1. ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY: CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS Session 11:
Causes for the Current State of Islamic Societies

2. The entrepreneurial spirit in Islamic countries is largely about and is limited to the ancient concept of trade and mercantilism. Also, Islamic countries have generally failed to build strong economic and
social systems to meet the needs of the people. As a result, Islamic leaders have constantly blamed outsiders for their dilemma rather than accepting
the challenge to modify their own values and seek to redress internal causes.

3. There are in Islamic ideology three visions of Islam, which are: orthodoxy, modernism, and fundamentalism. The mainstream is orthodoxy, which seeks to safeguard Islamic practice without change. The ulema, Islamic jurists, are the chief purveyors of orthodoxy as the status quo.
Modernists are Islamists who have some form of experience or education with Western culture and who seek to borrow from Western culture, to apply reasoning and scientific analysis to ideology, and to accommodate with the West. Fundamentalists want to restore Islam to the 7th century purity believed to exist in the days of the Prophet.

4. Few Islamic scholars have subjected their faith to scrutiny as have Western scholars to Christianity and Judaism. No ideal society has ever emerged in the entire history of Islam.
One of the key stumbling blocks to Islamic success has been the non-applicability of sharia law to modern times.
Another is the fatal integration of religion and politics, where a single religion is imposed on governments and the people.

5. A third principal is the use of a shura to insure popular participation. The process is not representative of people and lacks clearcut rules
for decision making relying on consensus.
Fourth, there is no tradition of peaceful protest.
Islamic rulers equate criticism of the government or its policies as forbidden criticism of the Koran or the Prophet. Hence, freedom of speech is ultimately denied to dissenting voices.

6. Fifth, Muslims are encouraged to have large families and birth control is not permitted. This causes an economic burden where families are strained to support their children in an improved lifestyle.
Sixth, in Islamic rule there is no prescribed, orderly transition of power. The royal monarchies and military rulers’ ascension to power is outside Islamic worldview and they maintain their hold on power by heredity or military strength.

7. Authority on the other hand is held by religious clerics based upon their hold on the status quo and support from political leaders seeking internal stability and authentication of their own rule.
Muslims are not commanded to contemplate God but rather to obey the law. Islamic law is expressed through adherence to the Koran and to the traditions and sayings of the Prophet. When the sharia was codified 1000 years ago, it was pronounced both complete and divine. Therefore, sharia law is not changeable, or subject to criticism.

8. Since sharia law is claimed to be divine, the political state is denied the authority to make law. There is no clearcut concept of separation of powers, nor checks and balances.
The concept and use of imprisonment is to bring repentance to the offender rather than to punish the offender or to protect society. The difference in outlook of a given Islamic society will also depend upon its majority as a Shi’ite or Sunni community. If it is Shi’ite as in Iran and southern Iraq, it will be oriented toward the future due to the influence of belief in the return of the mahdi.

9. If it is Sunni, it will be oriented toward the past due to the influence of the belief to return to the golden days of the times of the Prophet.
Shi’ites will allow human reasoning and free will into the thought process, whereas Sunni will be close-minded and follow the instinct of predestination. Islamic society has not resolved three fundamental questions:
1. Where do women fit in?
2. What is the goal of education?
3. How much freedom to dissent should be granted to the people and the media?

10. Unlike the United States, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and equal rights are not granted by law or by tradition. One of the primary complaints of the Islamic states regarding the West
is that we have a secular society. Muslim’s admire our science, technology, economic standards, and education, but they believe western society lacks a
spiritual content, is morally depraved, and is materialistic in the extreme. They long for our freedoms for themselves, but not for the whole of society. Further, they seek prosperity for themselves, but not the system that produces it.

11. It is estimated that only % of Muslims practice their faith on a regular basis. There is no reason to assume that Muslims are any more active in practicing their faith in larger percentages than is the case in either Christianity or Judaism. What Muslims do in large numbers, as a percentage, is to identify with their culture ritually.

12. As regards the law, Muslims will be in conflict
when they attempt to live in any western secular society because when they attempt to impose sharia law, this legal system cannot coexist with secular law. Yet, a reality is that western countries are facing increasing Muslim immigration.
France is an experiment with an influx of five million Muslims and is a tinderbox of violence and conflict.
The Muslim world sees itself as under threat. It is not unified, but rather fragmented, but it does blame Western globalization as the source of its problems.

13. Islam has never learned to live as a minority, because its history is sourced in a quest for power. Where we in the West live in a pluralistic society,
our tradition is to co-exist and to evangelize other peoples. Islam is intolerant of attempts at conversion by the West. Therefore, in our pluralistic society, the uniqueness of Christianity will be challenged to be accepting of Islam, while denying the exclusivity claims of Christianity.
Several items to remember about Islam are:

14. 1. There has been no Renaissance, Reformation, or scientific revolution within Islam which brought about separation of state from church in the West.
2. There was no exploration of the New World providing economic gains.
3. Their idea is that knowledge is to be stored and not developed or grown.
4. There was no industrial revolution leading to economies of scale, automation, and productivity.
5. Bureaucratic administration is by favor and patronage, rather than merit.
6. The concept of identity and allegiance is by blood rather than by patriotism or nationalism.