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There is near silence about the true role of Islam in international terrorism
By Edwin A Locke and Alex Epstein
Posted: Sep 17, 2006
It is now five years since September 11, 2001 -- and since that horrific day we have witnessed
numerous additional attacks by Islamic terrorists against the West.
In the face of a seemingly never-ending supply of suicidal killers, many still do not understand the
motivation of the terrorists. Commentators are eager to offer a bevy of pseudo-explanations -- poverty,
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, etc.-- while ignoring the motivation the terrorists themselves openly
proclaim: Islam.
The near silence about the true role of Islam in motivating Islamic terrorists has two main causes:
multiculturalism and religion. Multiculturalism asserts that all cultures are equal and therefore none
may criticize another; intellectuals and politicians are therefore reluctant to declare the obvious
superiority of Western culture to Islamic culture. And the strong commitment to religion of many
Americans, especially conservatives, makes them reluctant to indict a religion as the cause of a
massive evil.
But if we are to identify the fundamental cause of the terrorists' actions, we must understand at least
two fundamental premises of the religion they kill for.
First, Islam, like all religions, rejects reason as a means of gaining knowledge and guiding action; it
holds that all important truths are grasped by faith in supernatural beings and sacred texts. The Koran
explicitly states that knowledge comes from revelation, not thinking. (Christianity in pure form entails a
similar rejection of reason, but it has been heavily diluted and secularized since the Renaissance.)
Islam advocates the subordination of every sphere of life to religious dogma, including the legal
system, politics, economics, and family life; the word "Islam" means literally: submission. The
individual is not supposed to think independently but to selflessly subordinate himself to the dictates
of his religion and its theocratic representatives. We have seen this before in the West\-- it was called
the Dark Ages.
Second, as with any religion that seeks converts, a derivative tenet of Islam is that it should be
imposed by force (you cannot convince someone of the non-rational). The Koran is replete with calls to
take up arms in its name: "fight and slay the Pagans wherever you find them . . . those who reject our
signs we shall soon cast into the fire . . . those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them;
boiling fluid will be poured down on their heads . . . as to the deviators, they are the fuel of hell."
These ideas easily lead to fanaticism and terrorism. In fact, what is often referred to as the "fanaticism"
of many Muslims is explicitly endorsed by their religion. Consider the following characteristics of
religious fanatics. The fanatic demands unquestioning obedience to religious dogma -- so does
Islam. The fanatic cannot be reasoned with, because he rejects reason -- so does Islam. The fanatic
eagerly embraces any call to impose his dogma by force on those who will not adopt it voluntarily -- so
does Islam.
The terrorists are not "un-Islamic" bandits who have "hijacked a great religion"; they are consistent and
serious followers of their religion.
It is true that many Muslims who live in the West (like most Christians) reject religious fanaticism and
are law-abiding and even loyal citizens, but this is because they have accepted some Western values,
including respect for reason, a belief in individual rights, and the need for a separation between church
and state. It is only to the extent that they depart from their religion -- and from a society that imposes it
--that they achieve prosperity, freedom, and peace.
In the last year, there has been more and more of a call for a "War of Ideas"-- an intellectual campaign
to win the "hearts and minds" of the Arab world that will discourage and discredit Islamic terrorism.
Unfortunately, the centerpiece of this campaign so far has been to appeal to Muslims with claims that
Islam is perfectly consistent with Western ideals, and inconsistent with terrorism.
America has, with little success, groveled to so-called moderate Muslim leaders to strongly repudiate
terrorism. (Those leaders have focused little energy on damning Islamic fanaticism, and much on the
alleged sins of the U.S. government.) Such a campaign cannot work, since insofar as these
"moderates" accept Islam, they cannot convincingly oppose violence in its name.
A true "War of Ideas" would be one in which we proclaim loudly and with moral certainty the secular
values we stand for: reason, rights, freedom, material prosperity, and personal happiness on this earth.
### ### ###
Edwin A Locke, a professor emeritus of management at the University of Maryland at College Park, is a
guest writer for The Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California, where Alex Epstein is a junior fellow.
