HERE I STAND

You say you want a reformation? (Spengler, 8/05/03, Asia Times)

How will America respond to militant Islam? Responses from Asia Times Online readers to my contention that radical Islam yet may defeat the West (Why radical Islam might defeat the West) of July 8 ranged from accusations of anti-Islamic bigotry to the claim that the West, if need arise, simply will kill a billion Muslims. Neo-conservative circles in Washington think neither of accommodating the claims of radical Islam nor of a war against Islam, but rather of an "Islamic Reformation".

How sloppily the neo-conservatives think about these matters, though, may be judged by an amusing exchange in the June issue of First Things, the closest the neo-conservatives have to a theological journal. Its editor, Father R J Neuhaus, rebutted the view of the neo-conservative Orientalist, Professor Bernard Lewis, who wants Islam to admit that other religions offer a path to salvation. Wrote Neuhaus, "Troubling is the message that Islam, in order to become less of a threat to the world, must relativize its claim to possess the truth. That plays directly into the hands of Muslim rigorists who pose as the defenders of the uncompromised and uncompromisible truth and who call for death to the infidels. If Islam is to become tolerant and respectful of other religions, it must be as the result of a development that comes from within the truth of Islam, not as a result of relativizing or abandoning that truth."

Catholics, to be sure, have reason to worry about relativism. With church attendance in the European Catholic heartland at barely 5 percent, with the American church crushed by evidence of generalized pederasty, and the Latin American church eroded by Protestant missionaries, relativism is the last word Catholics wish to hear. Sectarian self-interest aside, Neuhaus has a point. Men do not wish to pray "to whom it may concern". They rather want the assurance of a true path to salvation. That is why radical Islam yet may defeat the West. [...]

Radical Islam confronts the diffident West with absolute belief in its possession of divine truth, and a reckless capacity for sacrifice beyond the capacity of the West to fathom. The Catholic church, traditional guardian of the traditions of the West, wants accommodation with Islam at any cost as Muslim immigrants slowly replace Europe's declining Christian population. The intellectual elite of the West exhibits open hostility to Western "colonialist" culture. It looks bleak for the West.

But Koranic criticism yet may turn out to be the worm in the foundation of radical Islam. Whence will come the impetus? An intriguing thought is that the same people who brought about the Christian Reformation, not to mention the founding of the US, might do the same for Islam. I refer to the radical wing of evangelical Protestantism, whom the intellectual caste of the West dismiss as stupid yokels. Protestant missionaries already have hollowed out the Catholic church in Latin America, its last great stronghold. Do not underestimate what role they may do in the Islamic world.

Spengler hits the nail on the head with that last bit, after stumbling a bit at the start. The simple truth is that to the extent Islam is premised on
totalitarianism--which is to say that all of society, the Church, the economy, and the State must be governed by the Koran--it is a failure and is doomed. The 20th Century pretty conclusively demonstrated that totalitarianism--no matter what version adpoted--is a disastrous way to organize a nation. To that extent, Mr. Lewis is right. Islam will have to be Reformed.

We've long been of the opinion, which Spengler broaches here, that the Martin Luther of Islam may turn out to be the American
President. It is in this context that we should view Mr. Bush's repeated assertions that Islam is a religion of peace. The shortsighted Islamophobes always get hysterical and start shrieking that he misunderstands. In retrospect, we may come to see that he was hijacking the religion and shaping the dialogue about what Islam means even in the Islamic world. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 5, 2003 10:07 AM