Difficulty of expulsion of Islamic microstates
Reader comment on item: Muslim Autonomous Zones in the West?

Submitted by Archimedes2 (Canada), Jan 18, 2009 at 18:29

While your comment (2), Mr. Pipes, seems a very sensible adjustment of Mr. Slater's analysis, I suspect it doesn't stand the test of reality. The current Israel-Gaza, although not EXACTLY an attempt to expel a microstate, has enough elements of this hypothetical possibility to illustrate -- accurately, I proffer -- a major flaw in the notion that microstates might arise and later be expelled, more or less cleanly, by surrounding nations that find them an intolerable guest.

To a 21st century Islamist there are no truly Islamic states, only the Ummah. Those pushing for the establishment of "Islamic autonomous zones" throughout the West do not regard such as independent states, but as part of the larger Dar al Islam. Apparently so do vast numbers, perhaps a majority, of the 1.6 billion or so muslims worldwide. Once a region becomes an exclusively "islamic" possession, it is universally regarded in Islamic terms as "waqf", or a permanent possession of the religion. This is why such tenacity in the Islamic world to the notion that Israel is an illegitimate state (as all of its soil was once part of an Islamic Caliphate) and why, hundreds of years after its loss to them, Muslims worldwide still speak passionately about the reconquest of "Andalusia" (modern day Spain): Once it is seen as Dar al Islam, a piece of property changes forever in Islamic eyes.

See the fallout of this reality in Gaza. Israel strikes Hamas, "violating" Islamic territory and what happens worldwide? Muslims take to the streets. The Ummah is mobilized and acts more-or-less in unison. Attack a tiny terrorist enclave in a tiny corner, and suddenly the "war" is taken world-wide -- there is no "Gaza", insofar as being a separate state; it is only a local realization of the Islamist dream of an outbreak of Dar al Islam worldwide. Israel is not attacking an isolated "microstate": when you strike Hamas in Gaza it is (in muslim eyes) an act of war on the larger, worldwide "Islamic State".

The reaction precipitated by today's events in Gaza only illustrate how far along this path the Ummah, on the whole, believes it has now come. Imagine a world that is 10 or 20 years more islamized, and an Ummah far more confident than today in asserting its presence as an emergent worldwide force.

Then imagine France (for example) asserting itself, in such a world, upon a 25 square kilometer "Urban Sensitive Zone", flexing its military muscle and saying "Enough is enough -- you cannot behave in barbarous ways on French soil; dismantle the sharia state, open the borders and conform to French law!" I don't think I need to fill in the details -- the consequences would be explosive worldwide. Now imagine France trying to repatriate 955 Urban Sensitive Zones. You begin to see the problem...

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.