THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 69, April 6, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
AMERICA & THE WEST IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NEW CENTURY:
LOCKED IN A COSMIC BATTLE WITH ISLAM
By Alan Caruba
FULL STORY:
Americans are pragmatists. We are interested not only in how things work, but how we can improve them. We are fascinated with cars
and with every kind of machine and gadget that makes our lives easier as well as any that entertains us during the leisure time provided
provided by such machines and gadgets. If you want to find Americans, go to the mall.
Despite this fact, however, Americans can surely be rated as among the most religious people on the Earth. The success of the film,
“The Passion of the Christ,” is ample testimony to that. The debate raging over the morality of same-sex marriage, the outcry against
the removal of a monument depicting the Ten Commandments from a courthouse, and the continued opposition to abortion attest to
the deep concern Americans have for moral issues.
America and other nations of the West are, however, locked in a cosmic battle with Islamic fundamentalists around the world who view
Western civilization as a form of idolatrous barbarism. The attack on the World Trade Center was symbolic of the great battle being
waged against us. To the Islamists, the towers represented Godless materialism, unmitigated greed, and the worship of money, wealth,
and other material things. To Islam’s true believers, there is no validity in Judaism, Christianity, or any other non-Muslim religion. To
them, idolatry is the most heinous sin and, if they must die to destroy us, they will do so.
Ian Buruma, the Luce Professor at Bard College, and Avishai Margalit, the Shulman Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, explore this battle in a book. It is Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies, published by The Penguin
Press ($21.95). It is a relatively short book, but one so packed with insight that the mind lingers over every sentence.
As the authors note, “Wars against the West have been declared in the name of the Russian soul, the German race, State Shinto,
Communism, and Islam.” The present “war on terrorism” should more accurately be called “the war on Islam” because we have been
forced to defend ourselves again a large number of Islamic organizations waging this war. While we focus on al-Qa'ida, the creation
of Osama bin Laden, there are dozens of comparable Islamic groups wreaking havoc in various parts of the world, from Israel to
Indonesia, from Saudi Arabia to Morocco, from Spain to Iraq, from Afghanistan to Turkey, from Kenya to Russia.
It is a cosmic war pitting their belief that Islam is the only true religion and therefore the salvation of mankind against Western values
of individual freedom, human rights, capitalism, constitutional government, and representative democracy. Those fighting this battle
feel called by Allah -- their perception of God Almighty -- to save the world.
Why? “When people are not only humiliated by foreign forces, but oppressed by their own government, they often retreat to the
‘inner life’ of the spirit, pure and simple, where they can feel free from the corruption of power and sophistication,” say the authors
of Occidentalism. Most certainly, the Arabs of the Middle East fit this description. So do Muslims in many other areas of the
world. Though Islam has spread widely throughout the world, representing an estimated 1.3 billion people, not all Muslims subscribe
to the battle being waged in its name, but all find in Islam the comfort of absolute certitude.
An earlier commentary of mine, “The Decline and Fall of Islam,” is rebutted on an Internet site in Bangladesh. A Muslim who called
my attention to it wrote, “ISLAM is the real truth, and truth never dies.” I replied to him that Islam is his truth. And neither the “truth”
that the Earth was the center of the universe is in fashion, nor is belief in the gods of ancient Greece and Rome. Religions do die.
Islam literally means “submission” to the will of Allah. As a religion, it controls all aspects of life down to the minutest details when
practiced by the true believer. Throughout Islam, there is a widespread belief that Islam is under attack. This is ironic in that it is the
West that has come under actual attack through a long series of bombings. What I believe is that Islam, unable to adapt to the
modern world -- a world dominated by Western thought and achievement -- instinctively senses it must either conquer the world or
eventually lose its grip on its adherents. In some countries, "apostasy," defined as leaving Islam for another religion, is punishable
by death.
“The attack on the West is, among other things, an attack on the mind of the West,” say the authors. They describe how Islamists
and others see it. “It is a mind without a soul, efficient, like a calculator, but hopeless at doing what is humanly important. The mind
of the West is capable of great economic success, to be sure, and of developing and promoting advanced technology, but cannot
grasp the higher things in life, for it lacks spirituality and understanding of human suffering.”
This may seem incomprehensible, given that Christianity is based on the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus, and Judaism’s history is
millennia of suffering for its worship of a single, universal God of all mankind. However, unless you understand the mind of those
who are pitted in war against America and the West, you will never fully grasp why they are willing to sacrifice their own lives to
win it.
“Self-sacrifice for a higher cause, for an ideal world, cleansed of human greed and injustice, is the one way for the average man to
feel heroic. Choosing to die a violent death becomes a heroic act of human will. In totalitarian systems, it might be the only act an
individual is free to choose.” Muslims have lived in totalitarian systems for centuries. When the Islamic revolution seized Iran in
1979, it imposed yet another totalitarian system.
If the last century gave us the kamikaze pilot, willing to give his life in a futile effort to protect the Emperor and Japan, this new
century has given us the holy warrior of the Islamic jihad. In the words of the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical movement founded
in Egypt in 1928, “God is our objective; the Koran is our constitution; the Prophet is our leader; struggle is our way; and death for
the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations.”
We face -- as individuals, as a nation, and as a civilization -- the Islamic holy warrior, and our only defense will be to capture or
kill him before he does the same to us.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center,
and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center
(www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past col- umns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maplewood, New Jersey, 07040.
Copyright 2004 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume VI, 2004
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights, Page Two
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights, Page One
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy