Radical Islam is an Inferior Culture
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Religion, WarIn my two-part series arguing that Western media should stop running the Mohammad cartoons (here and here), I made the assertion that radical Islam is an inferior culture. I would like to discuss further.
By culture I mean not just a belief-system or a religion but an entire way of life that supersedes all other influences and systems. Thus, a radical Muslim might live in Denmark but is not part of the democratic culture because the radical Islamic culture eclipses every or nearly every aspect of the Danish democratic culture.
A moderate Muslim, on the other hand, does not place his or her religion over all other cultures or systems. The very nature of moderation is a willingness to accept and tolerate influences and ideas outside of one’s own personal beliefs. By these definitions we can say that, for moderate Muslims, Islam is their religion and only one part of their culture. For radical Muslims, Islam is their culture.
And, as a culture, radical Islam is inferior. Just as inferior as is Nazism or Communism. Just because radical Islam was born of religion does not mean it deserves any less scorn than do the inferior cultures born of more secular origins. And, just as we eradicated Nazism in World Ward II and all but eradicated Communism in the Cold War, we must eradicate radical Islam in our current war.
We can certainly do this without attacking Islam itself. Germans and Japanese moved away from fascism and embraced the democratic culture. Russians moved away from Communism and have moved far closer to the democratic culture. Can we not then put our effort into moving Muslims away from radical Islam and closer to democratic culture? Isn’t that really the only hope?
We have to stop viewing radical Islam as a religion and start calling it what it is: an inferior culture the threatens the entire world.
Fascism. Communism. Radical Islam. Those are the three great enemies to freedom that we’ve faced in the last century. I do not know how we defeat this new enemy, but I do know we cannot afford to appease or to ignore. We may, from time-to-time, have to make strategic choices for temporary calm, but we can no longer afford to believe radical Islam can be contained. It must be eradicated or so thoroughly weakened as to pose no real threat.
Finally, we cannot afford to forget that moderate Muslims are our allies in this. Just as it took the East German people to tear down the Berlin Wall, so it will take moderate Muslims to tear down the theocracies, expel the radical Imams and embrace the culture of democracy.
This is not a war on terror. This is a war on radical Islam.
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February 10th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
What a childish point of view!
First, are you sure “we” defeated fascism? I’m sure I didn’t. but, maybe you. If you were part of WW II, that is.
Communism?, Ha! Do you refer to the stalinist-burocratic state that ruled Sovet Union?
Again, were you a CIA agent doing destabilization work?
Second, perhaps it is possible to order cultures according to some simple measure (like: which cares most about child health, etc), but the moment you begin to take into account most and most of interesting features, the moment your linear order cease to be so, and it turns into a mess.
Worst, you don’t even bother to make explicit the criteria according to which you ranked radical islam as “inferior” (inferior to what?).
Are you sure we all would agree with you?
For example, maybe it is important to you to have a continous supply of cheap oil in order to drive your SUV several miles a day from your house to your work.
Guess what? I don’t give a damm about it. In fact, I strongly oppose such habits. And most of the world, Id’ guess.
Finally, I just want to point the fact that there are lots of things far worst that radical islam. US exterior policy, for example. Radical factions of every policital and religious spectrum, for example.
February 10th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
WOW JPR seems a little testy.
To the original point…
The difficulty with removing radical Islam lies in the fact that it is drilled into the heads of boys throughout the middle east at a very young age.
They grow up believing that the US and Israel are evil. How do you keep that from being taught in the schools of the middle east? You’ll
never win the hearts and minds of 20something year old men, when their minds have already been warped. They’ll never accept anything other than fighting us.
February 10th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
It’s is absolutely not a childish point of view, and in fact, the moment I saw the first article on this whole cartoon fiasco, it was immediately the viewpoint that I adopted. Honestly, I almost shocked myself, because, up to that point, I’d been very, very much against the war in Iraq, and generally had felt that tolerance, and “turning the other cheek,” so to speak, were the best courses of action. And I still, even now, consider US foreign policy to be very poor.
But does one “turn the other cheek” when faced with genocide, torture, or other gross atrocities? No, of course not, because it’s a question of society and civilization as a whole being put in jeopardy. Why, then, should we step aside as unalienable human liberties are slaughtered at the altar of religious tolerance? Because that’s really what’s going on. We’re putting the basic foundations of our democratic society up on the chopping block to appease the demands by the individual conscience for tolerance.
That is simply not acceptable.
February 10th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Ford,
I agree that it’s difficult. But East Germans were indoctrinated in a hatred of us as well–of course, they were part of a state and not also tought the glories of martyrdom, but I think there is validity in the comparrison. How we lure people away from radical Islam is up for debate. It won’t be easy.
Juan,
I use “we” in the broader sense–I’m not taking personal credit. As for radical Islam being inferior, I mean it’s inferior to democratic culture. But if you truly believe that U.S. policy is a greater threat than radical Islam, I don’t think we’re going to agree on a lot.
