response to Dr. Pipes response to my letter, 'winning'.

Submitted by James (United States), Dec 28, 2005 at 17:54

Dr. Pipes,

capitalism's efficacy to sunder the walls of the mind of islam must be seen with the caveats mentioned, i.e. entrepreneurial, individual, capitalism within a democratic republic, cum rule of law and the legal protection of private property.

I can understand your skepticism, however. I also believe it must be viewed within the larger context of making their petroleum worthless because the West has seen fit to acquire sustainable alternatives. Once the ruling elites of these various countries are forced to value the assets above their country's ground more than they value the assets below the ground, the probability of an effective turning away from this militancy will be enhanced.

Unfortunately, much of the success of modern Islam has been made possible by the rise of the new religion of Europe, the one that has replaced Christianity, the religion of nihilism and materialism. It is this new religion which vanquishes the will to defend Europe from the onslaught of Islam, a religion whose culture is alien to all that is European. When the Europeans surrendered their historic Christianity, the new religion, one of hopelessness and ennui, and materialism, was self-evidently incapable of withstanding the onslaught of the barbarians at their gates.

It is not so much an Islamic victory we are witnessing as it is the working out of the implications of the soul of Europe's surrender of its historic Christianity. This surrender has been occurring for at least a century and a half. The first political consequence was the communust revolution in Russia, and the second was the fascistic revolutions in Germany and Italy. One might ask what vanquished these earlier puffs of smoke whose fires were burning from the collapsing edifice of European Christianity. It was the one last great remaining Christian culture in the West, the U.S.A.

This is not an attempt to ignore the great accomplishments, contributions, and influence of Judaism. But, in applying a broad brush to the canvas, it is fair to describe it in Christian terms. I find it interesting, as well, that in so far as the United States was born into existence as a Reformation country, and indeed, as the only one sans an aristocratic, and orthodox tradition, they are also the last to give up the Ghost of the Spirit of their Faith, though, it does seem to be waning fast. The importance is that as far as a timeline is concerned, they are, hopefully, anyway, a generation behind the Europeans.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".