A Critical Analysis of 'Real Islam'. Its People ... - Bukti dan Saksi

deduce that the most intelligent, talented, logical, peaceful, and reasonable individuals and families within
their own societies might well recognize the inherent failings of Islamic culture and seek enlightenment
elsewhere, or at least demand change. But we should not hold our breath for any internal evolution, as
history demonstrates that humanitarian sympathies have never been a priority for Islamic philosophy nor
her people, and indeed opposition in any form is considered betrayal and treason.
History of Terror
The political and economic record of Islam is wretched, with only one of 18 Muslim states (Turkey)
democratically governed. Some warn that Turkeys professed secularism is only skin deep. In fact,
‘Infidels’, a racist term referring to non-believers/non-conformists, are persecuted everywhere in the
world where real Muslims are in power, including Turkey. Infidels and Muslims alike suffer when
governments attempt to rule using rigid Islamic principals and law. Unlike Christianity, which, since the
Reformation and Counter Reformation has continually updated itself and adapted to changed conditions,
and unlike Judaism, which has experienced what is called the 18 th -century Jewish enlightenment, in many
parts of the world Islam remains a religion stuck in the Dark Ages. It contains many sects and tendencies,
quite apart from the broad division between the majority Sunni Muslims (comparatively moderate and
include most of the ruling families of the Gulf), and Shia Muslims (who dominate Iran). But virtually all
these fundamentalist sects are in practice more militant and uncompromising than orthodox conservative
Islam, which itself is moderate only by comparison, but by western standards is still extreme. It believes,
for instance, in a theocratic state, ruled by religious law, still inflicting (as in Saudi Arabia) grotesquely
cruel punishments, which became obsolete in Western Europe in the early Middle Ages. Moreover,
Qur’anic teaches that the faith or "submission" can be, and in suitable circumstances must be, imposed by
force, and as such the history of Islam has essentially been a history of conquest and re-conquest.
Former (US President) Carter administration official Samuel P. Huntington, now a Harvard professor
and founder of Foreign Affairs magazine wrote in the 1966 book ‘The Clash of Civilizations and the
Remaking of World Order":
"Some Westerners, including President Bill Clinton, have argued that the West does not have problems with
Islam but only with violent Islamist extremists … Fourteen hundred years of history demonstrate otherwise."
Indeed, he says, we’ve been deeply engaged in a quasi war that, as we know now, has become something much
larger.
The West is not alone in being under threat from Islamic expansion. While the Ottomans moved into
South-East Europe, the Mongul invasion of India destroyed much of Hindu and Buddhist civilization
there. The recent destruction by Muslims in Afghanistan of colossal Buddhist statues is a reminder of
what happened to temples and shrines, on an enormous scale, when Islam took over large areas of India.
The writer V. S. Naipaul has recently pointed out that the destructiveness of the Muslim Conquest is at
the root of India’s appalling poverty today. Indeed, looked at historically, the record shows that Muslim
rule has tended both to promote and to perpetuate poverty. Meanwhile, the religion of "submission"
continues to advance, as a rule by force, in Africa, in Nigeria and Sudan, and in Asia, notably in
Indonesia, where non-Muslims are given the choice of conversion or death. And in all countries where
Islamic law is applied, converts (compulsory or not), who revert to their earlier faith, are often punished
by death.
The survival and expansion of militant Islam in the 20 th century came as a surprise. After the First
World War, many believed that Turkey, where the Kemal Ataturk regime imposed secularization by
force, would set the pattern for the future, and that Islam would at last be reformed and modernized.
Though secularism has (so far) survived in Turkey, in the rest of Islam fundamentalism, or more properly
‘orthodoxy’, has increased its grip on both the rulers and the masses.
Before the September 11 attacks, and despite Iran where its first victory was won, some argued that
Islamist totalitarianism was a movement in decline. For the past quarter-century, radical Islamist
fundamentalism has roiled nations in which it arose. But in the decades since the Iranian revolution,
formidable Islamist movements have built up around the Islamic world, with inadequate opposition. In
Sudan, the Muslim government in Khartoum imposed Islamic law nationwide in 1993, and has killed 2
million Sudanese Christians and animists, and enslaved countless more, in an attempt to Islamize the