Currently making the rounds in conservative inboxes is a short essay titled “A German’s View on Islam: It’s the Fanatics, Who Rule“. It is allegedly written by someone who once knew an old German. So you know… clearly this is authentic and all.
The upshot is that the old German points out that most Germans were not “true Nazis”. The point being that the dangerous Nazis were limited to a small minority, but most of the rest of the citizens were unwittingly swept along for the ride.
The author goes on to draw similar tales from communist Russia, communist China, and Japan during WWII. And then makes a tangential swipe at several other counties who were overrun by brutal forces within. You can see where this is going, right?
Clearly, all these situations are analogous to Muslims and their unwitting oppression by Islamic Terrorists. Sure, the majority of Muslims probably have a good heart, but they have yielded control to the fanatics, and therefore, each and every one is every bit as dangerous as a Nazi foot soldier or a Japanese Kamikaze pilot.
In many ways, it’s an elegant piece of propaganda. It gets around the argument that all Muslims are evil, while still maintaining the reasonableness of fearing them all because they mean to destroy us nonetheless. Not that this makes the analogy rational, but it does make it clever.
The problem is, the Nazis and all the other referenced situations were countries whose political system was overrun and controlled by fanatics. This situation simply does not exist in the Islamic world. They are not one country, or even one region. They do not all have a common political structure, or even a central religious leader analogous to the Pope.
The majority of Muslims live in Southeast Asia and Indonesia. The Middle East is the next largest concentration, but significant populations are also found in Russia, China, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa. Further, the religion is divided into four major sects: Ahmadiyya, Shi’a, Sufism, and Sunni, as well as several smaller ones. Most of these sects are united in purpose the same way that Southern Baptists and Mormons are kindred souls. That is… not so much.
There is simply no rationale for believing Islam is united in terrorism. The math alone belies that reality. If nearly 1.6 billion people were acting as a united force against anything, there would be little that would stop them. We’re talking about five times the population of the USA. That is not a fight we would likely win, nor is it the fight in which we are engaged.
Granted, there are places in Afghanistan and other countries were fanatics have overtaken the governments, and the people are cowed into cooperation against us. But this is a very small minority of the 23% of the global population who are living by the Quran. There just is no brush broad enough to paint all those Muslims a single hue.
Ironically, the one thing capable of gathering all of Islam into a single purpose is the same thing that would draw all Christians or even all humans to a common cause. If the alien invasion force parks in orbit and points its ray guns at us, all of Earth would drop their differences and unite to fight the little green men. After all, the aliens don’t recognize a difference between Chinese and Americans or Evangelicals and Catholics. We’re all just the enemy humans. We would become united because something external threw us all in the same bucket.
Is that not what screeds like this Nazi-Muslim essay, the NYC mosque controversy, the Quaran burnings, and other Islamophobic positions and actions are doing? Are they not throwing all of Islam into one bucket? Are they not positioning all these diverse cultures, counties, and regions as a common enemy? And by doing such, aren’t we actually serving to create the very enemy we’re so afraid of?
To all those fearing or blaming all of Islam for terrorism… be careful what you ask for.
