Why containment is less threatening to Muslims than democratization

A reader writes:

Do you ever get threatening e-mails for your frank treatment of Islam?

I ask because I’m curious about what one should expect when engaging this subject on the Internet.

Thanks for an invaluable blog!

My reply:

No, never. I figure, either the website is too obscure, or my language is not the type that sets people off. I don’t use emotional language like Orianna Fallaci for example, “Islam is this horrible disgusting thing and I hate it. “ That’s the kind of thing that sets people off. And maybe there’s a lesson here. If people think that the only choice is between remaining silent about Islam and cursing it, they will remain silent. But if you use more objective language, e.g., “Islam is a mortal threat to the West” (a statement that Muslims themselves would actually agree with, since their religion commands them to destroy all non-Islamic societies), you can say a lot. Anyway that would be my hope.

Even in my argument for deportation, isolation and containment, notice that I am not being aggressive toward Islam per se. Neocons threaten Muslims more than I do, since they want to reform and democratize the Muslim world, constantly telling the Muslims they must change. But I argue that we have no power to change Islam in any serious and permanent way, and therefore we need to isolate and contain it, letting it be so long as it doesn’t bother us. I even use Islamic concepts to explain why Muslims would accept being in a powerless, contained condition, since that also has an honorable place in their tradition. See, for example, the closing section of this article.

So in a way, I am less aggressive toward Islam than others who are supposedly not as “extreme” as I am.

Which relates to the broader argument. The neocons want us to be perpetually involved with Muslims, both as immigrants and residents among us, and as objects of our democratization and “peace”-making efforts abroad. This involves constantly cajoling, bribing, begging them, being in their face, telling them to be something other than what they are, which creates hostility. By contrast, I want us to have NOTHING to do with Muslims. All the understandings and policies that I advocate are aimed at that goal.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 17, 2005 02:09 PM | Send