Islam by itself is already non-existent

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Jun 7, 2013 at 01:27

Dear Dr Pipes:

If you think about 100 recent stories about Islam, 99 of them will be about Islam's interaction with non-Islamic cultures. Whether they are Islamic wars of independence (as in Kashmir or ME), or demanding more rights (as in the entire world from Minnesota to Xinjiang), or converting people to Islam (as in marriages), or fighting Islamic fratricidal wars (as in the entire Islamic world and for which Islamists blame the West), Islam is defined by its interaction with non-Muslims. The silent meditative practice of spirituality is simply not present in the Islamic world.

Islam has pretty much become a political rallying cry. Islam either does not exist in isolation or spiritual Islam is completely subdued by the political Islam.

Your reader Ron Thompson correctly hypothesizes that political Islam will face repeated failures. Political Islam will fail because it will produce more and more failed states (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria...), it will fail because it will produce more and more draconian societies (cruel and unusual sharia-based punishments), and it will fail as an economic system (how prosperous are Islamic nations that are not endowed by oil, and it will fail as a social system (women's and over all literacy).

And, when the political Islam completely fails, Islamists will realize the importance of separation of church and state and, in fact, of secular and religion-based ethics. That will be the dawn a new era.

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