The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (29 page)

Yet despite
Kingdom of Heaven
’s numerous whitewashes of history and strenuous efforts to portray the Muslims of the Crusader era in a favorable light, Islamic apologist Khaled Abou El Fadl, a professor of Islamic law at the University of California, is in a froth about the film: “In my view,” he raged, “it is inevitable—I’m willing to risk my reputation on this—that after this movie is released there will be hate crimes committed directly because of it. People will go see it on a weekend and decide to teach some turbanhead a lesson.” Of course, this is less an indictment of the film than of the American people.

In any event,
Kingdom of Heaven
cost over $150 million to make, features an all-star cast, and is being touted as “a fascinating history lesson.” Fascinating, maybe—but only as evidence of the lengths to which modern Westerners are willing to go to delude themselves.

PC Myth: The problem the world faces today is religious fundamentalism

Is every religious tradition equally capable of giving rise to violence? This notion, widespread as it is, would have a lot more credibility if Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were writing articles defending the stoning of adulterers (as did the Switzerland-based Muslim writer Hani Ramadan, who published an article in the French journal
Le Monde
in September 2002 doing just that), or calling for the killing of blasphemers (blasphemy is a capital offense in Pakistan and elsewhere in the Islamic world), or flying planes into the iconic buildings of those they considered enemies.
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Muhammad vs. Jesus

“And when those who were about him saw what would follow, they said, ‘Lord, shall we strike with the sword?’ And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, ‘No more of this!’ And he touched his ear and healed him.”

Jesus (Luke 22:49–51)

“Narrated Abu Qilaba: Anas said, ‘Some people of ‘Ukl or ‘Uraina tribe came to Medina and its climate did not suit them. After they became healthy, they killed the shepherd of the Prophet and drove away all the camels. The news reached the Prophet early in the morning and he sent (men) in their pursuit and they were captured and brought at noon. He then ordered to cut their hands and feet (and it was done), and their eyes were branded with heated pieces of iron. They were put in Al-Harra and when they asked for water, no water was given to them.’ Abu Qilaba added, ‘Those people committed theft, murder, became infidels after embracing Islam and fought against Allah and His Messenger.’”
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That evangelical Christians do not commit these acts is one clear indication that not all “fundamentalisms” are equivalent. Contrary to the deconstructionist views that prevail on college campuses today, religions are not simply raw material that can be fashioned into absolutely anything by believers. There is considerable overlap in the behavior of religious people in all traditions. For example, they pray, meet together, and perform certain rituals. Sometimes they even commit violence in the name of their religion. But the frequency and commonality of such acts of violence—and how close they are to each religion’s mainstream—is determined to a great degree by the actual teachings of each religion. Islamic apologists like to point to Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph as examples of Christian terrorists, but there are three reasons why McVeigh and Rudolph are not equivalent to bin Laden and Zarqawi:

They did not even attempt to justify their actions by reference to Christian Scripture or tradition.

They were not acting on mainstream Christian teachings.

There are not large Christian groups around the world dedicated to implementing the same teachings.

The difference between Osama bin Laden and Eric Rudolph is the difference between aberrant acts and aberrant teachings. Any human being with a belief system can do abominable things. But abominable acts are more likely to come in greater numbers and frequency when they are encouraged and perpetuated by religious texts and those who teach from them.

But surely you’re not saying that Islam is the problem?

What is the alternative to the Ridley Scott view that “fanaticism” is causing all our troubles today? It’s a view that PC types just can’t understand: The problem is within Islam and will not go away, or be neutralized, until this fact is recognized.

To say that the problem is within Islam is not to say that every Muslim is the problem. As we have seen, many who identify themselves as Muslims have only a glancing acquaintance with and interest in what Islam teaches. No, to admit that global jihadist violence indicates a problem with Islam is simply to be honest: There are groups around the world that believe that it is their responsibility before God to wage war against non-Muslims and impose Islamic law, first on Muslim states and then on non-Muslim states. This is a core motivation behind terrorist violence today, and it is rooted in the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunna (Islamic tradition).

