Posted on 01/06/2016 2:45:47 PM PST by Kaslin
The Islamist movement may appear stronger than ever, but a close look suggests two weaknesses that might doom it, and perhaps quickly.
Its strengths are obvious. The Taliban, Al-Shabaab, Boku Haram, and ISIS take Islamism - the ideology calling for Islamic law to be applied in its entirety and severity - to unbearable extremes, rampaging and brutalizing their way to power. Pakistan could fall into their hands. The ayatollahs of Iran enjoy a second wind thanks to the Vienna deal. Qatar has the highest per capita income in the world. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is becoming Turkey's dictator. Islamist operatives swarm the Mediterranean toward Europe.
But weaknesses within, especially squabbling and disapproval, could undo the Islamist movement.
Infighting became vicious in 2013, when Islamists abruptly stopped their prior pattern of cooperation among themselves and instead began internecine fighting. Yes, the Islamist movement as a whole shares similar goals, but it also contains different intellectuals, groups, and parties with variant ethnic affiliations, tactics, and ideologies.
Its internal divisions have spread fast and far. These include Sunnis vs. Shiites, notably in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen; monarchists vs. republicans, notably in Saudi Arabia; non-violent vs. violent types, notably in Egypt; modernizers vs medieval revivalists, notably in Tunisia; and plain old personal differences, notably in Turkey. These divisions obstruct the movement by turning its guns inward.
The dynamic here is ancient: As Islamists approach power, they fight amongst themselves for dominance. Differences that hardly mattered when in the wilderness take on great importance as the stakes get higher. In Turkey, for example, the politician Erdogan and the religious leader Fethullah Gülen cooperated until they dispatched their common enemy, the military, from politics, when they turned against each other.
Unpopularity, the second problem, may be the biggest peril for the movement. As populations experience Islamist rule first hand, they reject it. It's one thing to believe in the abstract about the benefits of Islamic law and quite another to suffer its deprivations, ranging from the Islamic State's totalitarian horrors to the comparatively benign emerging dictatorship in Turkey.
Signs of this discontent include the large majorities of Iranians who reject the Islamic Republic, the wave of exiles out of Somalia, and the massive Egyptian demonstrations of 2013 protesting a single year of the Muslim Brotherhood in power. As with fascist and communist rule, Islamist sovereignty often leads to people voting with their feet.
Should these two tendencies hold, the Islamist movement is heading for trouble. Some analysts already see the Islamist era having ended and the emergence of something new from its wreckage. For example, the Sudanese scholar Haidar Ibrahim Ali argues that a "post-Islamization" era has begun, when Islamism's "vitality and attractiveness have been exhausted even among the most ardent of its supporters and enthusiasts."
The enemies of Islamism have much work ahead. Muslims must both fight this movement and develop a compelling alternative to its goal of implementing Islamic law, explaining constructively what it means to be a Muslim in 2016. Non-Muslims can serve as their helpful auxiliaries, providing everything from applause to funds to guns.
Islamism's mounting problems offer grounds for confidence but not for smugness, as another reversal in course could take place at any time. But if current trends hold, the Islamist movement will have been limited, much as fascism and communism before it, damaging Western civilization, not destroying it.
Whatever the trend, defeating Islamism remains the challenge
cult
Just put lipstick on a goat and they will kill each other over who gets the little hussy momma.
As superstitious as these guys are, I wonder if an avenue of attack might be to draft a bunch of FX guys, give them a good budget, and turn them loose.
Two weaknesses:
1. Islam
2. Mohammedans who believe in Islam
Daniel Pipes knows what he is talking about.
1. All of these weaknesses have existed in one form or another since islam was started. In spite of which islam is growing at an exponential rate.
2. The issue isn’t terrorism. The violence is a distraction from the real issue which is that all muslims seek to impose, one way or another, sharia law on all governments.
I can think of several more weaknesses ...
.
Islam carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction...
The inevitable hastens.
Their biggest weaknesses:
1. All these war lords want to be caliph.
2. Sunni vs Shia infighting of the last 1400 years now with nukes will stymie all of their efforts.
Internal jockeying or Fighting to become the lead dog — or rather, the lead camel — has never stopped Islam from expanding the number of countries it’s taken over (currently 57 -and Increasing). And, unpopularity only rarely can overturn a. Islamonazi dictatorship once it’s taken over (Egypt bring the primary recent example but try to name a few more?). This article is, I fear, largely wishful thinking. Watch right now as USA and europe’s ruling elites sell their countries out to the islamonazi invasion of the Christian world
Ishmael shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand shall be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell in the face of his brothers...Genesis 16
I would add Tunisia to your short list with Egypt but that’s about it. I agree with your assessment over the author’s. The percentage of Christians remaining in the ME is probably at it’s lowest since just after St. Paul got his wake up call from Jesus.
Yes. Amazing how accurate that’s turned out to be
Except, Dan, the last time they were as historically powerful as they are today, they did destroy western civilization ...
All very interesting, but I say let’s just kill them anyway.
If elements of this article are true, there is still the issue of civilized society still caught in the crossfire.
That is why I cannot envision any flavor of Islam as compatible with Western values and lifestyle.
Islam is compatible with western lifestyles only so long as the leaders of Islam continue to pay off with bribes, favors and who knows what else the ‘leaders’ of Western Civilization.
In other words as long as the ‘Elites’ in Western society can/will be granted their ‘elite’ status they just don’t give a cr@p about anyone else that isn’t an ‘elite’ like themselves.
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.