If the Jews of 1898 — who were fleeing persecution in Europe — could push Islam back (which they did), it signified an intolerable theological disaster of Islamic weakness.
If your theory of the Islamist mindset is correct, then they're looking at theology thru the wrong end of the telescope. Instead of trying to destroy Israel to regain Allah's favor, they should realize they failed to destroy Israel because Allah loves Israel.
The noted historian Daniel Boorstin asks a fundamental question: Why did the flowering of civilization that we enjoy today [ information age, medical breakthroughs, industrial age, space travel, agricultural breakthroughs etc.] not start until 16th century Western Europe? Why did the Chinese not get there first – 2,000 years ago they were at the same starting technological stage? Or: Why did the Arabs not get there first? They also had the technologies 1200 years ago – so why didn't the Arabs get here first?
Then he provides the answer: Because Arabic society as a whole is a very fatalistic society. Insh’Allah – if something is to be done then Allah will see to it; if a problem is unsolved then Allah didnt see fit to resolve it. Everything is Fate; it is useless to struggle against fate. Travel throughout the Arab, nay Moslem world and the predominant sentiment is “Insh’Allah”. This is not racism, this is fact.
But Jews [and Western Europe once the Reformation had thrown off the yoke of the Roman Church] struggle against fate. When there is a problem we do not sit and accept but rather we all apply our creativity, our capital, our energy, our ambitions and we derive solutions to resolve problems and make life better. The way of the West is to constantly create and invent new solutions.
So, the problem that Islam has is not with Israel per se but with all of the West. Israel is just a handy scapegoat because so much of the West can be counted upon to be anti-Israel/anti-Jewish.
The real issue is this: How does one deal with life when one’s world-view has been proven incorrect by “facts on the ground”? Clearly, the West has shown that fate does not drive history and that passive fatalism does not deliver a modern society?
Thus the world of Islam is faced with two choices:
a) They can adapt a world-view that more closely matches to reality
b) They can destroy the reality that disproves their world-view.
Obviously a strong contingent of the world of Islam has opted for violence to destroy the facts they cannot abide. We can all provide an extensive list of destructive behaviors from the world of Islam that have no other goal other than to destroy the world-view that mocks theirs.
The deep rooted honor / shame mentality plays an essential part in the daily lives of Arab muslim communities all over the world.
This aspect of difference in mentality between Arab and western cultures is too often being downplayed and ignored.
"The honor-shame dynamic explains much of the Arab and Muslim hostility to Israel. A state of free Jews (i.e., non-dhimmi infidels), living inside the historic Arab Dar al-Islam (Jerusalem), constitutes blasphemy. Israel’s ability to survive repeated Arab efforts to destroy it constitutes a permanent state of Arab shame before the entire global community."
"Whether one views the impact of Edward Said (1935-2003) on academia as a brilliant triumph or a catastrophic tragedy, few can question the astonishing scope and penetration of his magnum opus, Orientalism.
"In one generation, a radical transformation overcame Middle Eastern studies : A new breed of “post-colonial” academics, boasting a liberating, anti-imperialist perspective, replaced a generation of scholars disparaged by Said as “Orientalists.”
Source : Richard Lander's article "Celebrating Orientalism", winter 2017 :
This is a crucial point in explaining why Palestinians continue on their murderous rampage and reject all compromise. It also underlines why Israeli victory is crucial to preserving what is left of western civilization. Your article helps to understand why Netanyahu claims Israel is fighting to defend both itself and the West.
I was born and have lived most of my life in southeast Michigan. Detroit [and area] have had an annual murder rate of around 225-250 murders per million population for at least 75 years; in contrast, Toronto with a larger population has a murder rate of about 15 per million. It is neither racist nor phobic to reach a conclusion that Detroit has a much higher level of violence than Toronto.
Similarly, if one looks at Israel and ignores violence due to terrorism [both Arab and Jewish] that the Jewish sector in Israel has a murder level like Toronto while the Arab sector has, in 2024, a murder rate of about 175 per million -- easily ten times that of the Jewish sector. No one wants to talk about the innate level of violence in the Arab sector and in Arab culture. But blood feuds are a way of life in parts of Arab society; When two high schoolers in the US engage in sex its accepted as part of growing up; in Europe also accepted. But in, again, parts of Arab society the offending male may be murdered by relatives of the girl and the girl herself may be harmed. My point is that the outpouring of violence witnessed on Oct 7th [and in 1938, 1935, 1929 et al] are not aberrations but a typical expression of a society that the West now finds itself in conflict with. To ignore it would be stupid.
Its a curious observation that Arab nationalism is a peon to the old golden age... it may be a nostalgia for something that never was.
