Tanstaafl, as long as we have a dialogue going . . .
I will agree that Salafism (aka Wahabism) is a particularly violent and virulent strain of Islam responsible for most of our current problems. Sufism on the other hand is completely compatible with the values of western civilization: pacific, charitable, and internally focussed. Yet where Islam breeds fatalism and apathy in a populace, its affects are always pernicious. I see no beauty in any religion that keeps its adherents mired in poverty and ignorance.
If there’s a compromise to be found, it means a more secular Islam blended with a more sober, less hedonistic, and (dare I say it) more pious Europe, even if that piety arrives via Islam. That’s a best case scenario. What we have now is worst case: violent radical Islam allied with decadent western socialism. Strange bedfellows, indeed.
Moderate Muslims have much to gain if they embrace western enlightenment values. Secular Europeans would gain by integrating a new population of people along with their conservative religious beliefs. Extremism is the enemy of both.
I teach my students that Rome did not fall in AD 476 as stated in the textbook. The Roman Empire gradually morphed into something new: a blend of Germanic custom, Latin language, and Church hierarchy. The conquered are always absorbed. The conqueror is corrupted by the ideas of the fallen empire. It has to be a blend. And it always is if history is any witness.
