The idea that religion qua religion cannot be bad (unless it's Christian, of course) does predate PC MC (even as Western anti-Westernism began to develop before PC MC -- even before Leftism proper).
More often than not in my readings of writers of the past mentioning Islam, they regard it, and frequently describe it, as a religion. However, the further back in time one goes, the more is this acknowledged religion condemned -- though not uniformly by every critic writing about it, and it's not unusual even in pre-PC MC eras to see writers afflicted with the "well there are good aspects to Islam as well" tic.
But one thing history teaches us in this regard is that many people had no problem largely condemning Islam while also regarding it as a religion. So I don't think this is an insurmountable problem; just one more difficulty to add to the rest.
Basically, before the races begin, we are in our time debilitated by certain handicaps imposed upon us by our surrounding culture:
1) Islam is regarded as a religion -- indeed, a "world religion" spanning the globe and having a rich inveterate history, and impressively populated by some 1.3 billion adherents.
2) The sheer quantity of adherents and their geographical extent in a global diaspora also inhibits too much criticism that veers toward "generalizing" (or that even smells like it might veer that way).
3) Our generally held and cherished principles of "Don't paint with a broad brush" along with "Innocent until proven guilty" exert much influence.
4) Then considerably augmenting the power of #1-3 is the central principle of PC MC: Reverse Racism. The vast majority of these adherents are perceived to be "ethnic" -- indeed, of various flavors of ethnicity, consituting a veritable tapestry or mosaic of charmingly non-Western colors and patterns of skin and garb and exotic cultures. And this isn't a stretch on the part of PC MCs: it's not like they have to twist reality into some strange counter-factual fantasy: 9 times out of 10 when you look at a Muslim or group of Muslims (or a sea of Muslims devoutly praying or hatefully protesting or fanatically fighting), they look ethnic -- and this unremarkably reflects the historical fact that Islam spread its vast imperialism largely throughout what later came to be known as le Tiers Monde (the "Third World"). This is an advantage for the other team, and a handicap for us, because PC MC, which is dominant and mainstream and enjoys all the advantages which sociopolitical mainstream dominance endows, is centrally wired to favor and privilege ethnic minorities -- and because of their violence, this Designated Ethnic Minority of Muslims has elbowed its way to the top of the heap of Ethnic Minorities (since, as the saying goes, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" -- and this particular wheel is squeaky with a terrible vengeance, portending a global train wreck nobody seems to care to stop, let alone notice, except those few of us who have to stand by and with growing horror watch it unravel).
5) Finally, the other central principle of PC MC -- excessive self-criticism of the West -- in its turn gives an added jolt of caffeine to #4.
3 comments:
It sounds tritely chauvinist to call Islam a malignant cancer, but it sometimes seems all but incurable and unstoppable in its baleful spread of the sharia totalitarian ethos into the West. Pursuing the analogy, a cure would seem to require rather radical changes. In an effort to survive, cancer victims make all sorts of large changes: go on a raw-vegan, green smoothie diets, carry out intense moral inventories and moral changes, chemotherapy, travel to far away lands for exotic treatments, etc. But hardly anyone is engaging in that sort of life and death struggle with Islam. Only a very few step up to the plate and under their own names publicly criticize Islam.
To me it looks like Europe could easily lose its freedom over the coming decades. Too few are willing to be martyrs for freedom. Intimidation works too well.
But history doesn't go in a straight line. In twenty years all of these concerns might be irrelevant, or less relevant, due to completely unforeseen factors.
When Hitler decided to eradicate the Jews in the past, he also eradicated OUR present ability to criticize Muslims. Now, no one may criticize any religion including Scientology or Satanism (oh wait, Islam IS Satanism) - just in case we liberate our inner genocidal maniac (oh wait, that's Islam, too). Yikes!
Egghead
Well, Egghead, I wouldn't lay sole blame on Hitler for that problem, though the Holocaust certainly threw a 1,000-ton brick onto the scales on the side of the Reverse Racism meme. But that meme was already developing long before Hitler came along to do his wickedness. That Hitler factor is particularly strong in Europe, for understandable reasons (though that doesn't make it any less irrational).
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