A Response to Aijaz Zaka Syed at Foreign Policy Journal

I recently read an article by Aijaz at FPJ, which was commenting on the article by Pat Buchanan which I had recently critiqued. I posted this response at the FPJ site, and perhaps there will be a response. First, you do need to read Mr Syed's helpful article. And then my response, which follows:

Thanks for your thoughts on this Aijaz. I also wrote some comments on Pat's article at my blog.

I would first of all take issue with your characterization of Islamic society ruling the roost for 1000 years. So many of those accomplishments actually belonged to Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. The relatively few Muslims who did great things we often educated by non-Muslims. Once the dhimmis were properly subdued and educational power given mostly to Muslims, well, there were no more accomplishments.

But that is not my main point.

I want to propose that there is no Islamic order that can really fulfill the desires of the young people who ousted the various dictators. Let me say it like this: They want the benefits of Christendom without the Christianity of Christendom. There are great stories about the justice that flourished during the days of the rightly-guided caliphs, but if you read the Islamic material from those days you will find complaints about rampant immorality, not a great golden age of justice and progress.

You can't make a vibrant future of human rights and justice out of the worn fairy tales of past Islamic greatness. If the young people of the Middle East want a brighter future, then they must find another religion, or even no religion at all. Islam will never get them there.

And finally, RE Turkey, it is doing well because it was founded on an explicitly anti-religion basis. So please don't use that as an example of what Egypt or Libya might look like some day.

I would love to hear your response to this comment. Salam. كل عام و انت بخير