiw laws and views onto the west and this country.

Just a shame that those I can’t think for myself far left kooks cannot understand this


5 posted on 08/24/2010 7:04:30 PM PDT by manc (WILL OBAMA EVER GO TO CHURCH ON A SUNDAY OR WILL HE LET THE MEDIA/LEFT BE FOOLED FOR EVER)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CharlesMartelsGhost

it is no way a religion, it’s a theocracy looking to impose it’s laws and views onto the west and this country.

Just a shame that those I can’t think for myself far left kooks cannot understand this.


6 posted on 08/24/2010 7:05:30 PM PDT by manc (WILL OBAMA EVER GO TO CHURCH ON A SUNDAY OR WILL HE LET THE MEDIA/LEFT BE FOOLED FOR EVER)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CharlesMartelsGhost

Does a bear obama in the woods?


7 posted on 08/24/2010 7:05:33 PM PDT by beethovenfan (If Islam is the solution, the "problem" must be freedom.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: timetostand

Save


8 posted on 08/24/2010 7:06:41 PM PDT by Rumplemeyer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: CharlesMartelsGhost

Islam is a false religion that embraces a false political ideology.


9 posted on 08/24/2010 7:07:26 PM PDT by Nosterrex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: beethovenfan

its a seventh century Borg


10 posted on 08/24/2010 7:07:57 PM PDT by spokeshave (Mr. President, no golfball exploded because of your amazing power and strength - you hit a duck egg,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Apercu

You nailed it. It is a political/military adventure disguised as a religion. “Moderate Muslims are an essential part of the structure” in undermining Islam’s enemies (everybody). We have bought it pretty much. We are ripe for the taking, but Europe goes first into the tank.


11 posted on 08/24/2010 7:09:15 PM PDT by Goreknowshowtocheat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Apercu
Islam is a fascist political system under the guise of a religious cult.

Right on. I use to wonder why our political class could not see this. Now I realize they can, they just are to cowardly to confront and/or seek to collaborate.

12 posted on 08/24/2010 7:09:25 PM PDT by kbennkc (For those who have fought for it freedom has a flavor the protected will never know .F Trp 8th Cav)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: manc

An ideology yes. A theocracy no.

Theocracy-the rule of a state by g_d.

Ideology- the body of ideas upon which a particular political, economical or social system are based.


13 posted on 08/24/2010 7:09:54 PM PDT by CharlesMartelsGhost
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: CharlesMartelsGhost
"...Islam is a layer on top of that. It's made up of stolen bits and pieces of Judaism, Christianity and the pagan religions is absorbed and destroyed. But none of those really matter. Islam is not a religion, so much as a common flag for quarreling tribes and a social system to maintain conformity

This is a very important point. Islam was a syncretist cult basically developed (in bits and pieces) to smooth the acceptance of domination by Mohammed's tribe. While the 12th century may have been decisive in solidifying and affirming Islam's anti-rational nature, it never had a solid basis that could be reasonably defended in the first place, nor did it have a reasonable way of looking at the world.

14 posted on 08/24/2010 7:12:12 PM PDT by livius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: beethovenfan

15 posted on 08/24/2010 7:12:15 PM PDT by CharlesMartelsGhost
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: CharlesMartelsGhost

Mohammed got tired of hearing the religious debates on his travels throughout the middle-east. It gave him fits! He knew he didn’t like the pantheon of gods in the great temple at Mecca so he smashed them all. Then he came up with a smashing good sales pitch to attract to himself army of adherents. Once achieved, he and his followers began an multi-century campaign to conquer the world.


16 posted on 08/24/2010 7:13:27 PM PDT by Oratam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: livius

And by discarding reason it never has been able to look at the world except from the desert tribal view. While the world passed them by in achievement and knowledge, Islam never moved forward.


17 posted on 08/24/2010 7:14:54 PM PDT by CharlesMartelsGhost
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: CharlesMartelsGhost

A theocracy is a state ruled by religious law and governed by the clergy, so yes, Islam is a theocratic system. The fact that it is a false religion is another matter.

Islam is a complete system that allows nothing to escape it. The religious law is the civil law, the economic law, and the social law, and ultimately, the mullahs rule. Of course, ultimately, rulership belongs to the “guardians of the holy places,” the Arabs (Mohammed’s tribe), which was exactly what Mohammed set out to do in the first place.


18 posted on 08/24/2010 7:16:59 PM PDT by livius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: CharlesMartelsGhost

Islam is not a pagan religion.


19 posted on 08/24/2010 7:17:32 PM PDT by Artemis Webb (DeMint 2012...Barbour2012....I would be happy either way.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: timetostand
You are right. And in addition to being a totalitarian political ideology masquerading as a religion, in addition to being anti-American because it opposes a republican form of government and equal rights for all citizens regardless of sex as guaranteed by our Constitution, Islam is a CHRISTIAN HERESY.

It is a classic pagan adaptation of the precepts and theology of Christianity dumbed down to appeal to the ignorant desert people living on the fringe of the Christian world. Mohamed used the resentments and hatreds of these barbarian peoples to unify them and create a formidible military force that advanced this "religion" by the sword. Similar to the advance of communism in our own day.

20 posted on 08/24/2010 7:19:36 PM PDT by mick (Central Banker Capitalism is NOT Free Enterprise)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson