ROGER KIMBALL: ISLAM FOR POLS
http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/
Andrew McCarthy has once again performed a public service, this time by providing a brief primer on Islam for aspiring pols. (Those seeking a fuller account should consult his bestselling book The Grand Jihad.) The impetus was the recent debate among some contenders for the GOP nomination. The score between the relevant candidates: Mitt Romney, 0. Newt Gingrich, 1.
“Is Newt Gingrich still a candidate?” you ask. Between us, the answer is No, not really. But when a CNN correspondent asked about Islam in America, Gingrich gave the robust answer, Romney retreated to political thru-text. According to the architect of RomneyCare™, the institution of Islamic law, a.k.a. sharia, is “never going to happen” in the U.S. Why? Because, Virginia, “We have a Constitution, we follow the law.”
That’s sweet, isn’t it? And the former governor of Taxachussetts has more where that came from: “I think we recognize that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, our nation was founded on the notion of religious tolerance, it’s in fact why some of the earlier patriots came to this country. And we treat people with respect regardless of their religious persuasion.”
Isn’t that nice?
The trouble is, Gov, that this pretty story depends on mutual respect if it is going to work. Religious tolerance is a nifty idea. As a Catholic, I’m pleased it exists. But here’s the rub: tolerance only works when practiced by all parties to the social contract. It’s one thing for a Unitarian and a Catholic to tolerate each other. They have some important doctrinal differences. But they do not endeavor to kill or enslave one another on account of those differences.
The friction of difference works differently when you add Islam to the equation. Why? Because Islam does not — in principle as well as in practice — acknowledge a legitimate sphere of operation for the secular as distinct from the sacred realm. There is no “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” in Islam because Islam — that’s mainstream, garden-variety Islam, not just its wacko Wahhabist allotropes — regards everything as subordinate to the will of Allah.
Romney, like many well-meaning liberals, wants to regard Islam as a religious phenomenon. The thought process goes something like this:
1. We’re in favor of religious toleration.
2. Islam is a religion.
3. Ergo, we should tolerate Islam. (Q., isn’t it, e. demonstrandum?)
The problem with this syllogism is what it leaves out of account — namely, as McCarthy puts it, that Islam is a “totalitarian political program masquerading as a purely spiritual doctrine.”
Comments are closed.
