The Roots of Muslim Rage

The Atlantic ^ | September 1990 | Bernard Lewis

[Tom_Busch]

bump for later

[sanchmo]

I couldn't find this article posted anywhere, although it has been mentioned and linked to in the article Civilization Envy.

[Publius6961]

To this end we must strive to achieve a better appreciation of other religious and political cultures, through the study of their history, their literature, and their achievements.

A tall order given the paucity of literature on the darker side of Islam, the more relevant side at this period in history.
Islam has been dormant in its natural militant form for 5 generations or so and its true nature forgotten in its irrelevancy in recent history.

Serious reflection of the 500 years of Jihad before the Crusades (why the Crusades, anyway?) and the 1000 years following would bring into sharp focus the true nature of this scourge.
A serious effort at searching out the available literature would focus clearly the uncompromising nature of this primitive belief system, and it's only possible attitude towards more advanced society.
Islam's very nature prevents it from evolving and becoming civilized.

This author's enthusiasm is like a child with a hammer. Everything he sees is a nail and he is blind to its darker side.
No matter, a serious review of history will clarify the true nature of Islam and its uncompromising hostily to current civilization.

[San Jacinto]

The problem with Islam (stated more simply than Mr. Lewis was able to) :

It is practiced by illiterate goat herders who would be intellectually challenged to change a flat tire. Consequently, when they are told that they are impoverished and repressed by Western infidels and Jews, they believe it. They are told that mighty Allah will save them from their horrible, unjust plight through holy Jihad, and they believe that.

Fortunately, this is a condition which is highly treatable with the proper dosages of napalm and shrapnel delivered at regular intervals.

[Cicero]

Serious reflection of the 500 years of Jihad before the Crusades (why the Crusades, anyway?) and the 1000 years following would bring into sharp focus the true nature of this scourge.

Too true. We can't afford the distortions of so-called multiculturalism and political correctness in our history courses. We need to face the truth and stop covering it up with ideological lies that give aid and comfort to the enemies of our civilization.

[harpseal]

btt

[browardchad]

What Mr. Lewis is telling us is that Islam has become a radicalized religion, intent upon destroying Judeo-Christian culture, but that we must counter it with secularism, and strict separation of church and state, leaving behind any prejudices.

The problem is that these what he considers prejudices are the beliefs that are the foundation of our republic: that man is endowed by his Creator, not reason, with certain inalienable rights. Fighting those who are committed to the destruction of Jewish or Christian values, and by extension, the freedoms that these values have fostered, by encouraging a belief in nothing, or an “understanding” of a belief system that has the West’s destruction as its goal, is to doom our civilization.

Fundamentalist Islam must be neutralized by force so that the West can survive to encourage its followers to reform it from within.

Tolerance is something to be reserved for those who do not pose a threat to our existence.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Islam has brought comfort and peace of mind to countless millions of men and women. It has given dignity and meaning to drab and impoverished lives. It has taught people of different races to live in brotherhood and people of different creeds to live side by side in reasonable tolerance. It inspired a great civilization in which others besides Muslims lived creative and useful lives and which, by its achievement, enriched the whole world.

I think all of those assertions are extremely dubious.

[CathyRyan]

Putting salt on roots will take care of business.

[DWSUWF]

"...Fortunately, this is a condition which is highly treatable with the proper dosages of napalm and shrapnel delivered at regular intervals..."

And in those cases where napalm and shrapnel resistance has emerged, marked improvement after treatment with W-88 suppositories containing a critical mass of fissionable metals has been demonstrated.

[Fury]

I think all of those assertions are extremely dubious.

Agreed. One of the more disquieting consequences from 09/11 was the silence of many leaders of Islam in the US on the barbarity of "wrongness" of the actions taken. Their silence was more than enough to cause a reasonable person to ask "why would they be silent"?

[truth_seeker]

This article is over 10 years old. Nothing has changed.

The single secular Muslim country of note, is Turkey. It is 95% Muslim, has elections, is in NATO, etc.

