Why
Muslims Hate The West
The people of the Islamic faith appear to have a strong dislike or a
hatred for the democracies of what is referred to as the Western
societies or the West. Citizens of the Western democracies have
difficulty attempting to understand the reasons for the hatred directed
against the West. Muslims don't explicitly state the reasons for
this dislike and the points they do make are difficult to comprehend by
the average citizen of the West. The support given to Israel is
the point best known by those in the West.
The core of the Islamic dislike of the West is based on our history,
the Christian principles incorporated into our societies, democracy,
the social progress gained through the Age of Enlightenment and
Islamism.. This is not a simple issue which can be bulletized,
reduced to a bullet of information which typically consists of 25 words
or less. A review of the history of the West and Christianity is
helpful in highlighting the factors behind the Islamic dislike of
Western society.
The Hebrew faith was the first to have ideals which would form the core
of Western society. The Jewish God was the God who liberates, his
great deeds flowed from a will to give freedom to his people. The
Jews were the first to make freedom the key to their destiny.
Their God was free and had nothing in common with other Gods or
religions in the time before Christianity.
The ancient Greeks started the development of what become Western
logical thought and a system of morality or ethics. The Greeks,
and then the Romans, nurtured the development of democracy with the
granting of rights to citizens and allowing the citizens some
participation in governance.
Many would say the rise of Christianity was the start of Western
thought. Christianity taught that God had created the world
specifically for human beings to subdue and exploit. God was
above nature, not within it, so for Christians there was no spirited
obstacle to exploiting nature as there was for other cultures.
After the fall of the Roman Empire Christianity lapsed into a backward
medieval mode which was corrected by the Reformation and the Age of
Enlightenment.
In the middle ages the church had become fixated on the maintenance of
power and lashed out at anyone questioning its power or
authority. The Reformation was a major step in the evolution of
Christianity and Western societies. It initiated the decline of
the power and authority of the church and the clergy. The
Reformation put religion back into its proper place within society and
set the stage for the Age of Enlightenment.
Luther denied any special ordination of the clergy to power or
authority in the church and indirectly society. The Bible alone,
not the church hierarchy, was to become the highest authority for
Christians. The literal text of Scripture alone was the
foundation of Christian truth, not the teachings of popes or
councils. All Believers were priests, and the clergy did not hold
any power beyond that of the laity - therefore special privileges of
the clergy were unjustified. The individual's conscience became
more important than clerical authority. The concept of rational
and free society in which individuals could realize their potential
slowly emerged.
Nature is a mathematical system that operates without miracles or any
form of divine intervention. To comprehend nature and society the
mind needs no divine assistance. After the Age of Enlightenment
the mind accepted no authority above reason. The modern mentality
finds it unacceptable to reject the conclusions of science on the basis
of clerical authority and revelation, or to base politics, law, or
economics on religion. It refuses to accept dogma uncritically
and insists on scientific proof. Spiritual meaning is not sought
in an examination of the material world.
The thinkers of the Enlightenment wanted to liberate humanity from
superstition, ignorance, and traditions that could not pass the test of
reason. Reason makes it possible for the individual to master
impulse, to choose the ways in which he will exercise his
freedom. The individual's whole life can be, and even is, the
subtle, infinitely delicate interplay of reason and freedom. The
individual is free to develop into a good and productive human being
and citizen without coercion by government and clerical authority.
Western society tolerates opposing and unpopular viewpoints as this is
a necessary trait to allow people to become rational, moral and
civilized. The West respects the great dignity of the individual,
his autonomy, his power to decide for himself and his capacity for
choice. Democracy's lifeblood is secularism and religious
tolerance, coupled with free speech and economic liberty. The
West originated values and goals that spread throughout the world and
inspired man to demand his freedom, to take his stand in the face of
society and affirm his values as an individual. The West invented
the concept of the rights of man. The West turned the whole human
project into a conscious, deliberate business, it set the goal and
called it freedom, or at a later date, individual freedom with
communication as the highest expression of freedom.
The modern state has a secular character, promotion of religion is not
the state's concern and the church or clergy do not determine state
policy. Democracy's lifeblood is secularism and religious
tolerance, coupled with free speech and economic liberty. The
modern West stressed equality of opportunity and equal treatment under
laws common to all citizens. It rejects the idea that society
should be guided by clergymen who possess a special wisdom.
Christianity drives the values and culture of the West and must be
included in any assessment of why Muslims hate the West. Muslims
hate the West as Western ideology and values run counter to their
beliefs. Everything Muslims hold sacred the West doesn't
respect. The Islamic faith in its current state can't help but
hate the West and argue or fight for its downfall.
Islam is a faith which was born married to the state. Islam is
self-contained in that the faith provides the morality, a system of
thought, a system of law, rules for trade and rules for personal
behaviour. In its fundamental form Islam believes it must control
the state as government power is required to enforce and defend
Islam. A primary fear being, rightly or wrongly, without state
support Islam will wither as Islam has nothing to offer a modern
citizen of a modern state.
