Part of the problem is with the non-Muslims

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Dec 31, 2016 at 02:43

Dear Dr Pipes,

The story that by 2050 Russia may become a Muslim majority country did not come as a surprise. Many tendencies among Muslims can be credited for this possibility but, I think, the non-Islamic world is also responsible for it. First of all, no religion of the world is currently as interested in winning converts as Islam is. There is no significant effort on the part of Hindus and Jews to win converts. Buddhism also does not actively proselytize. Christian churches do try to win converts but, unfortunately, Christian effort to convert others relies significantly on deception and allurement and is hardly ever direct and honest.

Not only non-Muslim religions are failing to convert others, they are also not doing a great job toward keeping their current followers into the fold. Most non-Muslim societies are committed to democracy, liberalism, freedom, modernity, openness and secularism. All these things encourage people to accept atheism as a way of life.

Add to this the hypocrisy and backwardness of Islamic mindset, we have a perfect recipe of accelerated growths of Islamic populations. I believe that non-Muslim religions need to focus on the following things if they do not want to lose to Islam:

1. We should force Muslims to play a fair game: It is absurd that Muslims enjoy democracy in every nation of the world but force theocracy on the lands controlled by them. Democracy and freedom in Islamic countries is every one's business and we should explicitly say so. In no land of the planet --Islamic or otherwise-- apostasy must be a crime.

2. We should escape and not be killed or converted: if the situation is so bad that you will be killed or converted in a country then you must leave. Yezidis of Iraq, Hindus of Pakistan and Bangladesh, Christians of Egypt, and small Jewish populations of many Islamic nations owe it to themselves that they save their cultures, lives and faiths and leave the place where they are facing subjugation. If it means in living in poverty till the end of time, so be it. If it means being killed while running away, so be it.

3. We should preach and win converts: Preaching a religion makes it better. Modernity is good but faith is a part of human life. The atheists among us should not be going to Islam when they discover the need of God in their lives. They should come back to the fold.

4. We should help each other: Most non-Islamic religions have come to realize their common aspects. Most educated people now appreciate and admire practices of diverse faiths and cherry pick the ones that suit them. We should encourage this attitude. This attitude is unavailable and discouraged in Islam. We should take advantage of it.

5. Intellectual and polite criticism of Islam should be encouraged: Islam's deficiencies are many. But they are not mentioned. Most of the non-Islamic world has learned to treat Islam as something that cannot be criticized. That is absurd. Islamic doctrines are as amenable (and should be) to objective criticism as the faulty doctrines of other religions. No harm in criticizing them even if Muslims do not like the criticism. Freedom to speak cannot exist without the freedom to offend.

6. Islamic laws with respect to inter-religious marriages are unsymmetrical, selfish and, thus, unacceptable. There is no harm if religions of the world actively educate their followers about the risk of entering matrimony with Muslims.

7. We need to educate the liberals among us: Liberals amongst us need to be taught that not all philosophies are created equal. In particular, any time you smell that the golden rule is violated (that is, the situation is unsymmetrical) all liberal bets must be off. For example, if you want freedom of expression from us but do not offer freedom of expression to us in return, it should be a firm deal breaker.

8. Islam should not win because of its ignorance. It is well documented that birth rate among Islamic societies is more than the birth rate of other comparable populations. Islam should not get advantage of its backwardness, illiteracy and subjugation of women. So it is our duty to bring education to Muslim populations.

if Islam wins in spite of our best efforts, then it deserves to win. But it should not win without facing genuine challenge from us.

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