Looking back at 7th Dec 1941, can folks explain how we took pains, to analyse Japan's Shinto and Bhuddist traditions, as they might influence/control their choice to attack us? Even as history has been written and re-written, religion rarely comes up, pertaining to WWII.

Therefore, I would rather focus on the criminal acts, and the nations involved. Easy to do war with them.

Finally, the faith is highly suspect. Bush is for the time obligated to make statements about the situation. As time wears on, it may come out that the faith, itself, is THE major problem. I truly think it is.

It is sort of a chicken and egg thing. Do the people live in such despair, no smiles, no joy, little material success, because of Islam? What is the first cause? Rainfall statistics are the same for Israel and Jordan. Race in both cases is essentially the same. It must be religion.

[JJ59]

Good will read later. B. Lewis famous scholar of Islam.

[Lent]

This author's enthusiasm is like a child with a hammer. Everything he sees is a nail and he is blind to its darker side. No matter, a serious review of history will clarify the true nature of Islam and its uncompromising hostily to current civilization.

Good response. That was my reaction as well. I've read Lewis', The Arabs in History(1967). Good overview but extremely apologetic and sometimes completely empty of analysis of the history of Islam with respect to its treatment of the dhimmis, massacres, pillage, forced conversion, etc. For a better read on what really took place behind the superficial Lewis statements read: Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam(1996).

[Lent]

Bttt. My opinion of Lewis, post #15.

[Moby Grape]

..."...the author's enthusiasm is like a child with a hammer..." BRAVO...Didn't the Clintonistas, and the left of all stripes preach this "we must understand their rage" crap for eight years?...The result of their open-mind enlightenment was the Cole Bombing, the African Embassy bombings, and these scum cowards sitting in our mist planning to kill thousands....This dipstick needs to read some US history from the 1700's...the MUSLIM Babary Pirates killed unarmed Americans, took Christians as slaves, and vowed that to kill Christians was a ticket to heaven. Was OUR policy toward Israel the problem then?...Was America's WEALTH and FOREIGN policy the problem THEN?...America was a baby with NO NAVY and, although the third party isolationist love to believe that minding out own buisness brings peace, we were defintely ANTI-INVERVENTION in those days....what did it get us?....Our sea merhcants were attacked, their cargoes looted, and Christians taken as slaves....Say this "Muslim Rage" has been around for a LONG time.

[constable tom]

Agreed. I remember encountering Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in USAF management training (and later again in college). When an individual's (or a nation's) very ability to survive is threatened, a la 9/11, the survival instinct should kick in immediately and override "higher" levels of needs/thinking, until the threat is mitigated. That's what we're (rightly) focused on today (and what the peacenicks just don't get).

Islamic fundamentalists must be thoroughly persuaded of the danger and futility of attempting to further their cause or simply express their "rage" by committing violent acts of terrorism against us. They must learn absolutely that to do so is not only "wrong" but that they and everything they care about will pay an extreme price. We'll know we're successful only when they lose the will and ability to conduct acts of terrorism against us. Period.

[sanchmo]

For the record, I just wanted to let everyone know that I did not post this article because of any agreement with the writer's conclusion about what we should do with these nutballs; I posted it because it is a classic and time-proven analysis of some of the causes of Islamist paranoia and cultural suicide, and it begins to explain how they are internally caused. I do not for a second believe that the solution is to "understand" (that is, empathize with) the Islamist viewpoint - the soluton is to defeat it swiftly and decisively.

However, understanding how your enemy thinks - even when you are diametrically opposed to it - is an extremely powerful tool in defeating them. It is a classic strategy, used by all great leaders in conflict. With that in mind, I will continue to post articles which help us defeat their neuroses.

[livius]

It was a good article, precisely because it showed that the internal dynamic of Islam itself is the true cause of the rage of its adherents, and that nothing that the West can do will ever satisfy them. (Well, nothing except ceasing to exist.) His final conclusions were weak - but then, this was written well before 9/11.