Is the Muslim war against the West primarily driven by ethnic hatred of whites?

The blogger Hran at Common Defense, while agreeing with me on Separationism, thinks that what primarily drives Muslim jihad against the West is not the Koran and other Islamic scriptures, as I have written, but

Arab chauvinism, ethnic superiority, and hatred of whites. The Koran and its doctrines alone are not the whole picture. It is not quite correct to quote the Koran as a predictor of Muslim behavior, for no society follows its scriptures. Granted, the genius of Mohammed was to harness ethnic strife and the desire for domination to the will of God; to codify it into scripture. He channeled Arab ethnic consciousness into conquest and domination, with spectacular results. But the naked ideas of Islam, divorced from ethnic identity, do not present the same problem as, say, Communism, which spread across ethnic lines. The primary problem in countries like the Netherlands is Muslim immigration rather than mass voluntary conversion of whites.

I posted a reply at Hran’s blog, and have copied it below:

Lawrence Auster said…

You write:

“the genius of Mohammed was to harness ethnic strife and the desire for domination to the will of God; to codify it into scripture. He channeled Arab ethnic consciousness into conquest and domination, with spectacular results. But the naked ideas of Islam, divorced from ethnic identity, do not present the same problem as, say, Communism, which spread across ethnic lines.”

Interesting point. I agree and disagree. Muhammad brilliantly channeled the tribal conflicts of the Arabs into an pan-Arab war against all non-Muslims. Notice that I say tribal conflicts. Most of the conflicts the pre-Islamic Arabs were involved in were among themselves, consisting of endless quarrels and wars of honor and vengeance among the respective Arab clans and tribes. Muhammad joined all the Arab tribes into one super-tribe, united by Islam, ending their intra-Arab feuds, and then he cast all non-Muslims as the tribal enemies of the now-united Arab tribe—enemies who, by rejecting Allah, had insulted Allah, Muhammad, and all Muslims/Arabs and must be defeated in order for Arab-Muslim honor to be restored. But, as we know, Islam did not stop with the Arabs. It became pan-ethnic. And all Muslims of whatever ethnicity inherit the tribal war of vengeance against non-Muslims. That’s why Muslims of all ethnicities and nationalities become jihadists and terrorists. And what is it that mandates and keeps alive this war of all Muslims against all non-Muslims? The Koran.

Thus, while Arab tribal vengeance and tribal warfare are at the core of Islam, and in the early stages of Islam took the form of an ethnic Arab war against non-Arabs, both the intra-Arab tribal aspect and the pan-Arab ethnic aspect have been transcended in a pan-ethnic Islamic tribe waging eternal war against the rest of humanity. That’s the evil genius of Muhammad, the successful Hitler.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 02, 2008 12:13 PM | Send