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Is current mainstream Islam incompatible with Western Civilization? Of course. But this book tries to argue that there was a time when a literalist school of Islam (the Asharites) and a liberal school of Islam (the Mutazilites) were equally strong, and if the Mutazilites had won (they lost), Islam would not be so barbarian.

The West has to stop trying to impose democracy on the Muslim countries because that can only lead to disaster (see Egypt). But perhaps some enlightened middle-eastern rulers (King Abdallah of Jordan, for example) could try to slowly build an intellectual base for a less barbarian form of Islam.

The solution of the problem of Islam cannot be purely political because politics is always based on intellectual/spiritual ideas. I think secular leaders of middle-eastern countries in the second half of the 20th century made a big mistake. They neglected Islam because they thought Islam would gradually disappear instead of trying to cultivate a form of Islam which is compatible with modern world. Of course, they could not avoid this mistake - they were mostly socialists (But I do not know why middle-eastern monarchs, who were not socialists, could not see the potential for the jihadi wave)

My conclusion is there are three possible scenarios: 1. To destroy Islam militarily. 2. To lose and see the end of civilization on earth. 3. To help the civilized minority among Muslims create an intellectual base for civilizing Islam.