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There is only one cause behind Islamic behaviors: Islam

Reader comment on item: A Culture of Ambiguity
in response to reader comment: Salafism

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Dec 27, 2021 at 21:52

Dear Dr Pipes: Reader John Harvey tried to explain Islamic behaviors since 1800s by blaming them on Muḥammad ibn Abd al-Wahhāb. I disagree.

I contend that Islamic methods and procedures have their genesis in the Quran, Hadiths, and Sharia. Islamic methods have been remarkably consistent across the centuries and continents throughout its history. Attributing them to one person would be like ignoring vital facts.

At different times of history the exact same Islamic methods are applied to different nations and people to subjugate them. It will be a mistake to assume that it all started with one person at a given time.

I sometimes look at the period that is described as the golden age of Islam. The Islamic golden age was centered in Baghdad and continued from 8th to 14th century. You would expect that in the golden age of prosperity of Islam, some great egalitarian ideas would emerge from the Islamic capital and those ideas would spread to the Islamic fringes. But none of that! Lands were being captured on the fringes. Spain, Jerusalem, Persia, Sindh, and Punjab were being won. Temples and churches were being looted and converted to Mosques. Living camels loaded with burning fuel were mercilessly being driven into armies of elephants to cause confusion. Golden age hardly contributed to any enlightenment in Islam. And, no other age did either.

Human history is full of instances of people's tyranny against each other but these examples of tyranny were hardly ever driven by a single cause for long periods and excuses were hardly ever issued for these tyrannies with identical monotony. Islamic tyrannies are exceptions due to their consistency and to the excuses pulled for them.

Wahabism is a recent phenomenon. It is caused by the same original cause and is hardly a cause of anything.

Submitting....

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Reader comments (9) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
1Doesn't Bauer agree with Pipes that Islam today is in a mess? [89 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
MalcolmDec 29, 2021 05:55277830
1Religion in General is Ambiguous - True Cause Leading to Ambivalence in Religion Altogether [123 words]M ToveyDec 29, 2021 13:25277830
Salafism [41 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
John HarveyDec 27, 2021 15:49277660
3There is only one cause behind Islamic behaviors: Islam [300 words]PrashantDec 27, 2021 21:52277660
Buried gold [358 words]John HarveyJan 4, 2022 05:51277660
2Clarification about my post [314 words]PrashantJan 4, 2022 17:40277660
1Origins of Modern Radical Islam [115 words]David RyanDec 27, 2021 13:04277654
Two people saying the same thing independently add weight to the argument [40 words]PrashantDec 29, 2021 09:52277654
2Bauer is Westener [94 words]Pascal HiloutDec 27, 2021 12:39277649

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