8 December, 2006
The wars in Southwest Asia have been labeled everything from Enduring Freedom to “another Vietnam”. The truth is far more complex and deeply buried in history than modern politicians and pundits would have us believe. These conflicts are in some respects like Vietnam, in that it is difficult to extract success, and like post-WWII programs like the Marshall Plan, in that they are intended to create security and economic stability. But, unlike past models of success, the enemy is not a nation-state, but a religion.
This conflict is remarkably different from wars between nations because there are no nation-states whose capitols can be taken to end the war. Indeed, the conflict should instead be seen as a conflict between western secularism and Islam. Although Islam has many peaceful followers, at its core it is an imperialistic and totalitarian ideology with aspirations to world dominance. This conflict has not been resolved for more than 1000 years , and there is no reason to imagine that existing approaches to resolution will have any success.
Western politicians may have difficulty when describing or naming actions, military or otherwise, in Southwest Asia. However, when followers of Islam refer to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, they are more ingenuous; they call them Crusades. In a recent statement posted on the Internet, the al Qaeda-led "Islamic State in Iraq" said "The visit of the Pope in reality is meant to add momentum to the crusader campaign on the land of Islam after the failures of crusader leaders." (http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L29434212)
Although the Crusades began more than 1000 years ago, the real war for Moslems began nearly 1400 years ago. Muhammad ibn Abdillah, was born in 570 CE, over 500 years after the birth of the previous recognized prophet of Islam, Jesus. At the age of 40, in 610 CE, Muhammad became the self-described final prophet of God. In 622 CE, Muhammad moved to Medina to consolidate his religious following and plan an assault on Mecca , a city that received the majority of its income from the yearly pilgrimage to the Kaaba, a pagan shrine to the moon god Hubal, represented by a white rock. Muhammad had been educated amongst both Christians and Jews, and the pagan shrine was for him an affront to God. With the assault on Mecca, the conquest that has come to define Islam was begun.
By 633 CE the Muslim conquests had begun in earnest, and by 732 CE had reached their furthest northern extent with the defeat of the Moslem armies at the battle of Tours. By 750 CE, some 120 years after the death of Mohammed, the Islamic Umayyad Empire had grown to include all of the Arabian peninsula, North Africa, Spain, areas of modern Turkey, and east to include all of modern Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and parts of India.
European Christians by this time had begun to organize with the intent of driving back the invading armies and by 1000 CE, had established Crusader kingdoms in Palestine and Syria. And in 1099 CE, Crusaders took Jerusalem. Wars and conflicts have continued in the region, always with Islam on one side and various non-Islamic nations or surrogates on the other. At the end of WWI in 1918 CE, the fall of the Ottoman Empire marked the end of one of the longest standing feudal empires in history.
This remarkable success is due to a great degree to the virulent nature of Islam, and its quality of destroying competing religions and philosophies. At the core of the conflict is the way in which Islam relates to those outside the belief system. Let us begin then by looking at some of those ideas and how they relate to western sensibilities.
Certainly within Islam there are conflicting philosophies, but those pale in comparison to the differences that exist with western cultures. It is difficult from a western perspective to understand the thinking and rationale of Arabic peoples, and it is also difficult for them to understand us. Robert Payne makes a definitive statement to this effect in his introduction to The History of Islam:
“From the beginning there were differences so vast that no human mind has been able to reconcile them. It is not only that Muhamadans are incapable of understanding a God who is expressed in terms of the Trinity and cannot bring themselves to believe He was crucified in the flesh, but their normal habits of mind, their aims and preoccupations, are at variance with ours. Though schooled in Greek philosophy, Arabs have never completely accepted the fundamental tenets of western logic: to them an inquiry into the nature of virtue and goodness is meaningless, since all virtue and goodness come from God.” (Payne, xiii)
Modern Moslems hold the Koran to be the divine word of God, and contained within that document are ideas that seem archaic or unreasonable to those of us accustomed to western thought. We assume that a reasonable and friendly approach will overcome prejudice, but the Koran instructs its adherents otherwise:
“Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends rather than believers; and whoever does this, he shall have nothing of (the guardianship of) Allah, but you should guard yourselves against them, guarding carefully; and Allah makes you cautious of (retribution from) Himself; and to Allah is the eventual coming.”
