Over at Crisis Magazine, William Kilpatrick makes an important observation regarding the phenomenon of young Western men joining Islamist terror organizations: "For many a young man, the certainty that there are seventy-two high-bosomed maidens waiting for him on the other side is reason enough to risk the sacrifice of life and limb."
But if this explanation accounts for the attraction of young men to Islamist extremism, it doesn't say much about those who have inherited and held Islam as their traditional faith for centuries. ...Or does it?
What can we say of a religion whose martyrs died for nothing more than what the average 16-year-old from California wants to do next time his parents go on vacation? What does the Muslim concept of ultimate beatitude say about Islam?
I can't imagine the answers to those questions would be very flattering to Muslim faith. But now that the radical ISIS is threatening to knock down the door of civilization, it seems as good a time as any to ask these questions about the religion that motivates them. One thing is certain: It's no longer enough to merely condemn "religious violence" without acknowledging the nature of the enemy, as so many Western leaders have been doing. Kilpatrick continues:
But if this explanation accounts for the attraction of young men to Islamist extremism, it doesn't say much about those who have inherited and held Islam as their traditional faith for centuries. ...Or does it?
What can we say of a religion whose martyrs died for nothing more than what the average 16-year-old from California wants to do next time his parents go on vacation? What does the Muslim concept of ultimate beatitude say about Islam?
I can't imagine the answers to those questions would be very flattering to Muslim faith. But now that the radical ISIS is threatening to knock down the door of civilization, it seems as good a time as any to ask these questions about the religion that motivates them. One thing is certain: It's no longer enough to merely condemn "religious violence" without acknowledging the nature of the enemy, as so many Western leaders have been doing. Kilpatrick continues:
| Although it would be greatly to our advantage to shake belief in the virgins-in-paradise deception (You do believe it’s a deception, don’t you?), we hesitate to go there. Perhaps we intuit that we can’t shake the branch without shaking the whole tree. The heavenly garden of delights is a main theme of the Koran. To question it is to question the integrity of the Koran as a whole, and also to question the integrity of the man from whom the whole system flows. |
It would take courage to seek to undermine our enemies in this way. And courage is exactly what we need from our religious and political leaders. As William Kilpatrick writes, "For our own survival, we need to rethink the idea that the other person’s deeply held beliefs can never be questioned. The Islamists’ touching faith in the Stepford brides seems like a good place to start."
Read the rest of William Kilpatrick's piece here.
Read the rest of William Kilpatrick's piece here.
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