Islamism is a process of employing Islam for the purposes of state
power and is more of a political movement than a religious
movement. Islamism takes different forms in different states and
no one form of Islamism is any more purely Islamic than any other
form. Islamism is primarily used by the state for social and
political control.
Islam seeks to elevate the clergy above the citizen where in the West
all citizens are equal, including women, and the clergy lacks any
natural overpowering authority. In the West we rely on the rule
of law and individual conscience rather than a clergy imposing
rules. Islam attempts to micro-manage its followers with an
almost endless list of rules. Rules covering almost every facet
of life, when to wash, when to pray, what hand to use for different
tasks, rules governing trade and personal appearance. In the West
the citizen is given much more flexibility in their behaviour and dress
on top of spiritual freedom. In the West we are free to interpret
scripture where in an Islamic society only the clergy is permitted any
freedom to interpret scripture.
In the West if a man is to be considered superior and pious they must
face temptation and resist the urge to sin using the strength and
conviction they find within themselves. The Islamic tradition of
covering up the women to protect men from temptation and immoral urges
is completely contrary to Western thought. To the West Islam is
stating their men are so weak they must be protected from
temptation. To Muslims the sexuality displayed in Western
societies only confirms their suspicion the West is evil.
The West and Islam have major differences in the perception of the
concepts of fate and destiny. Christianity did away with the
concepts of fate and destiny and places the control of an individual's
life within the individual while Islam believes its followers have a
fate and their destiny is determined by their God. In the West it
is believed individuals are able to develop into good and productive
human beings and citizens if not coerced by government and the church
while Muslims believe the individual must follow the rules set out by
Islam and the interpretation of the clergy. In the West the
individual's whole life can be, even is, the subtle, infinitely
delicate interplay of reason and freedom while in Islam it is
controlled by God.
There is a fundamental conflict between democracy and traditional
Islam. Democracy is predicated upon the idea that every
individual can, should and must have the freedom to make individual
choices about his or her life. This includes the freedom to
differ and to be a dissenting voice. In Islam this freedom has
traditionally been sacrificed for the sake of achieving unity and
solidarity. In an Islamic society freedom and independence are
given strict boundaries and limits, if not removed entirely, to prevent
the unity of the community of believers from being undermined.
Islam demands the individual sacrifice his individuality, renounce
freedom of thought and subordinate oneself to the group for a greater
good.
Muslims believe Islam is the one true and eternal religion while other
faiths typically only contain a part of God's true message. Other
faiths, even if they contain most of God's message, inevitably distort
the message. A Muslim believes so confidently in the perfection
of Islam that he cannot comprehend why followers of other faiths
continue to follow their outmoded and imperfect versions of the
truth. Muslims view the Qur'an as faultless while in the
Christian faith only the right-wing fundamentalists accept the Bible as
being historically correct with most Christians not accepting any
literal interpretation of Biblical stories.
Islam, especially in its fundamentalist form, tolerates no criticism of
the clergy or the faith. Say something bad and they issue a death
warrant, no opportunity to appeal, it is a done deal. Islam
considers itself above other religions and in its more fundamental
forms has a strong aversion to change, to out of faith ideology,
scientific advancement and social progress. Western societies
assimilate thought and knowledge from any and all sources. In the
West we are free to change our religion, have no religion, evangelize
the Church of The Almighty Dollar to others, while in Islamic countries
one is not allowed to preach other gospel to Muslims or in any way
attempt to convert them to another faith.
The West is quickly widening the gap of economic and political power
between Islamic and Western societies. Islamic governments regard
the West's strength as deriving in large part from its democratic
institutions. They refuse to implement these institutions in
their societies, regardless of the cost, as it would significantly
change the ruling regimes. To maintain themselves in power many
regimes play a dangerous game by inflaming people's fear of the
West. This is accomplished by associating democratic institutions
and ideas with the imperialistic and crusading history of the Christian
West. Democratic and liberal freedoms are thus characterized as
being decadent, godless and Un-Islamic. This creates an
environment where religious right-wing movements can easily gain the
support of the masses.
The West is an expression of a liberal enlightened view of human
existence which invented the rights of man and continues to promote
these values. The people of the West do not hate the Muslims as
the more fundamentalist Muslims hate the West. The West generally
rejects Islam as a retrograde medieval religion which reverses
centuries of religious reform and social progress. To the West
Islam is like Christianity before the Reformation and Islamic society
as one which has not yet experienced an Age of Enlightenment.
Muslims are offended by this perception which makes them hate the West
even more. The more successful the West the greater the
hate. As long as the West refuses to admit Islamic society is
superior to the West Muslims will hate the West.
Why The Veil?
Revised December 1, 2004