By that I mean that I've always suspected that the Muslim golden age had less do do with Arabs but was predominantly Byzantine in origin - the Ottomans having used Arab armies as the muscle of expansionism after having borrowed the mechanisms of state and settled civilised behaviour from the Byzantines.
That would explain why it was a flash of light which died while the European renaissance took off and snowballed into modernity. It would also explain the persistent failures at state building and supranationalism Arab nationalists have attempted through the 20thC.
Surely a truly pious and devout person, regardless of religion, must realize that a tattered, scattered, destroyed, and weak peoples such as the Jews to be able to establish and renew its national homeland and defeat must larger and more powerful enemies could not possibly happen without divine assistance. Whether you refer to G-d, the most powerful, as Hashem, Adonai, Allah, Jesus, the Father, Buddha, or Shiva, matters less than the realization divine intervention was involved in the establishment and continued strength of Israel despite the schemes otherwise, past and present, by the devil. Genesis 12:3
This very insightful essay also explains the other major problem in Islam, the sectarian violence. The number one victims are other Muslims who belong to different versions/sects. Then it’s the Jews and then the rest of the western world that was under Islamic rule. My opinion is that from the beginning it was formed as a death cult, and we can see that tradition today. Death cults don’t succeed over the long term since they end up in the sectarian violent spiral.
I am posting a series of reflections on Melanie Phillips’ new book, The Builder’s Stone. In it she makes the point that the future of Western civilization is bound up with the story of the Jews. More precisely, it is bound up with the story of God’s revelation, beginning with Abraham and reaching its climax in Jesus. Both modern Judaism and Islam are (different types of) unnatural offshoots from this original stock.
So what you are saying is that it is all about power that they achieve by being closer to God. I don't doubt that this is correct, but don't the Islamists want to rid the planet of all infidels, starting with the Jews, in order to create their caliphate?
They're following their prophet's book which states that by doing jihad - becoming a martyr - you become close to their God. So killing infidels is a highway to paradise.
Good point. In practice we see Saudi Arabia and the UEA making some effort to progress in a more moderate way of Islamic beliefs. But on an individual it remains vague. They may be reluctant to develop their views by fear of being excluded. Because Islam teaching is not subject to change.
If your theory of the Islamist mindset is correct, then they're looking at theology thru the wrong end of the telescope. Instead of trying to destroy Israel to regain Allah's favor, they should realize they failed to destroy Israel because Allah loves Israel.
This explains why only Westerners advocate the two state solution.
The noted historian Daniel Boorstin asks a fundamental question: Why did the flowering of civilization that we enjoy today [ information age, medical breakthroughs, industrial age, space travel, agricultural breakthroughs etc.] not start until 16th century Western Europe? Why did the Chinese not get there first – 2,000 years ago they were at the same starting technological stage? Or: Why did the Arabs not get there first? They also had the technologies 1200 years ago – so why didn't the Arabs get here first?
Then he provides the answer: Because Arabic society as a whole is a very fatalistic society. Insh’Allah – if something is to be done then Allah will see to it; if a problem is unsolved then Allah didnt see fit to resolve it. Everything is Fate; it is useless to struggle against fate. Travel throughout the Arab, nay Moslem world and the predominant sentiment is “Insh’Allah”. This is not racism, this is fact.
But Jews [and Western Europe once the Reformation had thrown off the yoke of the Roman Church] struggle against fate. When there is a problem we do not sit and accept but rather we all apply our creativity, our capital, our energy, our ambitions and we derive solutions to resolve problems and make life better. The way of the West is to constantly create and invent new solutions.
So, the problem that Islam has is not with Israel per se but with all of the West. Israel is just a handy scapegoat because so much of the West can be counted upon to be anti-Israel/anti-Jewish.
The real issue is this: How does one deal with life when one’s world-view has been proven incorrect by “facts on the ground”? Clearly, the West has shown that fate does not drive history and that passive fatalism does not deliver a modern society?
Thus the world of Islam is faced with two choices:
a) They can adapt a world-view that more closely matches to reality
b) They can destroy the reality that disproves their world-view.
Obviously a strong contingent of the world of Islam has opted for violence to destroy the facts they cannot abide. We can all provide an extensive list of destructive behaviors from the world of Islam that have no other goal other than to destroy the world-view that mocks theirs.
Good point.
The deep rooted honor / shame mentality plays an essential part in the daily lives of Arab muslim communities all over the world.
This aspect of difference in mentality between Arab and western cultures is too often being downplayed and ignored.
