THE MEANING OF ISLAM
I HAVE HAD MANY Muslim friends, and cherish their friendship. All of them have been moderate, with no intention to hurt anyone; “Lucky is the man who has an Arab for a friend.” However, Islamists are different, in complex ways. My comments may seem muscular, but they are not designed to violate the basic Golden Rule of reciprocity. Controversy occurs in all religions.
UNTIL MOHAMED, most Middle Eastern peoples worshiped multiple deities, with disagreement over who was the highest god, or “Allah”. For at least 5000 years, the moon god was usually the “Allah”. Mohamed appears to have adapted this by eliminating all gods but the moon god, named it Allah, and asserted himself as His messenger. There seems to be no better explanation of why Islam displays the half-moon on mosques, flags, and myriad other places. Most Muslim scholars acknowledge that the Koran is based on Bedouin values and culture. Mohamed said Islam descended from Judaism, and Christianity, and claimed these religions as a subset of Islam, but nothing actually proves this, or explains the huge discrepancies between the ideas about God and Allah. A fair comparison of the values, directives, teachings, and goals of Allah (as interpreted by Mohamed and his Bedouin disciples) seem to have very little to do with the God of the old and new testaments. The Koran mainly concerns rules of conduct in tribal life in war and peace. Many troubling parts of the Koran advocate hate, murder, and revenge, particularly regarding the subjugation and/or genocide of other cultures, especially Jews and Christians. The Golden Rule, the heart of most other important religions, does not seem to be emphasized. Unfortunately, these historical thought patterns recur in current Islamist thinking. Islam was spread almost entirely by war, and it seems incredible, but Islamists actually seem to want to impose Bedouin culture on the West.
SHOULD MUSLIMS work to reform their religion so that it can adapt to the changes demanded by democratic society? Democracies have a right to insist that their citizens do not promulgate anti-semitism or other hate. Of course, mainstream Muslims are moderate, and avoid these extremes. However, one can argue that Islam needs to rethink how it will integrate itself into democracies. Other religions are constantly remaking and re-interpreting themselves, and so must Islam. For non-Muslims, we must work to convince our co-religionists that our problem with Islamists lies in dealing with their hate, not their religion.
