The Coming Collapse of Islam?

Submitted by Ron Thompson (United States), Jun 6, 2013 at 20:57

While I agree with Dr Pipes in his debate with Bret Stephens, I'm still waiting to see someone explore the ultimate possibility that could result from the insanely mindless violence metastasizing in Muslim countries from Libya to Pakistan, from Nigeria to Somalia to Afghanistan, and continuing to threaten huge areas outside that profoundly dysfunctional world.

Here we are only 22 years from the Collapse of the Soviet Union, an event spectacularly unforeseen by either the 'experts' or intelligent amateur students, and no one is wondering and pondering whether another event of similar world-changing magnitude may be impending in the world of Islam. And therefore whether we should be doing all we can to hasten it, first of all by simply TALKING about the possibility.

Consider the following. That the three Middle Eastern countries with the most educated and energetic sectors of population are clearly the most disenchanted with theological rule, if not explicitly - so far - with Islam. (One wonders, would that disenchantment be explicit if we had been talking about it for the past, now lost, decade?)

Who doubts that if a fair election were held in Iran, the clerical autocracy would be thrown out.

In Egypt we may marvel (at least, I have) that there is such tenacious secular opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood and the more fanatical Salafis, even if they are hugely outnumbered by the endlessly propagandized populace.

And now we are seeing a very similar development in Turkey, every bit as unexpected as the events in 1989 East Germany, 2009 Iran, and post-2011 Egypt.

For over 11 years now, since 9/11, the United States, the entire West, and even Israel, have avoided asking themselves the question, which visitors from another planet might have thought obvious, is Islam itself the source of the scourge, not only of Muslim terrorism occurring in their countries, but the of the pointless, nihilistic violence afflicting Muslim populations in a dozen or more countries.

How long can the non-Muslim world expect or deserve the grim and bloody benefit of Islamic civilization trying to destroy itself, and therefore a somewhat lessened danger of having that violence inflicted on it, without having the intellectual and moral courage to name the common enemy of hundreds of millions who would live in relative peace with their neighbors – including no doubt the submerged aspirations of countless non-violent (and therefore bad) Muslims?

Last week I attended a talk by three scholars of Islam, including two Muslims, hosted at the library of congress. One of the scholars, who was not contradicted by the others, three times referred to something remarkable said by Mohammed near the end of his life. It seems he predicted that the Caliphate, which his followers expected to succeed him and lead the Muslim world after he was gone, would last about 30 years, and then be succeeded by a "cruel tyranny".

What does it say that the Founder of the religion accurately predicted the subsequent 1400 year history of his creation (except that the "cruel tyranny" commenced during his lifetime rather than 30 yrs after his death), and yet there are still all those, including the last and current Presidents of the United States, who pin their hopes and place their bets on something called 'moderate' Islam, and will not tolerate discussing, describing, planning for, working to hasten, the gigantic fact that may be staring all of us in the face?

If one believes in an afterlife, perhaps they can imagine Mohammed somewhere laughing: I wanted to create something to frighten the world. And I'm still succeeding 1400 years later, even as my malignant creation is busy trying to tear itself apart in my name from within!

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