"The honor-shame dynamic explains much of the Arab and Muslim hostility to Israel. A state of free Jews (i.e., non-dhimmi infidels), living inside the historic Arab Dar al-Islam (Jerusalem), constitutes blasphemy. Israel’s ability to survive repeated Arab efforts to destroy it constitutes a permanent state of Arab shame before the entire global community."
"Whether one views the impact of Edward Said (1935-2003) on academia as a brilliant triumph or a catastrophic tragedy, few can question the astonishing scope and penetration of his magnum opus, Orientalism.
"In one generation, a radical transformation overcame Middle Eastern studies : A new breed of “post-colonial” academics, boasting a liberating, anti-imperialist perspective, replaced a generation of scholars disparaged by Said as “Orientalists.”
Source : Richard Lander's article "Celebrating Orientalism", winter 2017 :
https://www.meforum.org/middle-east-quarterly/celebrating-orientalism
This is a crucial point in explaining why Palestinians continue on their murderous rampage and reject all compromise. It also underlines why Israeli victory is crucial to preserving what is left of western civilization. Your article helps to understand why Netanyahu claims Israel is fighting to defend both itself and the West.
There is another aspect that no one addresses.
I was born and have lived most of my life in southeast Michigan. Detroit [and area] have had an annual murder rate of around 225-250 murders per million population for at least 75 years; in contrast, Toronto with a larger population has a murder rate of about 15 per million. It is neither racist nor phobic to reach a conclusion that Detroit has a much higher level of violence than Toronto.
Similarly, if one looks at Israel and ignores violence due to terrorism [both Arab and Jewish] that the Jewish sector in Israel has a murder level like Toronto while the Arab sector has, in 2024, a murder rate of about 175 per million -- easily ten times that of the Jewish sector. No one wants to talk about the innate level of violence in the Arab sector and in Arab culture. But blood feuds are a way of life in parts of Arab society; When two high schoolers in the US engage in sex its accepted as part of growing up; in Europe also accepted. But in, again, parts of Arab society the offending male may be murdered by relatives of the girl and the girl herself may be harmed. My point is that the outpouring of violence witnessed on Oct 7th [and in 1938, 1935, 1929 et al] are not aberrations but a typical expression of a society that the West now finds itself in conflict with. To ignore it would be stupid.
Its a curious observation that Arab nationalism is a peon to the old golden age... it may be a nostalgia for something that never was.
By that I mean that I've always suspected that the Muslim golden age had less do do with Arabs but was predominantly Byzantine in origin - the Ottomans having used Arab armies as the muscle of expansionism after having borrowed the mechanisms of state and settled civilised behaviour from the Byzantines.
That would explain why it was a flash of light which died while the European renaissance took off and snowballed into modernity. It would also explain the persistent failures at state building and supranationalism Arab nationalists have attempted through the 20thC.
Surely a truly pious and devout person, regardless of religion, must realize that a tattered, scattered, destroyed, and weak peoples such as the Jews to be able to establish and renew its national homeland and defeat must larger and more powerful enemies could not possibly happen without divine assistance. Whether you refer to G-d, the most powerful, as Hashem, Adonai, Allah, Jesus, the Father, Buddha, or Shiva, matters less than the realization divine intervention was involved in the establishment and continued strength of Israel despite the schemes otherwise, past and present, by the devil. Genesis 12:3
This very insightful essay also explains the other major problem in Islam, the sectarian violence. The number one victims are other Muslims who belong to different versions/sects. Then it’s the Jews and then the rest of the western world that was under Islamic rule. My opinion is that from the beginning it was formed as a death cult, and we can see that tradition today. Death cults don’t succeed over the long term since they end up in the sectarian violent spiral.
Very important historical context. Thank you!
Fascinating, thank you
Well said.
I am posting a series of reflections on Melanie Phillips’ new book, The Builder’s Stone. In it she makes the point that the future of Western civilization is bound up with the story of the Jews. More precisely, it is bound up with the story of God’s revelation, beginning with Abraham and reaching its climax in Jesus. Both modern Judaism and Islam are (different types of) unnatural offshoots from this original stock.
Islam is the Detroit of religions
Huh? Detroit is the "Arsenal of Democracy" ... what are you trying to say ?
So what you are saying is that it is all about power that they achieve by being closer to God. I don't doubt that this is correct, but don't the Islamists want to rid the planet of all infidels, starting with the Jews, in order to create their caliphate?
They're following their prophet's book which states that by doing jihad - becoming a martyr - you become close to their God. So killing infidels is a highway to paradise.
This is so true!
Good point. In practice we see Saudi Arabia and the UEA making some effort to progress in a more moderate way of Islamic beliefs. But on an individual it remains vague. They may be reluctant to develop their views by fear of being excluded. Because Islam teaching is not subject to change.