THE VIEW IS BLURRY FROM THE MARGINS:

The triumph of the East: Islam really does want to conquer the world. That’s because Muslims, unlike many Christians, actually believe they are right, and that their religion is the path to salvation for all (Anthony Browne, The Spectator)

Of course, Christianity has been just as much a conquering religion. Spanish armies ruthlessly destroyed ancient civilisations in Central and South America to spread the message of love. Christians colonised the Americas and Australia, committing genocide as they went, while missionaries such as Livingstone converted most of Africa.

But the difference is that Christendom has — by and large — stopped conquering and converting, and indeed in Europe simply stopped believing. Even President Bush’s most trenchant critics don’t believe he conquered Afghanistan and Iraq to spread the word of Jesus. It is ironic that by deposing Saddam, who ran the most secular of Arab regimes, the US actually transferred power to the imams.

This is Eurocentric nonsense. Secular Europe is obviously passing into oblivion, to be replaced by the Islam of its immigrants, but Christianity is spreading rapidly in Africa and Asia and only a determined blindness about the difference between Tony Blair/George W. Bush/America and the rest of the West can prevent someone from recognizing that the war on terror has all the earmarks of a religious crusade, forcing Islamic nations and the religion itself to Reform and adopt ideals that more closely resemble Judeo-Christianity. There is a religious war going on: we're winning, Islam is changing, and secularism is toast.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 26, 2004 5:44 AM