Some years back, a friend sent me a note with pictures of Muslims in London protesting something-or-other. They carried signs saying things like "Islam will dominate the world!" and "Europe, learn a lesson from 9/11. You're next!"
She says this is cause for alarm. Got that? The Islamic world is trying to conquer the non-Islamic world. This is presumed (I presume) to be "something new". She is correct that there is cause for alarm, but it's not created by a pack of fundamentalist Muslims. The 'cause for alarm' is that otherwise-intelligent Westerners see a pack of fundamentalist Muslims and panic. Relax. There's no cause for alarm.
Muslims have been around since the 7th century, and they have been trying to dominate the non-Islamic world, for all practical purposes, since then. They have been singularly unsuccessful, their many contributions to Western culture notwithstanding.
The Spanish threw them out of Al Andalus (the Arabic term for Andalusia), their zenith in the West. How? The Spanish were, comparatively speaking, barbarians. Except technologically.
Islam is a philosophy that exalts morality and neglects technology. This is a strategy with a poor payoff for any movement that desires political dominance. They've had 1300+ years to achieve world domination and the only aspect in which anyone might say they had achieved 'success' is 'religiously in the third world'. Iraq's most lethal missile was the SCUD, range: 198 miles. I know college sophomores who can do that if they're willing to risk jail time. Other than politically, Islam has done well. Politically, they're losers. The Royal House of Saud is only Muslim because it allows them to control their third-world population without carnage. When they visit the west, Saudi princes smoke, drink, gamble, and screw with the best of them. The Royal House of Saud is not alone. Educated people are Muslim only if it helps them get what they want, and what they want is not 72 virgins in paradise, it's earthly power. Alas, they need the West to help them get it. Their own culture is inadequate to the task.
This is why the rulers of Saudi Arabia like being our friend. We sell them high-tech that they cannot develop on their own. That is why alQaeda is pissed off at us: we sell their overlords high-tech. They know that in a low-tech world, they win, so they want a low-tech world. Most of their world, in truth, is already there.
Panicking over a pack of fundamentalist Muslims is a waste of good adrenaline. When we decide to put the Muslim world on ice, we simply cut off their supply of high-tech. They can't survive without the non-Muslim world. Absent Western high-tech, the remainder of the Muslim world will rapidly devolve (weeks or months, not years) to their natural state, roughly speaking, a 9th century civilization.
Their leaders know that. The rabble doesn't. Who are you afraid of?
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Some years back, a friend sent me a note with pictures of Muslims in London protesting something-or-other. They carried signs saying things like "Islam will dominate the world!" and "Europe, learn a lesson from 9/11. You're next!"
She says this is cause for alarm. Got that? The Islamic world is trying to conquer the non-Islamic world. This is presumed (I presume) to be "something new". She is correct that there is cause for alarm, but it's not created by a pack of fundamentalist Muslims. The 'cause for alarm' is that otherwise-intelligent Westerners see a pack of fundamentalist Muslims and panic. Relax. There's no cause for alarm.
Muslims have been around since the 7th century, and they have been trying to dominate the non-Islamic world, for all practical purposes, since then. They have been singularly unsuccessful, their many contributions to Western culture notwithstanding.
The Spanish threw them out of Al Andalus (the Arabic term for Andalusia), their zenith in the West. How? The Spanish were, comparatively speaking, barbarians. Except technologically.
Islam is a philosophy that exalts morality and neglects technology. This is a strategy with a poor payoff for any movement that desires political dominance. They've had 1300+ years to achieve world domination and the only aspect in which anyone might say they had achieved 'success' is 'religiously in the third world'. Iraq's most lethal missile was the SCUD, range: 198 miles. I know college sophomores who can do that if they're willing to risk jail time. Other than politically, Islam has done well. Politically, they're losers. The Royal House of Saud is only Muslim because it allows them to control their third-world population without carnage. When they visit the west, Saudi princes smoke, drink, gamble, and screw with the best of them. The Royal House of Saud is not alone. Educated people are Muslim only if it helps them get what they want, and what they want is not 72 virgins in paradise, it's earthly power. Alas, they need the West to help them get it. Their own culture is inadequate to the task.
This is why the rulers of Saudi Arabia like being our friend. We sell them high-tech that they cannot develop on their own. That is why alQaeda is pissed off at us: we sell their overlords high-tech. They know that in a low-tech world, they win, so they want a low-tech world. Most of their world, in truth, is already there.
Panicking over a pack of fundamentalist Muslims is a waste of good adrenaline. When we decide to put the Muslim world on ice, we simply cut off their supply of high-tech. They can't survive without the non-Muslim world. Absent Western high-tech, the remainder of the Muslim world will rapidly devolve (weeks or months, not years) to their natural state, roughly speaking, a 9th century civilization.
Their leaders know that. The rabble doesn't. Who are you afraid of?
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