Will the Real Islam Please Stand up

Many Westerners cling to the myth that there is a good Islam and a bad Islam, and it just depends on how we interpret the Koran and the Hadiths, and not what these writings actually teach. One friend asked me what I thought about a David Brooks column on this subject. Here’s my response:

I have major problems with David Brooks’ analysis. He fails to engage Islam and Koranic writings, the self-professed rationale for the deeds of the terrorists. Instead, of engaging the real problem, Brooks launches into psycho-speculation:

• A beheading feels different because it reveals something about the minds of the killers. The journalist Lance Morrow once wrote that “evil is often happiest when it operates in the autonomy of the gratuitous.”

This represents the Western avoidance of dealing with Islam as it is. Instead, this is what the Koran says:

• [Surah 47:4] “So when you meet (in fight…Jihad in Allah’s Cause) those who disbelieve smite at their necks [behead] till when you have killed and wounded many of them, then bind a bond firmly (on them; i.e. take them as captives). Thereafter (is the time for) either generosity (i.e. free them without ransom) or ransom (according to what benefits Islam) until the war lays down its burden. Thus [you are ordered by Allah to continue Jihad against the disbelievers till they embrace Islam (i.e. are saved from the punishment in the Hell-fire) or at least come under your protection.] But if it had been Allah’s Will, He Himself could certainly have punished them (without you). But (He lets you fight) in order to test you, some with others. But those who are killed in the way of Allah, He will never let their deeds be lost…”

• [Surah9:5] “Then kill the Mushrikun [Polytheists and Trinitarians] wherever you find them, and capture them and besiege them, and prepare for then each and every ambush. But if they repent and offer prayers perfectly and give Zakat, then leave their way free …[9:29] Fight against those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

• [Surah 4.89] “They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back [from Islam], then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.”

ISIS has taken their script right out of the holy writings of Islam, and they claim as much! However, Brooks and other Western commentators will not take them at face value.  Instead, Brooks prefers to dream about a “superior version of Islam”:

• But, ultimately, the Islamists are a spiritual movement that will have to be surmounted by a superior version of Islam.

Those who defend Islam claim that the many violent Jihadic verses are just a matter of interpretation. This is very idyllic but unrealistic. While everything must be submitted to a process of interpretation, this doesn’t mean that any interpretation is as accurate as the next. In fact, when we study Shakespeare or any literature, our aim is to determine what the author meant, not what interpretation we find more pleasing or more “superior.” However, it is quite clear what Mohammad and his followers meant – bloody Jihad, and, sadly, ISIS, al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, Boko Haram, Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Shabaab all got it right. That’s why they are getting all of the recruits.

Guilt Kills

Unresolved guilt and shame can kill. It can also bring down a great civilization.

Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali Muslim turned atheist observes that the Western intellectual is actively rejecting his own traditions – perhaps a twisted form of atonement:

• Liberals in Western politics have the strange habit of blaming themselves for the ills of the world, while seeing the rest of the world as victims. To them, victims are to be pitied, and they lump together all pitiable and suppressed people, such as Muslims, and consider them good people who should be cherished and supported so that they can overcome their disadvantages. The adherents to the gospel of multiculturalism refuse to criticize people whom they see as victims. Some Western critics disapprove of United States policies and attitudes but do not criticize the Islamic world, just as, in the first part of the twentieth century, Western socialist apologists did not dare criticize the Soviet labor camps. Along the same lines, some Western intellectuals criticize Israel, but they will not criticize Palestine because Israel belongs to the West, which they consider fair game, but they feel sorry for the Palestinians, and for the Islamic world in general, which is not as powerful as the West. They are critical of the native white majority in Western countries but not of Islamic minorities. Criticism of the Islamic world, of Palestinians, and of Islamic minorities is regarded as Islamophobia and xenophobia.

Why are the Western liberals indulgent of certain groups at the expense of their own proven traditions? Does this self-deprecating posture help them deal with their unresolved guilt and shame? CatholicNewsAgency.com reported that in 2006:

• A significant number of Italian lawmakers, politicians and intellectuals, led by the president of the Italian Senate…has presented a manifesto in which they attribute the confusion and fear in Europe over Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism to “a moral and spiritual crisis” that prevents the continent from finding “the courage to react.”

Here’s what their manifesto concluded:

• The west is “under attack from the outside by Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism” and is “incapable of responding to the challenge.”  “We feel guilty for our well-being, we are ashamed of our traditions, and we think terrorism is a reaction to our mistakes…“Europe is sick…The birth rate continues to fall, as well as [Europe’s] competitiveness, unity and action on the world scene.  It hides and denies its own identity and thus fails to provide itself a legitimate constitution of its citizens.  It determines relations with the United States are broken and makes anti-Americanism its flag.”

Self-atonement! Why do “we feel guilty for our well-being?” Certainly, we have a God-given responsibility to share with those in need, but this shouldn’t preclude our own well-being! Why then does the unresolved guilt continue?

If your fuel-line is clogged, it will not help you to sample every gas pump in town  You have a deeper problem.

The Western intellectual is running around to every gas pump in town in order to be as multi-cultural and self-denying as he possibly can be. However, the guilt is never resolved. Its source is deeper.

King David realized that, fundamentally, sin is an affront to God, above all else:

• Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you…have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. (Psalm 51:1-5)

Until we address the source of our guilt and shame, we will find no rest.