Islamic Exceptionalism

I am a critic of Islam and frequently hear this complaint: Why do some non-Muslims find it acceptable to criticize Christianity, Judaism, etc. but not Islam?

The answer is: They resent anyone who points out the ideological incompatibility between Islam and the West that could cause a religious war. They are more afraid of the prospect of open warfare than they are of the slight chance of being killed by a Muslim terrorist. So they try to convince themselves that the terrorists are ordinary criminals.

Militant Muslims smell this fear and run with it. “America is at war with Islam” is their first response to any criticism of Islam and to any attempt by non-Muslims to defend themselves militarily against Muslim aggression. They label non-Muslim critics as Muslim bashers and Islamophobes, and Muslims who want ideological reform are threatened with charges of apostasy.

Honest critical analysis of the ideological chasm between Islam and the West is probably the surest way to avoid the religious war that one wing of militant Islam is trying to provoke. Meekly avoiding verbal confrontation is the surest way to encourage Islamic militants in their supremacist aggression.

There are Muslims who want to reinterpret aggressive passages in the Koran that encourage violence against unbelievers. We can’t support these Muslims without acknowledging that such verses exist and are widely interpreted as prescriptions for action today, not mere accounts of history in the Arabian Peninsula.

There are Muslims and non-Muslims who want this conversation stopped. Their goal is to sell an image of Islam as a religion of peace without changing the parts of Islam that require a permanent state of war between Muslims and unbelievers. They want any criticism of Islam to be denounced as negative stereotyping and prosecuted as defamation of religion and hate speech. At the urging of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the United Nations General Assembly has joined this effort to curtail free speech. The trial of Geert Wilders in Holland is the prototype for silencing critics of Islam.

If this critical conversation is made illegal, the opportunity for Islamic reform disappears and the likelihood of religious war increases.