Islam I

Aspiring to Rule the World

Over the past thirty years, Islam has surged into the forefront of Western consciousness. Prior to that time, even amongst students of Western history, Islam was seen as a spent historical force, consigned to the backwaters of global civilisation. Its apogee had occurred in 1453 with the capture of Constantinople, but it had since declined steadily and was seen as increasingly irrelevant.

Few would hold that view now. For the West is confronted increasingly with a resurgent Islam and does not know what to do. Its response has been confused at best, without rhyme or reason at worst.

In the West the recent modern resurgence and confrontation has had three basic phases. First was the emergence of Arab national power through the first great oil shocks of 1973 and 1974. This, co-inciding with the formation of OPEC, led to western nations starting to factor in the policies and programmes of Arab nations in their thinking. The oil shocks and their aftermath put the Arab nations (and therefore Islam) on the radar screen of the West, insofar as they could not be simply ignored any longer. Oil was the economic life blood of the West.

Secondly, widespread migration from Islamic countries and regions (usually former colonies of France, Spain, Germany, and Britain) into Europe and Great Britain led to significant Islamic minorities becoming established in Europe and Great Britain. But—and here is where the West proved to be remarkably naive—the Islamic minorities did not assimilate into the prevailing secular western culture.

The corporate and communal aspects of Islam as a religion meant that Islamic immigrants did not assimilate easily, but tended to form their own separate communities (usually gradually and by osmosis) and as soon as permitted through force of numbers demanded rights and acknowledgment of their communal, corporate, and cultural institutions, coupled with a rejection of the then Western incumbent society and culture. Birds of a feather stick together, says the proverb. Experience has shown that Islamic birds stick very close together indeed.

Thirdly, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism by which we mean the call for a strict application of Islamic beliefs, practices, laws, and worship, which inevitably included an open incitement to violence, murder, death, threats and the successful carrying out of terrorist attacks upon innocent civilians in the name of Islam and jihad (the holy struggle) has meant that Islam is now far more influential in the West than ever before. It now has our collective attention.

The response of the West has been mixed indeed, but largely effete and ineffectual. Firstly, Islam has been seen (quite accurately and legitimately) as a religion. At best this means in the West it is condescendingly tolerated as a superstitious relic clung to by the uneducated and illiterate—that is, by those inferior. The superior modern secularist has smiled indulgently and tolerantly at the Pakis and the Ragheads thinking that they would grow up in time, even as he condescendingly ridicules Christians in a similar vein.

A second response has been paternalistic. The West has prided itself on human rights and the protection of minorities. Thus Islam rightly deserves protection, acceptance, and support. It has deserved respect in the same way that any modern inculcated with the religion of human rights would respect any minority. But with respect to Islam this has been done with striking inconsistency and blindness. When a conflict has arisen between minority rights and (say) the rights of women under Islam, the liberal academic complex routinely and almost without exception, has sacrificed the rights of women and children upon the altar of minority rights. In other words, even very liberal secularist women—even some of the most extreme feminists amongst them—have routinely ignored the “rights” of women in Islamic societies and neighbourhoods in favour of the greater right of minority self-determination.

A third response has been cowardice. Give “them” what they want; don't offend “them”. They might bomb us or kill us. Don't provoke them. Kill their fundamentalism with kindness. Show them a morally superior, and better way! Cowardly appeasement has been routinely manifested by politicians and news media. “Don't speak out; we might get killed,” has been the prevailing undertone.

The people of Jerusalem for their part have generally had a far more perceptive and profound response to Islam. The response of Jerusalem to resurgent and militant Islam takes place at a number of different levels and perspectives. It is neither one dimensional nor simplistic.

At its most basic level Jerusalem sees Islam as just one more manifestation of Unbelief; just one more Athenian variant; and just one more idolatry. It follows the way of the Serpent from the Garden of Eden; it is of its father, the Devil. There are only two “seeds” or races within humanity: the Believing seed of the woman; and the Unbelieving seed of the Serpent. Islam is definitely not of the seed of the woman—that is, the Christ—so it most certainly is of the seed of the Serpent, that is, the Devil. In this sense, Jerusalem sees Islam as part of the kingdom of this world which has already been overthrown and which will be gradually brought under the sovereign feet of the King of kings. Just as David faced the Philistines (and they are long gone, while the throne of David remains); Jeremiah the Babylonians (whose cities lie in dust and ruin); and the apostles faced Rome (which long ago declined and fell); so Jerusalem in our age faces Islam—one idolatry amongst others. It, too, will wane under the sceptre of the King.

At another level, Jerusalem sees Islam as one of two great adversaries. There are three dominant religions which are truly universalistic and global, and are militant in seeking to achieve global dominance. The first is Christianity: its triumph and success in actually achieving global universal sway over all mankind is certain and assured. This is because Jesus Christ its Head, rose from the Dead, has been installed as the King with all authority in heaven and upon earth, and the Living God committed irrevocably to putting all enemies under His feet—whether on the earth or in the heavens. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death itself. Christianity is the religion of Jerusalem. All who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and who call upon Him as their Lord and Saviour are citizens of that City.

The second universalist religion is secular humanism. This has the garb of an anti-religion, but it remains a religious faith nonetheless, with truly global aspirations and a universalistic militance. It seeks to bring all mankind into the Light of Human Reason. Like Islam and Christianity, it has no national boundaries: it spans across continents and oceans. It has its infallible word, its temples, its seats of learning, its education systems, its oracles of law. It has its plans of redemption and aspirations to create a higher state of being throughout the whole world. Free, autonomous, rationalistic, and secular are its liturgies and redemptive works.

Secular humanism has been relentlessly pursued and propagated since the Enlightenment. At times it has manifested its militance physically with armed and military aggression (the Napoleonic wars, Marxist scientific humanism, the age of Western imperialism and the White Man's Burden). At all times it has relentlessly propagated its beliefs via universities and places of learning. When possible it has imposed its faith through winning control of governments and enforcing it via the law and other mechanisms of the modern secular state. It has successfully captured the brazen trumpets of the mass media and the entertainment industry in the West and uses these organs as its propaganda arm.

Secular humanism is a direct opponent of the Christian faith and competes with it for world control.

The third univeralist religion is Islam. It, too, is committed to global domination. It too, relentlessly pursues it. It, too, is humanistic in the sense that Allah does not exist and Muhammad created an idol out of the figment of his fevered imagination, which he then used as a warranting concept to exert absolutistic power over everything which gained his attention. But Allah like all idols remains a human creation—to be changed or morphed at will as has actually occurred (which we shall see in later posts).

Islam is a kind of reverse doppelganger of secular humanism. Both alike end up with claims of absolutist power, although they get there by traveling in different directions. Both alike orientate to the State as the ultimate expression of authority and power. Both alike are prepared to engage in armed aggression and physical force to achieve their respective ends. Secular humanism will do so from time to time. Islam, for its part, has sought to engage in jihad (holy struggle) which ha for the majority of its history been overwhelmingly understood as armed aggression against unbelieving, non-submitted people and nations.

All three religions aspire to rule the world. Only one will be ultimately successful. The Seed of the Serpent, whether manifesting itself as a secular humanistic West or an authoritarian dominating Islam, has already had its doom pronounced. Christ alone is King of all kings and Lord of all lords.