Why Islam Probably Can't Be Reformed
Islam is a deadly totalitarian political system masquerading as a religion.
Few in the West know this and/or are willing to admit it.
Being honest about this doesn't mean hating Muslims. It means understanding the religion and why it is dangerous to the rights and freedoms and way of life in the West, and why that danger probably isn't going to go away.
The last Pope seems to have understood this.
At Asia Times, Spengler writes:
Now Pope Benedict XVI has let it be known that he does not believe Islam can reform. This we learn from the transcript of a January 5 US radio interview with one of Benedict's students and friends, Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, the provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, posted on the Asia Times Online forum by a sharp-eyed reader. For the pope to refute the fundamental premise of US policy is news of inestimable strategic importance, yet a Google News scan reveals that not a single media outlet has taken notice of what Fessio told interviewer Hugh Hewitt last week. No matter: still and small as Benedict's voice might be, it carries further than earthquake and whirlwind.Fessio described a private seminar on the subject of Islam last year at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence:
The main presentation by this [start new-window link here] Father [Christian] Troll http://www.sankt-georgen.de/lehrende/troll.html was very interesting. He based it on a Pakistani Muslim scholar [named] Rashan, who was at the University of Chicago for many years, and Rashan's position was Islam can enter into dialogue with modernity, but only if it radically reinterprets the Koran, and takes the specific legislation of the Koran, like cutting off your hand if you're a thief, or being able to have four wives, or whatever, and takes the principles behind those specific pieces of legislation for the 7th century of Arabia, and now applies them, and modifies them, for a new society [in] which women are now respected for their full dignity, where democracy's important, religious freedom's important, and so on. And if Islam does that, then it will be able to enter into real dialogue and live together with other religions and other kinds of cultures.And immediately the holy father, in his beautiful calm but clear way, said, well, there's a fundamental problem with that because, he said, in the Islamic tradition, God has given His word to Mohammed, but it's an eternal word. It's not Mohammed's word. It's there for eternity the way it is. There's no possibility of adapting it or interpreting it, whereas in Christianity, and Judaism, the dynamism's completely different, that God has worked through his creatures [emphasis added]. And so it is not just the word of God, it's the word of Isaiah, not just the word of God, but the word of Mark. He's used his human creatures, and inspired them to speak his word to the world, and therefore by establishing a church in which he gives authority to his followers to carry on the tradition and interpret it, there's an inner logic to the Christian Bible, which permits it and requires it to be adapted and applied to new situations.
The interviewer then asked Fessio, "And so the pope is a pessimist about that changing, because it would require a radical reinterpretation of what the Koran is?" Fessio replied, "Yeah, which is it's impossible, because it's against the very nature of the Koran, as it's understood by Muslims."
The Pope understood Islam -- which is, unfortunately, seems to be more than can be said for most Western world leaders.
I'm a pretty harsh critic of Islam. But I don't buy that reform is impossible. There is always the possibility of doing essentially what the New Testament did: state that the previous events are re-interpreted in light of new information. In this regard, the spread of Islam around the world might wind up working in modernity's favor by giving the religion an opening to untangle itself from dysfunctional-family Middle Eastern culture. Whether such a thing is actually possible, I'm not sure, but an opening will be there.
As it is, many people who claim to be Muslim don't follow very many of the religion's percepts, or even know what they are beyond the surface characteristics. If Superman's backstory can be retconneed to the extent of completely removing the existence of Lana Lang, Islam should be a snap.
Cousin Dave at August 9, 2016 7:10 AM
To reform Islam, destroy the tribalism present in most Arab societies. Once the village strongman or village imam no longer rules the lives of the village inhabitants, you've taken away the weaponized version of Islam practiced in those villages.
Islam is being used by the village strongman as the weapon with which he controls the village. Once the tribe is no longer the most important social structure in Arab culture, Islam become nothing more than a religion.
