Last Throes

Westerners easily refer to Christianity and what was once called Christendom without confusing the two. It is often pointed out that in Islam no such distinction exists but of course it does exist. The lack of words to differentiate them just contributes to the difficulty. It makes it harder to adapt and Islam must adapt. It is my thesis that a civilization cannot survive constantly at war with stronger neighbors, particularly when the neighbors are as numerous and powerful as those faced by modern Muslims. In its Arabic form Islam quickly rose to grandeur. It was once the world’s most powerful empire, and its most enlightened, but has been in decline for over a thousand years. It continued to thrive in Andalusia for several centuries but that ended permanently in 1492 when Ferdinand and Isabella completed the reconquest of Spain. It had already been resuscitated by Turks to the East and enjoyed a long renascence there. That renascence peaked with the second siege of Vienna and belligerent Islam resumed its descent into depravity where it finds itself today. Islam will survive as a religion. It will not survive as a civilization intent on world conquest. That Islam is in its final days.

In its early years Islam expanded to fill voids left by exhausted Byzantine and Persian Empires, a Europe mired in the Dark Ages, and a China turned inward on itself. Muslims enjoyed organization, unity, and a sense of purpose missing from everyone else in the world. That hasn’t been true for a long, long time. The scientific revolution that emerged in 16th century Europe has bypassed Islam right down to this day. So has the industrial age that it brought with it. The rights of man that took hold in eighteenth century America have enabled an explosion of knowledge in a thousand fields and spread themselves around much of the globe. Islam has ignored it all; telling itself its culture is superior, that what the West calls progress is thinly disguised moral corruption and weakness. Liberal democracy and its attendant capitalism continue to expand through most of the world. Empire, fascism, and communism have all come and gone as alternative ideologies. Millions of Muslims watch from the sidelines and seethe.

Radical Islam’s heroes call for a return to an earlier age, an age that is gone forever. Rather than adapt they would go back in time. Worse, they call for jihad in its most virulent form. They attack others with a brutality that cannot go unchallenged and they have no defense against counter attack. They cannot muster either military or economic power to compete with those who would leave them alone if they could. Where peace is on offer they reject it. They insist on sowing the seeds of their own destruction, expecting God to defend them and lead them to victory in the face of impossible odds. They might as well ask their followers to step in front of a speeding train. No where is this quite so evident as in the Middle East where Islam began.

A few Muslims have recognized what is happening and tried to steer their people into modernity. Atatürk took a ruthless approach in Turkey. Jordan’s Hashemite Kings have taken a longer term route to reform. Whether either attempt will be ultimately successful remains to be seen. If they are, the Islam that survives will be as different from the Islam of the past as the West is from the Christendom of the Crusades. As we have known it through the ages we are witnessing Islam on its death bed.