> Sometimes I think I ought to convert... <
I know you’re being sarcastic there, but you’re on to something. Maybe a year after 9/11 I was reading an article about Islam. I think it was in the ‘New Yorker’. I could be wrong.
Anyway, the author was some sort of Middle East expert. He said that George W. Bush had better slap the Islamists down hard, very hard. Wreck them completely. Discredit them the way Nazism was discredited.
Otherwise, it would look like Islam was superior to the weak West. And that would gain them converts.
Did Bush follow that advice, and crush radical Islam? Nope. Instead he famously told us not to worry. There was no Islamic threat to civilization. “Islam is peace.”
Now combine that with a weak, prancing pope and you’ve got the perfect storm.
People like being a part of the winning team and right now it looks like Islam is winning. Western Christendom has become weak and emasculated, always apologizing, and has handed over leadership to liberals who work to undermine Christian ideals. There is no Muslim country that is ruled by liberal agnostics.
I've often thought recently that one of these days Western men, tired of being belittled and devalued in a feminized culture, will turn to Islam thinking it offers them a god deal; the opportunity to be men again in a patriarchal society where men call the shots.
A recent book, Submission by French author Michel Houellebecq imagines a future France where the Muslim Brotherhood joins forces with the socialists to defeat a right-wing party. Upon assuming power the first thing the MB do is take over the schools. They understand the power that this brings. Only Muslims are allowed to become teachers. A French college professor converts to Islam to retain his teaching job and learns that he's now allowed to take four wives. Four young, subservient teenage brides. Islam might not be too bad, he realizes!
I can think of no greater nightmare for liberalism than Western men turning their backs on a liberal culture that disdains them and turning to Islam.