February 10th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Hmmm. I had the experience of being in both East and West Berlin, and East and West Germeny, in the 1970s. The young people in West Berlin were full of rebellious bitterness against the Amis and were largely rejectionist about Western values as such. The East German kids loved us and envied us and yearned for the kind of freedom and materialism we enjoyed (and they had the highest standard of living in the Soviet Bloc, such as it was).
I am told there is something of the same spirit today in places like Iran.
But the Soviet Bloc had mellowed a great deal by the time I got there. What was possible under the conservative gerontocracy of Brezhnev — including me travelling relatively freely in East Berlin and Potsdam as an American youth — never would have been possible under Stalin.
When I look at Iran, I often see it as suspended somewhere between Stalin and Brezhnev. If it remains the former — and we really ought to think about not forcing it to do so — hard power is the unpleasant best option. But if it’s more Brezhnev time, we can be more patient and let the magic of freedom and success erode the totalitarians.
As for the rest of the Islamic world, I’m afraid it hasn’t even got to the point of Stalin yet. Its revolutions still are brewing. This clash or war or call-it-what-you-will not only will outlast my lifetime, it will consume my son’s as well.
February 10th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
Any equation of a few thousand poor, barely fed lunatics with either Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia is silly. They were real threats to world order. This terrorism is merely the death throes of Fundy Islam, a remanent feature of Y2K. By 2020, we all will have learned to live with it. In fact, how many folk act as if 9/11 were another lifetime? The majority of Americans.
If we can wean ourselves off of oil in a decade or so, the acceleration of the obsolescence of this terrorism will be manifest.
Osama bin Laden is no Stalin. He’s no Hitler. I had relatives who died under both those tyrants. Any equation of the two is hyperbole, as well as silly.
February 10th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
When I look at Iran, I often see it as suspended somewhere between Stalin and Brezhnev.
Khruschchev, in other words? Come to think of it, that analogy is quite fitting. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can’t seem to shut up about how Iran will bury Israel.
Another problem is the lingering uncertainty, despite President Bush’s insistence that radical Muslims have “hijacked” the religion from mainstream Muslims, as to which of these camps represents Islam’s true nature - or even whether they are merely two sides (one violent, the other not) of the same troublesome coin. It also doesn’t help that many Westerners tend to confuse moderate Islam with reform-minded Islam, which is friendly to Western values and customs but is well outside the mainstream of Islamic thought. What we call “moderate Islam” is actually a lot closer ideologically to radical Islam than to the reformist Islam many of us think we’re supporting.
February 10th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Dan,
It’s probably not so silly to those living under the tyrannies of the Middle East. Or to the Israelis for that matter. Or to many of us who haven’t forgotten 9/11 or Bali or Madrid or London or the murder of a Jordanian wedding party or the slaughter of Russian school children or the daily car-bomb murders of innocent Iraqis.
The comparrison isn’t to Stalin or Hitler, but to their ideologies of oppression and murder. Certainly there are differences as both communism and nazism existed within the confines of an identifiable state while radical Islam is more amorphous in nature and thus harder to combat.
I do hope you’re right that we are in the death throes of radical Islam rather than the beginning of something worse. But I don’t think we should view the threat as one that will spontaneously go away.
Weaning ourselves from oil is a necessary step but I doubt it will provide a solution all by itself. After all, oil is not the reason radical Muslims in Europe have rioted in Paris, have bombed London, have threatened and murdered opponents in the Netherlands and have sent the Danish cartoonists into hiding. Oil is not the cause of or the answer to all our problems with radical Islam. But it’s certainly a factor.
February 10th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
Bin Laden may not be on a par with Hitler, Stalin or Mao (yet), but he’s definitely a Hitler/Stalin/Mao wannabe. So is Ahmadinejad, for that matter. As for oil, weaning ourselves off of oil won’t do much good unless we’re also prepared to help the rest of the world (particularly China and India where oil demand has skyrocketed in recent years) break their own oil “addictions” too.
February 10th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Don’t forget Sudan, Kashmir, East-Timor, Serbia, Chechnia, Southern Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Malasia, Tailand, ect…
Wherever Islam meets the rest, there is jihad. You can swiftly die from an axe to the head, or you can die slowly of cancer. Either way its gonna be painful, and your gonna be dead. Anyway, Hitler just started out with a little puztch.
February 11th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
I agree with Dan to a small degree: Radical Islam must be treated like radical Islam, not like Nazis or Communists. It is a different beast, and must be treated as such. The Nazis and the Communists didn’t support or justify their actions with their scriptures.
Joshua, that’s exactly the point I’ve made in other comments, actually. The oil issue isn’t over until the oil is gone. In around 80 years.
February 11th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
Hi All,
On this topic of fundamental Islam, please see Sam Harris “The End of Faith”.
It speaks the flaws in most religions and to the nature of all fundamentalist beliefs and how they simply don’t get questioned or examined rationally. I think that the reaction to the cartoons shows just how many middle eastern islamists do not operate in any rational context. It appears that this is not just a “a few thousand lunatics”. Islam is based on subjugation and there is no separation of church and state. Look at the role of women in Saudia Arabia. See also Tom Friedman “The World is Flat”
February 12th, 2006 at 9:02 am
It’s not ‘inferior’, it’s just ‘bad’
And it’s not a ‘culture’, it’s an ideology. A badly flawed one.