By Edwin A Locke and Alex Epstein
Posted: Sep 17, 2006
It is now five years since September 11, 2001 -- and since that horrific day we have witnessed
numerous additional attacks by Islamic terrorists against the West.
In the face of a seemingly never-ending supply of suicidal killers, many still do not understand the
motivation of the terrorists. Commentators are eager to offer a bevy of pseudo-explanations -- poverty,
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, etc.-- while ignoring the motivation the terrorists themselves openly
proclaim: Islam.
The near silence about the true role of Islam in motivating Islamic terrorists has two main causes:
multiculturalism and religion. Multiculturalism asserts that all cultures are equal and therefore none
may criticize another; intellectuals and politicians are therefore reluctant to declare the obvious
superiority of Western culture to Islamic culture. And the strong commitment to religion of many
Americans, especially conservatives, makes them reluctant to indict a religion as the cause of a
massive evil.
But if we are to identify the fundamental cause of the terrorists' actions, we must understand at least
two fundamental premises of the religion they kill for.
First, Islam, like all religions, rejects reason as a means of gaining knowledge and guiding action; it
holds that all important truths are grasped by faith in supernatural beings and sacred texts. The Koran
explicitly states that knowledge comes from revelation, not thinking. (Christianity in pure form entails a
similar rejection of reason, but it has been heavily diluted and secularized since the Renaissance.)
Islam advocates the subordination of every sphere of life to religious dogma, including the legal
system, politics, economics, and family life; the word "Islam" means literally: submission. The
individual is not supposed to think independently but to selflessly subordinate himself to the dictates
of his religion and its theocratic representatives. We have seen this before in the West\-- it was called
the Dark Ages.
Second, as with any religion that seeks converts, a derivative tenet of Islam is that it should be
imposed by force (you cannot convince someone of the non-rational). The Koran is replete with calls to
take up arms in its name: "fight and slay the Pagans wherever you find them . . . those who reject our
signs we shall soon cast into the fire . . . those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them;
boiling fluid will be poured down on their heads . . . as to the deviators, they are the fuel of hell."
These ideas easily lead to fanaticism and terrorism. In fact, what is often referred to as the "fanaticism"
of many Muslims is explicitly endorsed by their religion. Consider the following characteristics of
religious fanatics. The fanatic demands unquestioning obedience to religious dogma -- so does
Islam. The fanatic cannot be reasoned with, because he rejects reason -- so does Islam. The fanatic
eagerly embraces any call to impose his dogma by force on those who will not adopt it voluntarily -- so
does Islam.
The terrorists are not "un-Islamic" bandits who have "hijacked a great religion"; they are consistent and
serious followers of their religion.
It is true that many Muslims who live in the West (like most Christians) reject religious fanaticism and
are law-abiding and even loyal citizens, but this is because they have accepted some Western values,
including respect for reason, a belief in individual rights, and the need for a separation between church
and state. It is only to the extent that they depart from their religion -- and from a society that imposes it
--that they achieve prosperity, freedom, and peace.
In the last year, there has been more and more of a call for a "War of Ideas"-- an intellectual campaign
to win the "hearts and minds" of the Arab world that will discourage and discredit Islamic terrorism.
Unfortunately, the centerpiece of this campaign so far has been to appeal to Muslims with claims that
Islam is perfectly consistent with Western ideals, and inconsistent with terrorism.
America has, with little success, groveled to so-called moderate Muslim leaders to strongly repudiate
terrorism. (Those leaders have focused little energy on damning Islamic fanaticism, and much on the
alleged sins of the U.S. government.) Such a campaign cannot work, since insofar as these
"moderates" accept Islam, they cannot convincingly oppose violence in its name.
A true "War of Ideas" would be one in which we proclaim loudly and with moral certainty the secular
values we stand for: reason, rights, freedom, material prosperity, and personal happiness on this earth.
### ### ###
Edwin A Locke, a professor emeritus of management at the University of Maryland at College Park, is a
guest writer for The Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California, where Alex Epstein is a junior fellow.
| (c) 2006 New Criterion Foundation, London |
| Security. Ideologies. Multiculturalism. |