netWMD - Perpetual Jahiliyyah

Modern civilization began on the edges of the Arab world approximately eleven thousand years ago in the Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now Iraq, and extending into modern day Jordan, Syria, Southeastern Turkey, Israel, and down to the Nile delta. The life-giving waters of the area's rivers helped neolithic people in their revolution of agriculture, sedentary living, and complex societies. (It should be noted that agriculturally based civilizations were also independently formed in India, China, Central and South America.) The importance of man's rise from desperate hunter-gatherer to civilized master of technology and culture cannot be overstated. This is what made us who we are today, and in geological time, eleven millennia is not at all very long ago.

Arabs later established a rich, vital, and prodigious heritage in history, and have every reason to be proud of the accomplishments of their forebears. Technological advancement has always been a matter of taking existent tools, devices, ideas, etc. and improving them, with the occasional Eureka! moment. The Arab people have had plenty of both. Being on the ancient Silk Road from China, Arabs were able to take advantage of much new knowledge. Arab-Muslim astronomers preserved and added greatly to the work of second century Greek astronomer, Ptolemy, to further man's understanding of the heavenly firmament (even as European societies were languishing in scientific poverty). Arabs took the Indian decimal number system—including the zero—and applied it to higher mathematics. Mohammed bin Musa al-Khawarzimi, "the father of algebra," was the first to use these numbers, now called Arabic numerals, in algebra and geometry, and for solving astronomical and navigational problems. Arab/Islamic culture gave us many important practical inventions, was instrumental preserving great Greek philosophical works and other literature, and contributed immeasurably to the sciences—medicine, physics, chemistry, and more.

There is no lack of ingenuity, intelligence, and acumen among Arab/Muslim peoples (Islam is essentially an Arab religion, through and through). Race and religion do not determine such things. The modern science of genetics has shown us that the concept of "race" is a meaningless one, at least outside of our dishonorable use of it. Religion, however, can greatly influence how cultures and societies evolve, decline, stagnate, or die, and there is currently no world religion which has more of an effect on every conceivable level of human society than Islam—it is right that it is called submission.

The Abrahamic monotheistic faiths which were forged in the tumultuous climate of the ancient Middle East all bore the telltale impressions of a life which was unpredictable and dangerous. People sought solace from an often hostile world through YHWH, the Lord, and Allah. In some way, they also reflected the fragmentation of the times, when people stuck to their own and formed strategic alliances to survive. Islam, however, was far and away the most violent and intolerant of them all, having a built-in doctrine of contempt for unbelievers and the holy obligation to go to war against them to make Allah's religion supreme over all.

In time, Judaism and Christianity grew up, as it were, adapting to changing times and eschewing unnecessary and backward doctrinal tenets. Despite the fear of naysayers, such changes made the religion stronger and more relevant to man's spiritual and material needs. Leading up to the Crusades, Christian Europe was united (somewhat) by the Church and by the never-ending onslaught of Islam's offensive jihad at Europe's eastern and southern frontiers. The strong political and social influence of the Church kept the mujahideen at bay, and prevented Europe from becoming Islamized, but it also brought about the deleterious effects of the Inquisition, the persecution and killing of Jews, and witch-hunts. In the end, though, Christianity underwent reform and met with the 18th century's Enlightenment. Today we are better for this, and Christians are no less devout now that they don't lash out violently in the name of the Lord. The West has moved on, compartmentalized religion and secular matters, and we have subsequently succeeded smashingly in scientific, technological, and material enterprises. We have made life better, longer, and more comfotable.

Islam is another issue altogether. It's the same today as it was when Muhammad came up with the whole wild dog and pony show and foisted it on his people. It can't be reformed. Islam, as revealed in the Qur'an, is believed to be the inerrant, immutable word of God. The collections of sunnah (the way of life prescribed as normative for Muslims based on the Qur'an and the teachings and practices of Muhammad) are the religiously decreed guide to a lifestyle of xenophobia, overblown entitlement, violence, and complete resistance to change. There is no rendering unto Caesar, there is no allegory, and there is certainly no arguing with the Qur'an's veracity—it is God's own word. And any reform-minded Muslims who would assert otherwise in the cause of progress, is guilty of apostasy, the most heinous crime for a Muslim, and punishable by death.

