ISLAM IS DOOMED TO FAIL.

Submitted by JC (Canada), Sep 19, 2006 at 02:27

At its zenith in the 9th century, Islam dominated the civilized world in economic, military, scientific, technological and cultural affairs. Around this time, an intellectual revolution within Islam greatly advanced its standing against a Europe groping through its own Dark Ages.

The revolution in itself was driven by the absorption of prior Greek and Roman knowledge by Islamic intellectuals in the East (which, at that time - as anyone with a background in world history should know - consisted of the modern-day Middle East, India, and parts of North Africa). Since the East was largely unscathed by the barbarian incursions and internal corruption that plagued the West (that is, modern-day Europe), it was able to carry on with the revolution without much of a fuss.

However, proponents of the core teachings of the prophet Muhammad in the Qu'ran eventually came to suppress the aforementioned revolution; those fundamentalists made it a point to suppress the truths that the fledgling revolution had revealed at that time. It was, indeed, a cruel blow against humanity as a whole as it may have set back collective human progress by half a millennium. We would've been living in an Islam-dominated world had the revolution persisted - an Islam that is not aggressive towards scientific inquiry and the progress that inevitably comes along with it.

Thus is the cruelty that Islam had inflicted upon itself historically. Europe eventually came to grips with its internal issues, and it emerged out of the Dark Ages as it entered a Renaissance period in the 13th century - the sort of intellectual revolution that the Islamic world first experienced several centuries back. The revolution in Europe persisted, and although fundamentalist forces in Europe did make attempts to suppress the truths that the revolution unmasked, scientific inquiry emerged victorious. Economic, military, and cultural progress, from then on, became the West's inevitable fate.

Today's most powerful nations are all non-Islamic in their respective cores, while the modern-day Middle East - indeed, almost all of the Islamic nations in the world - are rife with poverty, illiteracy, and conflicts of different magnitudes. Saudi Arabia may be better off economically than Pakistan, like Iran is when compared to Indonesia - and that 's just because of the aforementioned countries' significant petroleum reserves. Even then, Arab OPEC countries owe it to the West - and the knowledge that ongoing scientific progress has provided for the West - for aiding them in the exploitation of those resources.

We write in English in this forum, not in Arabic. I now live in Canada with the prospect of a bright future with a lovely and well-educated wife - and with the prospect of being able to raise a family with her; killing her for the sake of honor is... irrational, while loving her and treating her as an equal is... perfectly fine. I am a practicing Catholic, and yet, I embrace the scientific method as if it enhances and enlightens me about how important the religious aspect of my life really is. It's not as if the Faith and science can't complement each other.

Muslims the world over may continue to stress that their religion is founded on peaceful principles, even though its beginnings and the questionable antics of its founder say otherwise. They may say that the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan - and that the Pope's comments regarding the prophet Muhammad - are objectionable and disrespectful, even when the majority of the Islamic world's leaders are united in their collective hate of Israel and the Jewish people. They may say that Christianity's 14th-century Crusades in the Middle East unmask the West's hypocrisy regarding the concept of a "peaceful religion," but how could they turn a blind eye towards the centuries of Islamic expansionism that preceded the Crusades?

Islam is a doomed experiment.

We will not live to see its complete downfall, but we're presently witnessing the beginnings of it.

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