Islam and us Tom Smith

A very thoughtful must read from the Archbishop of Sydney, and a good antidote to a lot of the cant out there on the nature of Islam and the rest of it.  A complex picture. (hat tip: rg)

During the Cold War, secularists, especially those who wererepentant Communists, were well equipped to generate and sustainresistance to an anti-religious and totalitarian enemy. In the presentchallenge it is religious people who are better equipped to understandthe situation with Islam. Radicalism has always had a way of fillingemptiness, but if we are going to help the moderate forces within Islamdefeat the extreme variants, we need to take seriously the personalconsequences of religious faith. We also need to understand the secularsources of emptiness and despair and how to meet them, so that peoplewill choose life over death. This is another place where religiouspeople have an edge. Western secularists regularly have troubleunderstanding religious faith in their own societies, and are often atsea when it comes to addressing the meaninglessness that secularismspawns. An anorexic vision of democracy and the human person is nomatch for Islam.

The war against terrorism is only one aspect of the challenge.Perhaps more important is the struggle in the Islamic world betweenmoderate forces and extremists, especially when we set this against theenormous demographic shifts likely to occur across the world, therelative changes in population-size of the West, the Islamic and Asianworlds and the growth of Islam in a childless Europe.

Every great nation and religion has shadows and indeed crimes intheir histories. This is certainly true of Catholicism and of allChristian denominations. And it is legitimate to ask our Islamicpartners in dialogue whether they believe that the peaceful suras ofthe Koran are abrogated by the verses of the sword. Is the program ofmilitary expansion to be resumed when possible? Do they believe thatdemocratic majorities of Muslims in Europe would impose shari a law?Can we discuss Islamic history and even the hermeneutical problemsaround the origins of the Koran without threats of violence?