Wednesday, October 10, 2007
How new is Islamic radicalism?
For well over 1000 years Muslims co-existed peacefully with the great statues of Buddha in central Asia. Now Islamist radicals are blowing them up. This is something new from a branch of the religion devoted, supposedly, to returning Islam to its original and purest practice.
Yes, the roots of modern Islamism go back more than two centuries, but it certainly also seems true that something entirely new, whacky, and scary is happening. The question many think but few ask is this: What proportion of Muslims are Islamists or sympathize with them?
9 Comments:
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Thu Oct 11, 04:20:00 AM:
One Muslim ruler reportedly tried to tear down Egypt's Great Pyramids at Giza about a thousand years ago. He finally gave up. It was too much work.
By Dawnfire82, at
Thu Oct 11, 07:58:00 AM:
They tried to destroy the tomb of Muhammad, also, for being a work of idolatry.
I would recommend "The Siege of Mecca" by Yaroslav Trofimov to learn more about this.
http://www.amazon.com/Siege-Mecca-Forgotten-Uprising-al-Qaeda/dp/0385519257/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-6339729-5740654?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192103602&sr=8-1
It's written like Guests of the Ayatollah, (as a narrative, using eye witnesses and participants as sources) but shorter, concerning the 1979 'Mahdi Uprising' in Mecca, and the background and details behind it. A remarkable read, since Saudi Arabia has successfully repressed information related to this event. It describes this new trend in Islam in its earliest days, and its first modern spasm of violence at the Kaba', of all places.
By 
, at
Thu Oct 11, 10:36:00 AM:
Enough of them to bring down humanity as we know it.
By , at
Thu Oct 11, 11:23:00 AM:
TH,
Please provide your definition of Islamist. It is a term that can be understood in various ways.
By Schrodinger, at
Thu Oct 11, 02:22:00 PM:
If it is even 1%, that's over 10,000,000 people. Not a small number.
Personally I doubt it is that low. I'd ballpark it at about 5%.
By , at
Thu Oct 11, 03:53:00 PM:
And the radical islamics would rip down the statue of CHRIST THE REDEAMER there in RIO and take down all crosses on our chirstain churches and replace them with cresent and stars
By , at
Thu Oct 11, 06:16:00 PM:
TH,
You must be having a busy day, so I'll skip the definitional issue.
In all populations there are leaders and followers. As has been well explored elsewhere, the Islamic world is, to a large extent, the third world, with nowhere to go but up for most of its inhabitants (followers). Human behavior being what it is, followers are not going to stop following unless they perceive that the course being followed is not in their best interest or potentially so.
Because Islam can be very easily interpreted (see the work of Robert Spencer and others) to be Islamist by nature, I believe that the proportion of literate Muslims who are Islamists or sympathize with them is potentially very high because the achievement of political, theocratic power is a cornerstone of Muslim belief. Until Islamism can be shown to be a failed strategy, the proportion will remain high and may increase.
By Georg Felis, at
Thu Oct 11, 06:23:00 PM:
Darn it Dawnfire, you're making me hit the library again. Every time you make a suggestion like that, I spend a couple days embedded in another fascinating book.
By Dawnfire82, at
Thu Oct 11, 07:16:00 PM:
I'm positively thrilled that someone listens to my reading suggestions. :D
I'm afraid I can't remember what recommendations I have or have not made here in the, oh, 22-ish months I've been posting at this blog. I hope it's not been a cause of financial hardship.
