Thanks for the insights. I confess to not knowing much about the Sufi branch of Islam (though I am slowly learning), and the Baha'i I have only recently become familiar with. I do recognize they have strayed too far from Islam to any longer be considered part of that faith. The Witnesses are quite familiar to me as my great grandmother was a member, and I have a number of cousins of that persuasion. Also I have a 'friend' who has been trying to convert me for years -- we've had many long conversations.
You've said that the main core beliefs of all (or most) Christian faiths have changed, and I think I'd generally agree with that, but don't you think that it's secularization we have to thank for that? Maajid Nawaz is attempting to reform Islam from the inside to make the religion more amenable to individual rights and freedoms. His task is an uphill struggle and while I wish him success I am not sure that Islam is at all capable of reforming itself. I wonder what your thoughts are?
My thoughts?
It’s like this:
Jewish history demonstrates that Jews went through about 1,000 years of tribal conquests; bloody sectarian wars; preaching the inferiority of non-Jews; the obligation for Jews to conquer non-Jews; and a whole host of atrocities against non-Jews and, most importantly – Against Each Other!
About 167 BCE, the Jews began a bloody and prolonged sectarian civil war where one faction ended up partially re-establishing the Kingdom of Israel by defeating the Jewish Syrian Greek faction, only to continue brutally fighting against each other over which faction should rule or which faction had the right interpretation of what it meant to be Jewish.
In a pattern of ever shifting alliances and continuing barbarous attacks against each other and, in the end, against their now Roman rulers, 1,400 years after Moses had received the Torah and the Jewish people were established, the Kingdom of Israel was totally annihilated; its population of over 3 million were slaughtered, enslaved or ran away; its Temple destroyed; and the Jewish People were forever dispersed.
Thus ended the Jewish “Reformation.”
And, for the last 2,000 years, Jews have been a shining light to mankind. But getting in getting to that point, they destroyed their world.
The Christian peoples also went through over 1,000 years of - tribal conquests; bloody sectarian wars; preaching the inferiority of non-Christians; the obligation for Christians to conquer non-Christians; and a whole host of atrocities against non-Christians and, most importantly – Against Each Other!
From time of The Roman Church being established in Constantinople, Christianity was barbarous in the extreme to non-Christians; particularly Jews and often Muslims. Christianity invented new tortures and forms of conquest and submission that are known today as extreme forms of sadism.
Somewhere around 1500 CE, European Christians began a bloody and prolonged sectarian civil war where each tribal “State” fought each other over which should rule Europe and which faction has the right interpretation of what it meant to be Christian.
In a pattern of ever shifting alliances and continuing barbarous attacks against each other and, incidental non-Christians such as Jews and non-European civilizations or tribal peoples, approximately 1,600 years after Jesus lived, the continent of Europe was decimated; tens of millions were slaughtered; nearly every kingdom overthrown until the economies were bankrupt and the land destroyed where they could no longer fight their internecine wars.
Thus ended the Christian Reformation.
During this period of time, refugees from this European Christian savagery “colonized” the “New Worlds.”
The early American Christian colonists invented a new theology basically called “Fulfillment Theology” which was opposed to the former theology of the various Churches (Protestant as well as Catholic) which practiced Replacement Theology which was basically the idea that Christians replaced the Jews as G-d’s “Chosen People” and therefore Jews (and all other non-Christians) were to be despised and persecuted.
These early American Christians believed that the Kings of Europe were “Pharaoh;” that the Atlantic Ocean was the “Jordan River;” that America was “the Promised Land;” that the Native American Indians were “the Canaanites;” and that G-d was fulfilling His Promises to Christians to bring them into, what was essentially, Paradise.
Now – this was not a literal belief but a theological belief. It enabled these early American Christians to focus their opprobrium on the insanities of Christian Europe and the Christian history that had “gone astray” and try and begin a new chapter where, although everybody “Should” believe what they believed, they did not have to kill them if they did not. And, they no longer had to despise and persecute the Jews.
Over several centuries and several “Revivals” in America, the rest of the world gradually adopted these beliefs until the 1962-1965, Second Vatican Council, formerly repudiated “Replacement Theology” and acknowledged that the Jews did NOT kill Jesus.
Moving right along –
Islam also went through over 1,000 years of tribal conquests; bloody sectarian wars; preaching the inferiority of non-Muslims; the obligation for Muslims to conquer non-Muslims; and a whole host of atrocities against non-Muslims and, most importantly, as noted, as always – Against Each Other!
Approximately 100 years ago, the last Muslim Empire disintegrated and, Muslims began a bloody and prolonged sectarian civil war where each tribe; sect; cult; faction; “State”; and clan are currently fighting each other over who should rule Islam and which faction has the right interpretation of what it means to be a Muslim.
The bloody and barbarous conquest of the Arabian Peninsula by the Saudi tribe is the precise model for today’s theoretical “Islamic State.”
The establishment of the violent, intolerant Wahhabist heresy by the Saudi tribe, which has replaced normative Sunni Islam, is the precise model for the Iranian Khomeini’s violent, intolerant Shia heresy of Wilayat al-Faqih.
Based on the Jewish and Christian paradigms of the past, the Arab/ Muslim world will continue shift their alliances and continue barbarous attacks – again - Mainly against Each Other!
The attacks against the rest of the non-Muslim or non-Arab world are notches on a “coup stick” or “street cred” for any particular faction to gain adherents in order to kill and conquer fellow Muslims and Arabs.
However, based on previous “Reformations;” in this Age of Weapons of Mass Destruction; this current Arab/ Muslim Reformation will not end until hundreds of millions are dead and portions of the planet left uninhabitable.
Rather than suggesting that Islamic doctrine is inherently violent and unstable, one might posit that certain powers in the Muslim world, specifically Saudi Arabia and Egypt, might find it in their best interests to ameliorate the intolerant and harsh aspects of Muslim theology and focus on some earlier simple fundamentals that do indeed state that those who commit extra-judicial murder or suicide are going to Hell. Or, that the innocent, which includes non-Muslims and women, must be protected from cruelty. Or, that there is no “Jihad” without a Rightly Guided Caliph. Or, a whole host of other very Islamic principles that encourage stability and peace as opposed to destruction and violence.
The alternative is the same massive death and destruction that occurred under the Jewish and Christian “Reformations.”
“If Muslims don’t want to stop destroying the world; ya can’t stop ‘em” is not a useful philosophy.
And, I am certainly open to more useful ideas if anyone has any…
But, we have little time left.
I have not researched this but, it is my opinion that since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Islamist terrorism is increasing exponentially.
It began to impact the non-Muslim, non-Arab world in the 1970’s.
It began to directly affect the US in the 1990’s.
And, it has been destroying the Arab/Muslim world for the last 15 years or so.
I suspect that it will be only a short matter of time before some bright Islamist figures out how to massacre millions of people with some new weapon.
Then what?