The worst is that it’s trying to convert people to this badly flawed ideology.
February 12th, 2006 at 11:08 am
Bin Laden by himself does not equal hitler. He doesn’t even equal Franco. Bin Laden + 2 or 3 nuclear weapons = more hell than Hitler could have managed.
Containment, a muscular arms control policy, and a united, aggressive national approach to the energy crisis would allow us to bypass radical Islam till it burns itself out with the population curve in the Middle East, in a generation or so. But the world never is that simple.
February 13th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Containment is nice, but with the way things are going right now, containment involves invasions. Or perhaps Israel could just pull a precision bombing stunt again, like they did with the Osirak reactor. Actually, that wouldn’t be a half bad solution, except that the whole world will condemn them for saving our collective butts.
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:01 am
sorry for my bad english. but i have to say you are all wrong you are all thinking in one way only you dont see the muslims point of view and you all dont know any thing about islam. You should read about islam before saying any thing about them. I thing this is the problem of the US press it dosent show anything about islam but hatred and killing it never show any good things that far more bigger and much batter than any religen in my point of view. Muslims when they great any body they say al salam alikom thes means peace betwean us this is the first theing a muslim say to any body when he see’s them muslims loves to help the poor muslims have the biggest hemanatarian acts to healp the needed in the world but dosent brag about it and show off with it likes others because islams till’s them to. islam is afaith of peace that will not start a fight but start peace but if some one whants to fight them they have to fight back like any religen or any feath. Muslims was peast off because the danish news paper showed 12 cartoons not only one about the prhophet that they belive in what any religen in the world will do if this was done to them …..
It will not happen in the first place you know why because they cant it will be stoped before beaing put in the news paper. But for muslims no problem u can say what ever you want to pess them off because they want too they know these will happen but they did it any way after. Only muslims in denmark demanded an apoolgy in september 2005 but more news papers in europe showed the 12 cartoons too that what pessed the muslim world. If we will do 12 cartoons of black people being slaves it will do more harm then what it did with the muslims. Muslims only demanded an apoolgy not more but i wasent given to them untill acut was done. The 2nd thing think about it if a forign country invades you fore saying you have nuclear arsnale and kills 10 000s of your people and then dosent find any thing and after that it dosent go away from you and steals all your good like oil and drains you out what will you do ( do you whant them to smile in youre face and say thank you ) if you whant them to say that i think you should go to a mental hospital.
Fore the pople that are writing about killing all muslims you should go to a mental hospital i think you need it.
March 7th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
The notion that it is impossible to make an objective judgement of the relative superiority of ciivilizatiions is absurd and calling that judgement racist because it deems one system superior to another is adolescent. Simply put, which enncourages the greatest good for the greatest number. Greatest good includes adequate food, medical care, housing, clothing, education, opportunity to work, opportunity to raise a family, oportunity to learn,grow,thrive throughout life, opportunity to think, write, speak freely, opportunity to worship or not as desired, opportunity to participate in the government of the community.
On every one of these criteria, the systems developed by what would be called Western civilization are clearly superior. It is important for those of us who enjoy the benefits of that civilization, especially women who are half of the population, to say loudly and clearly that we will not submit to an inferior civilization. We will not deny or give up our hard won superior civilization. It is our responsibility to protect and pass on this civilization to our children, grand children and great grand children. Can we bear to think that they will look back on us and say that we lived the good life but were too selfish and self-absorbed to care about what happened later?
September 16th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
Well as far as Islamic fundamentalism is concerned as one mentioned its the same damn bloody coin.
all has one to read is the Quran to realize that no matter how one tiptoes around the subject of religion. We actually have here a religion based on the acts of a Slave trading Caravan bandit. The “liberal minded” Muslims that we refer to are nothing more than heritics to the true devoit muslims. (Much like the Ahmadiyats and the Ba’hai) heretics who read the “dead” quran (earliest works of mohammed when he’s trying to fool people into his religion). There is the the real difference. the moderates that we consider friendly are nothing more than minority heretics. The real muslims wants there 72 virgins. So again the problem is Islam itself. The only religion that is at war with Every-other-religion on earth.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:41 am
NO!! NO!!! NO!!!!!!! ALL Islam must be eradicated. Any Muslim left on this earth is a threat to the world.
Islam spawned Nazis. Islam people blame Pakistani ex pm Butto for getting killed because she dared to stand out of a car.
Islam people massacre Christian schoolchildren in Beslan and then refuse to allow a monument because they think that 70% of the victims were Muslim. They place glasses of water in front of dehydrated hostages telling them they will shoot their parents if they even reach for the water.
“I swear to Allah we desire death more than you desire life. We have come here to die and you will die with us.” That’s some fucked up shit.
Every man, woman and child that remotely believes in Islam must be wiped off this planet. Hey, if they want to die anyway, let’s do the whole word a favour already.