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Why Islam cannot be changed by social engineering
Here is the key point about Islam that Sam Karnick fails to understand. He has set up as his conceptual framework the hoary interaction between “nurture” (i.e. culture) and “nature,” defined nature as the natural rights that make democracy possible, and defined culture as an acquired and inherited set of behaviors, attitudes, and values that either leads a people closer to their natural potentiality for democracy or further away from it. Since cultures can be changed by changing their circumstances, there is no inherent reason why Islam, no matter how debased a culture it is, could not be changed in a positive direction and become amenable to democracy. The fundamental problem with this argument is that Islam is not a culture. It is not an inherited set of behaviors, attitudes, and values. Islam is the absolute final teaching of Allah, contained in the Koran and the authoritative written traditions and the sharia, which COMMANDS Muslims (on pain of death and hellfire) to do and believe certain things. A culture can, potentially, be changed. A book, a law, let alone the absolute final law of Allah, cannot be changed. This is what all the ameliorists from George W. Bush to Sam Karnick fail to understand. Islam does not fit into the “culture vs. nature” paradigm. Of course, Islam could disappear, if all Muslims renounced Islam and became apostates or converted to another religion. But Islam, as Islam, cannot be changed. As long as Islam exists, it must always have the same defining, and deadly, characteristics.
I have also posted this at the FrontPage discussion forum and invited Mr. Karnick to reply. Email entry |