Some analysts fear that if Western authorities begin to acknowledge that America’s foe in the War on Terror is not a bunch of hijackers of Islam, but people who are working from core Islamic teachings, we will soon be embroiled in a war with the entire Islamic world. This will certainly make it harder to perpetuate the sham alliances that now exist with the Saudis, the Pakistanis, and the Egyptians. But it would also allow the United States to call those putative allies to account for their allegiance to the global jihad and to give real substance to President George W. Bush’s post–September 11 announcement to the world that “you’re either with the terrorists or with us.”

Others have shied away from admitting the deep crisis in Islam today on the pretext that it will demoralize and anger moderate Muslims. If they are genuine moderates, there is no reason why this should occur. No problem can be solved unless its source is identified. A doctor who treats persistent headaches caused by brain tumors with aspirin will not escape malpractice suits for long. If any moderate Islam project is to succeed, it will only do so by identifying the elements in Islam that give rise to violence and terrorism, and working in whatever way possible to change Muslims’ understanding of those elements so that jihadist recruiters can no longer convince young men to join them by appealing to their desire to live out “pure Islam.”

Whether moderate Muslims can actually succeed in changing millions of Muslims’ understanding of Islam is an open question. But it has no chance whatsoever of happening unless they acknowledge why Islam creates people like bin Laden and Zarqawi.

That makes sense. Why is it so hard for people to accept?

Part of the reason why the PC establishment finds this so hard to accept is because, in their simplistic and reductionist view of the world, Westerners are “white” and Muslims are “brown.” The brown peoples of the world, goes the PC myth, cannot be guilty of wrongdoing; they are forever the wronged and eternal victims. Any violence they commit is a reaction to the egregious provocations of the white man.

The most outrageous example of this may be radical lawyer Lynne Stewart, who was convicted in February 2005 of smuggling messages for the jailed Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Why did Stewart become an errand girl for bloodthirsty jihad terrorists? She explained, “To rid ourselves of the entrenched, voracious type of capitalism that is in this country that perpetuates sexism and racism, I don’t think that can come nonviolently.”
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How did Stewart get the idea that Omar Abdel Rahman, a traditionalist Muslim who no doubt believes that women exist to serve men and that disobedient ones should be beaten (as per Qur’an 4:34), was a champion of the fight against sexism and racism? Well, he’s fighting the “white man,” isn’t he?

Recovering pride in Western civilization

“Look, Dr. Yeagley, I don’t see anything about my culture to be proud of. It’s all nothing. My race is just nothing…. Look at your culture. Look at American Indian tradition. Now I think that’s really great. You have something to be proud of. My culture is nothing.”
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A white American student, “Rachel,” spoke these words to American Indian professor Dr. David Yeagley in 2001.

Clearly Rachel had imbibed deeply of the mindset Jesse Jackson memorably articulated in 1985: “Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Western Civ has got to go!” And it is virtually certain that she considers the Crusaders to have been the ultimate Dead White Males, and the Crusades to be an inexcusable exercise in Western imperialism, racism, and probably genocide. If she attended a school with “Crusaders” as its mascot, she would have been among the first to want it changed. The way the Crusades are presented in most schools these days, that’s perfectly understandable. But most of what the average student today knows about the Crusades, and other topics like them, is false. Those who teach such falsehoods have a vested interest in creating Americans who speak like Rachel. She believes all these falsehoods due to decades of anti-American, anti-Western, and anti-Christian conditioning in our schools and universities.

Why the truth must be told

This is why the truth must be told about the Crusades and other elements of the historical interaction between Christianity and Islam. Americans and Europeans—as well as Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere—need to stop apologizing for past sins and recall past heroism, and recognize what Judeo-Christian civilization has brought to the world. We must look honestly at Islam and Christianity and recognize how they differ. PC censors must no longer be allowed to make it taboo to note that although human nature is everywhere the same, and people have justified violence in the name of every faith, religions are not the same.