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Could President Bush have been right?
Nik S. writes:
Do you think perhaps George W. Bush maybe was right? I am just wondering if perhaps you (we) have been too pessimistic about the Islam problem. Maybe democracy will prevail. The Koran is a load of garbage, as we both know. It can’t last forever, as loads of garbage never prevail. In the end, Islam will not prevail. Do you think it is possible that maybe the Internet will enlighten Muslims as to the error of their beliefs?
Unlikely, but one can hope.
LA replies:
What is it that makes you think this? I guess the multiple uprisings, which in turn have led to the thought: maybe these people really do want to be free, not just of secular authoritarian regimes, but of Islam too.
However, it always returns to the same point, as suggested by the previous sentence. The freedom we’re talking about means freedom from Islam. So freedom only becomes possible if they give up Islam. For example, as Andrew McCarthy argued recently, there is no authoritative Islam that does not call for the death of apostates. Therefore Islam is incompatible with freedom. In order to be free, Muslims must give up Islam. But if they’ve given up Islam, then they have not “solved” the Islam problem in the George W. Bush sense, i.e., they have not solved the Islam problem by adopting freedom and showing that Islam is compatible with democracy. To the contrary, they have abandoned Islam.
And of course the serious Islam critics have always said that the only cure for the problems of Islam is if Muslims abandon Islam. Meaning that there is no cure for the problems of Islam within Islam.
If, on the other hand, they remain Muslims and loyal to Islam, then the Islamic program, the Islamic law, will continue to control them in one way or another, precluding freedom.
- end of initial entry -
James P. writes:
Nik S. writes:
Do you think perhaps George W. Bush maybe was right? I am just wondering if perhaps you (we) have been too pessimistic about the Islam problem. Maybe democracy will prevail. The Koran is a load of garbage, as we both know. It can’t last forever, as loads of garbage never prevail. In the end, Islam will not prevail. Do you think it is possible that maybe the Internet will enlighten Muslims as to the error of their beliefs?
This strikes me as the typical Western liberal view. Western liberals do not take religion seriously—they view it as a “load of garbage”—and thus they find it impossible to believe that anybody else takes it seriously, either. If only the bitter clingers were properly educated, perhaps through the Internet, they would give up their absurd beliefs!
But the fact is that over a billion Muslims take the Koran seriously, and think of it as the final revelation of God, not a load of garbage. Islam has been around for 1,400 years now, and I doubt it will collapse in my lifetime. We cannot close our eyes and hope this problem miraculously goes away, we must base our policy on the assumption that Islam will be around for a long time.
I also doubt that Muslims are surfing the web looking for proof that Islam is a load of garbage. Most likely they are looking for free online porn.
You observe,
But if they’ve given up Islam, then they have not “solved” the Islam problem in the George W. Bush sense, i.e., they have not solved the Islam problem by adopting freedom and showing that Islam is compatible with democracy. To the contrary, they have abandoned Islam.
And of course the serious Islam critics have always said that the only cure for the problems of Islam is if Muslims abandon Islam. Meaning that there is no cure for the problems of Islam within Islam.
Do Muslims even think there is an “Islam problem”? Why should they care if Islam is incompatible with democracy, if they do not even believe in democracy? They are not looking for a cure; they don’t even think they are sick. We are the ones who have a problem, not them, and we can solve our problem of Islam’s incompatibility with democracy by not admitting them to our democracies. Quarantine the patient!
LA replies:
You make good points, but there are Muslims who want a freer life and who believe or imagine or hope that Islam is compatible with democracy. For such Muslims, Islam is indeed a “problem” that they are trying to solve. But, as you and I would agree, they cannot solve it.
James N. writes:
Are you sure that “freedom” is incompatible with Islam? I think of “freedom” as a morally empty term. If Muslims are “free”, as they are in Britain, their “freedom” allows them sharia and female genital mutilation.
LA replies:
Obviously in this discussion I’m using freedom in the Western/American sense of liberty under law, not in the empty sense of people simply being able to do whatever they want.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 24, 2011 08:30 AM | Send
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