Conan the Grammarian at August 9, 2016 7:28 AM
Goddamn it, let's not get the Pope involved again.The first and second Crusades were called for by by Popes Urban II and Eugene III. The second one ended badly for the West, almost guaranteeing the third. The Muslim leader Saladin then exhibited a bit of generousity and sporting blood toward King Richard while defeating the Europeans in the third Crusade.
Nothing sets off a Muslim ike a holy war.
Canvasback at August 9, 2016 10:59 AM
It is interesting how the Pope is seeing things differently, though. A year and a half ago, he was scolding the West for not being nice enough to Islam. Now that reality has beaten him with a stick, he's implicitly admitting that he has bruises.
Cousin Dave at August 9, 2016 11:48 AM
If the Crusades and then the Reconquista had not taken place, Christianity would have been in a far worse place than it ended up.
Ahw at August 9, 2016 11:54 AM
Cousin Dave, the Pope quoted in the story is Benedict- the last guy, the German.. The current Pope is the naive, leftist Argentine: Francis.
Ahw at August 9, 2016 12:03 PM
More on Pope Francis's views:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438795/pope-francis-father-hamel-wests-decline
It was very unusual that Pope Benedict resigned. I wish I knew more about the backstory.
ahw at August 9, 2016 12:10 PM
I seem to remember that Pope Benedict didn't WANT the job - and prayed that he wouldn't get it.
lenona at August 9, 2016 4:28 PM
VOTE HILARY! She's got your back on this one!
Matt at August 9, 2016 8:28 PM
Islam will reform when the (supposedly) vast numbers of moderate Muslims unite and demand it. Muslims need to clean their own house.
There are 50 Muslim majority countries in the world ranging from the rich Saudis to the dirt poor Sudanese. Muslims make up 22% of the world's population. Stack them all together, and Muslim nations have a vast reservoir of money, soldiers, ships, and aircraft that can be used to impose order and moderation on the Islamic world.
I am tired of people saying we need to understand and sympathize with the Islamists Wrong, it is the collective responsibility of the Muslim Umma to deal with the problems caused by reactionary elements of their faith and I fully support the withdrawal of all US/Western Forces from the region and an embargo on any further immigrants from Muslim nations until they do.
True Spence at August 9, 2016 9:02 PM
> I wish I knew more about
> the backstory.
Cosh had a theory expressed in tweets —and he couldn't be convinced to flesh it out into an article, as the thought was too concise— that Ratzenberger's withdrawal, as seen at a distance in real time, was indistinguishable from a collapse of faith.
I know, right? It could probably be a book. It could probably be two or three good movies.
Crid at August 10, 2016 1:07 AM
Islam cannot reform as that would require an external view of themselves to find an alternative. Muslims who follow the Qu'ran cannot actually perform an external view of themselves because they have an external locus of control which means the very item they are trying to examine controls them...the Qu'ran is taught as in blab school to children as soon as they can talk and by the time a Muslim is 10-12 yo they know it chapter and verse by use of oral tradition for those 10 or 12 years. It is like their heart beat, innate to their behaviors and "spiritual" life. It is the most extreme form of brain washing and it involves the whole of their society. No. It cannot reform. Good for the Pope figuring this out.
Gwendolyn E Mugliston at August 10, 2016 6:56 AM
"Cousin Dave, the Pope quoted in the story is Benedict- the last guy, the German.. The current Pope is the naive, leftist Argentine: Francis."
Oops. This is my red face. I'm not used to prior Popes being still alive, so I didn't even look at the name.
Was it Benedict or Francis who said recently that World War III is just around the corner?
Cousin Dave at August 10, 2016 7:13 AM
Ratzinger, not Ratzenberger. I make that mistake a lot.
Anyway, about this film: We should do it just as in Cosh's treatment...
...Except with chicks.
Wiig as the German, Jen Lawrence as the Argentine successor.
Crid at August 10, 2016 9:26 AM
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