The Western Culture Clash With Islam
Western political culture is characterized by individual human rights, equality of individuals whatever religion, race, or origin, the right to free speech and free thought operating in some kind of democratic political system. The western culture, in its ideal form, does not raise up one religion over another, does not raise up the rich over the poor, and does not raise up one race over another. Each individual has inalienable rights that the political system must respect and cannot take away.
The political culture of the West is not the culture of Islam. Listen to what Sa'id Raja'i-Khorassani, the Iran delegate to the United Nations, said in 1985:
the very concept of human rights was a Judeo-Christian invention and inadmissible in Islam
What is admissable in Islam, as it is practiced in the world of Ishmael, the Arab world? Admissable is its authoritarianism and state controlled media. The real power in the political system as can be seen in Iran, is not that of the elected politicians, but of the Imam who is the real ruler of the regime. Countries such as Saudi Arabia and Jordon who have kings have constant tension between the royal house and the Imams. The right of free speech and/or free expression does not extend past that which is consistent with Islam as interpreted by the Imams. Open debates are not the characteristic exchange of points of view. The modas operandi is coercion with no compromise: to win everything. The loser loses all. And this is what in essence has governed and continues to governs the foreign policy of the Arab states: a projection of power by intimidation and conquest. Just look to Islam's march of expansion in Africa. Who is funding it?
Because Islam is absolute, there is no tolerance of anything that is not Islam. Islam divides the world up in to those who are believers in Islam and those who are non-believers in Islam. And those who are unbelievers in Islam are inferior, subhuman. If by the kindness of the local ruler a non-believer is allowed to live in a country dominated by Islam, then the non-believer has a status of a second class citizen and must pay special taxes for being permitted to live.
The root of the name Islam is S-L-M, which is the root meaning peace and well being. From this perspective, Islam is the way of attaining peace and well being through submission to Allah the God of Islam. This is certainly the Islam of the Sufis, a mystical sect of Islam. However, in Arab lands, the Sufis are considered as apostates.
Islam as practiced by the Arabs is not a religion of peace. It is a political ideology of conquering the world. So long as there is any land and people that are not Islam dominated, Arab Islam cannot rest. It must engage Jihad, a war for its god Allah until all the world practices Islam.
It is through this lens that we can understand the mideast conflict. Listen to what Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz declared at a lecture sponsored by the Arab League in Cairo.
The existence of Israel nullifies the unity of our homeland, the unity of our nation and the unity of our civilization, which embraces the whole of this one region. Moreover, the existence of Israel is a flagrant challenge to our philosophy of life and the ideals for which we live, and a total barrier against the values and aims to which we aspire in the world.
Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz was the first civilian Prime Minister of Iraq after the collapse of the monarchy in 1958. He was a Professor and Dean of the Law school at the University of Baghdad. He was a moderate and died in 1971.
Israel is part of Western Civilized society. Israel nullifies the unity of the Arab Islamic lands. Israel, challenges the Islamic philosophy of life and the ideals for which the Muslim lives. Israel is a total barrier against the values and aims of Islam. That is the reason why the Islamists call Israel the small Satan. And the point of view held by Islam about Israel, is held by Islam about the United States, the leader of modern Western Civilized society, That is why Islamists call the United States the big Satan.