( http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/003.qmt.html#003.028 )
We might also imagine that all peoples are open minded and free of prejudice and tolerant of others as we strive to be. The Koran teaches a severe xenophobia and an extreme prejudice toward non-Moslems:
“O you who believe! do not take for intimate friends from among others than your own people; they do not fall short of inflicting loss upon you; they love what distresses you; vehement hatred has already appeared from out of their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater still; indeed, We have made the communications clear to you, if you will understand.”
( http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/003.qmt.html#003.118 )
For those who are idolaters, Hindus and atheists, there is no tolerance:
“And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.”
( http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/002.qmt.html#002.191 )
Islam has modern adherents that would make Christians who have the notion of Trinity into polytheists. As a result, Christians fall into the dangerous category of pagans, and thereby subject to Islamic Law as such. According to an article at www.jannah.org regarding the practice of shirk Christianity is unpardonable:
I consider it essential to mention here some details of the greatest sin which will not be forgiven by Allah. This unpardonable sin is Shirk. Shirk implies ascribing partners to Allah or ascribing divine attributes to others besides Allah and believing that the source of power, harm and blessings comes from another besides Allah.
Almighty Allah says: "Verily, Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with Him in worship, but He forgives except that (anything else) to whom He pleases, and whoever sets up partners with Allah in worship, he has indeed invented a tremendous sin."(V. 4:48). ( http://www.jannah.org/articles/shirk.html )
There is little tolerance for Christians and Jews, and even less for those who are considered pagan, but the severest penalty is reserved for those who would renounce Islam. The Surahs, which are writings of Islamic scholars and similar to the Jewish Talmud, give clear direction to Moslems as to the penalty for apostasy:
Those who blasphemed and back away from the ways of Allah and die as blasphemers, Allah shall not forgive them. Suratan Nisa', Ayah 48.
Those who believe, then disbelieve, then believe again, then disbelieve, and then increase in their disbelief - Allah will never forgive them nor guide them to the path. Surah An-Nisa', 4:137
Whoever changes his religion shall be killed, Abu Dawud, Sura al-Tawba 9:5
http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_apos.htm
These beliefs are purely alien to western thinking. They are wholly inconsistent with the United States Constitution, and religious tolerance as we know it. We are largely ignorant as a society of this vastly different culture, we only see the pain and suffering of people on both sides. As a society steeped in Classical and Christian philosophies, we tend to blame ourselves of some misunderstood sin. We point fingers at each other, fearful of the prejudice that so heavily marks those who are against us.
We may be uncertain about the nature of the enemy and the conflict, but they are certain. And they are also certain about their intended course and the ultimate goal. Islam has and will respond as it has and does to every obstacle with jihad, or holy war. For them, there can be only one God, one Law and one course of action. And for them there can be only one outcome: a world under Islamic Law.
We cannot isolate radical Islam, because the radicalism is inherent at the core. We cannot kill every adherent of Islam because many are innocent and non-radical, and there are more than 1.6 billion Moslems in the world. We cannot ask them to renounce their beliefs, as this is counted as the greatest sin within Islam. We cannot democratize them because Islam is incompatible with democracy. And we cannot allow Islam to overtake us because that would be sacrificing 1000 years of western progress on the altar of non-violence.
There is no simple answer. No other conflict in history has been so pervasive and enduring. We will not achieve victory, end all wars, or see peace in our time. Rather we will continue to go to war over differing views of God so long as those differences exist.
Works Cited
Payne, Robert. The History of Islam. United States: Barns and Noble Books, 1992
ISBN 0-88029-562-7
University of Southern California Compendium of Muslim Texts http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/
Religious Tolerance .Org Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. http://www.religioustolerance.org
Reuters News Agency
http://today.reuters.com
See my website at http://www.davewhitemultimedia.com