Compounding this dilemma in modern times are ignorant Westerners in thrall to multiculturalism. They haven't bothered to take up the enormous task of learning about Islam, but they reflexively defend it from Western critics who might otherwise be crucial allies to Muslims who are terrified to call out for change. These misguided Westerners, hostile to their own culture, are the useful idiots of Islam. Through their intellectual laziness and condescension, they assume that all cultures (outside of their own) understand the "wisdom" of their stunted worldview, and therefore respect them for their anti-West and pro-anything else views. But Muslims do not respect infidels, period. They have conquered too many of them, and have too much justification in their holy literature for hating them (for the sake of Allah, of course). Any no-mind peace rally protester who found themselves living in a land under a caliph would be summarily killed if they didn't convert to Islam or accept second-class citizenship as a dhimmi. Those are the rules in Islam—the rules that none of these people have bothered to learn about.

Muslims are stuck fast in a bygone age of glorious, unimpeded conquests over the infidels from India to Spain, and a meaningful impact on world politics. They are imprisoned by a violent and totalitarian mind-set that was relevant and perhaps appropriate on the Arabian Peninsula fourteen centuries ago, but is now nothing but trouble, death, and misery. Through its adherence to an inflexible denial of any versatility of its religious dogma, the Muslim world has stagnated since the Middle Ages, and has been left behind.

All of the freedoms that we in the West hold dear, all of our accomplishments in the arena of social justice, and so very many of the benefits of Western civilization that we take for granted, are antithetical to Islam. Any ideology or philosophy which deviates from or contradicts Allah's religion is called bid'ah (innovation), which is the opposite of sunnah. Living under a government run by man's law (democracy) instead of God's law (shari'ah) is inimical to Islam. Therefore, the modern Western precepts of human rights, justice, and civil liberties have been denied to Muslims. Except in the West, of course.

The secular environments in academia and the workplace of the West, which have facilitated the astonishing achievements we've made in the sciences, technology, economics, medicine, the arts, and beyond are also absent in the Muslim world. This is why Arab/Islamic societies have produced no groundbreaking or vital contributions to any of these fields since medieval times. Even the oil and gas resources in the Muslim Middle East were found and extracted by the infidel West. This abject shortfall of worthy accomplishments hardly becomes a people with just as much talent, intellectual wherewithal, and potential for greatness as any other. And it is truly sad to have such a large section of humanity willfully cut themselves out of the world community.

Muslim women are often kept at home, marginalized, looked down upon instead of uplifted and respected for their own strengths and ideas. Sidelining half of your population is a surefire way to prevent progress and success. Beyond that, though, can any sane and moral person really deny that women have just as much right to their own autonomous life as men? In the West, women have done almost everything men have—not infrequently quite better—in the workplace, sports, and academia. Society didn't collapse upon itself as a result either.

The plurality typical of democratic states (a plurality many Muslims enjoy) is also absent in Islamic societies. This convergence of disparate peoples, cultures, and lifestyles has fueled positive Western advancements in all matters of human endeavor, spanning music, literature, technology, friendship, and more. Despite the various stumbling blocks along our way, we've made awesome progress in learning how to appreciate differences rather than loathe them, as is the case in Islam. The only unbelievers allowed to live in Islamic societies are Christian or Jewish dhimmis, who are subject to all manner of humiliation, oppression, cruelty, and sometimes death.

Muslims refer to the time before Islam as the Jahiliyyah—the so-called time of ignorance in Arabia before Muhammad opened up his direct line with God. Through centuries of breathtaking jihad successes, scholarly translations of Greek and Latin texts, empire building, and the annihilation or subjugation of many different cultures, Muslims became convinced that they really had passed out of this Jahiliyyah. The truth is, though, they ended up creating a new and far superior time of ignorance, wrought of unquestionable Qur'anic literalism and a politicoreligious doctrine comprised mainly of delusions about a God who wants them to conquer the world by violent means.

Unfortunately, there appears to be no end in sight, especially in light of the the modern Western left's uncritical enchantment with Islam. Muslims and infidels alike continue to live in fear, suffer, or die when they run afoul of Islam. The Jahiliyyah goes on.

Perpetual Jahiliyyah Patrick D. O'Brien, May 14, 2005	Home Search Forum Terms