Is Islam Innocent?

Austrolabe:

In the January/February 2008 issue of Foreign Policy magazine, Graham E. Fuller, former Vice Chair of the National Intelligence Council of the CIA, engages in an interesting thought experiment.

Here it is:

Imagine, if you will, a world without Islam—admittedly an almost inconceivable state of affairs given its charged centrality in our daily news headlines. Islam seems to lie behind a broad range of international disorders: suicide attacks, car bombings, military occupations, resistance struggles, riots, fatwas, jihads, guerrilla warfare, threatening videos, and 9/11 itself. Why are these things taking place? “Islam” seems to offer an instant and uncomplicated analytical touchstone, enabling us to make sense of today’s convulsive world. Indeed, for some neoconservatives, “Islamofascism” is now our sworn foe in a looming “World War III.”

That's a spectacular counterfactual. If Muhammad hadn't spread his poison, then the history of the Middle East would have been profoundly altered in the 7th century. (It's likely that Jews would still be living in Makkah and Medina!) It's nonsensical to say that our world would be likely the same without that scourge.

Comments

[Josh Scholar]

Is Austrolabe a blog? There's no link.

[David Boxenhorn]

I think it's the Jews fault. You know, they're everywhere.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

Doh! Link fixed.

[MikeT]

If Islam had never come into existence, it's probable that Europe wouldn't have grown culturally the way it had for a long time because the Byzantine Empire's scholars would never have had to flee to Italy. Furthermore, it would have probably on been a matter of time before Africa, the Middle East and most of southern Asia had been peacefully assimilated into the Christian territories.

It would have been interesting to see how India would be today if the Mughal Empire had been Christian instead of Islamic. My guess is that you would have seen India never get colonized, and would probably have ended up as a world power alongside the European states.

[tammam]

All things you said are not true,because you don't know anything about Islam.Islam is the religon of Peace,mercy and love.So why alot of people all around the world convert to Islam;because they searched the trueth,and thy found Islam.I hope you also seek the trueth instead of insultung others.