Far from Extreme

I’ve found it useful in general terms to differentiate between ‘far’, ‘radical’ or ‘fundamentalist’ and ‘extreme’ by defining ‘extreme’ as policy which seeks to impose its doctrines by illegitimate force, imperative speech, or the violent actions of activists, on an unwilling populace. The extreme Left advocates revolution, anarchists would be extreme virtually by their own definition, and the extreme Right advocates physical enforcement of its ultra-nationalist authoritarianism.  The ‘far’ Left and Right would advocate their policies through normal democratic means using force of reason without recourse to force of will.  Fundamentalists will adhere to the extremes of their religion without interfering in the lives of others.

By this definition any religion which seeks to enforce its theocratic will on those not of its persuasion is ipso facto extremist.  Islam is unique in this regard. 

Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

With a democratically-elected government as representative of a nation’s majority values it has the mandate and obligation to judge that which imposes a danger to the nation’s security.  This is not a moral judgment in itself – that has already been made by the electorate in the make-up of its government’s policies.  The Western model of democratic governance follows, not leads, national morality and is demonstrably successful.  Compare this with Islamic countries where the attempt to create, or the success of, governments leading public morality with 7th century values tend to result in either chaos or tyranny.

It is the result of Islam’s conquest of Europe that has its nations belatedly inquiring after their values and attempting to defend them.  That governments are forced to compromise their nations’ values to avoid chaos is a measure of just how great a threat Islam poses.  Not to mention the skill of Islam’s adepts at manipulating the West’s ethical discourse to Islam’s own advantage.

This was written in response to a criticism of the UK government's 'Counter Extremism Strategy' by the adept Kenan Malik.  You can see his original article here: https://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/extremism-and-the-law/ 

Islamic Doctrine - Supersessionism

Supersessionism refers to the belief which sees Islam as superseding all previous divine revelation but, unlike Christianity, which canonized the Old Testament embedding long centuries of pre-Christian history into the Christian narrative, Islam freely erases history itself.  Islamic supersession can be understood in two senses, as replacement and as erasure. Going forward, Islam will supplant all other faiths. But Islam also controls the time before the birth of Muhammad; it claims to have pre-existed all other faiths (see my earlier reference to tawhid) with the Koran as the final religious authority meaning any religious doctrine before or after is a false message.  Because Islam has always existed, all children are born Muslim even though their parents may rear them in another faith.  The claim that Islam has always existed effectively erases all that went before Muhammad. The notion that Islam is the final, true faith, divinely ordained to rule everywhere, has driven Islamic imperialism for 1,400 years.  Islam owns and at the same time puts an end to supersessionism by claiming that Muhammad is the last and final prophet.

Supersessionist erasure can also be enacted on the landscape. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem was superseded by the erection of the Dome of the Rock, bolstered by the myth of Muhammad's "Night Journey" to Jerusalem.  This erased the pre-Islamic history of the temple and, with it, all Christian and Jewish claims.  The great cathedral of St. Sophia in Constantinople, originally built in 360, was converted into a mosque by Sultan Mehmet II in 1453, the same year the thousand-year Christian Byzantine Empire fell.  As Christianity declines in Europe even now, many churches, even synagogues, are converted into mosques.

Sometimes the erasure is permanent causing irretrievable loss to civilisation.  Wikipedia’s entry on iconoclasm shows a significant decline in non-Islamic events since the early 16^th century, with Christian attacks on South Korean Buddhist temples over the last decade being the only modern religious examples.  Islam’s policy of imposing its views on members and artefacts of other religions has led to incidents throughout the centuries to the present day with no let-up.  The Buddhas of Bamiyan stood in Afghanistan for 15 centuries before the Taliban destroyed them in 2001, New York’s Twin Towers spectacularly demolished a few months later, Ansar Dine’s destruction of Mali’s ancient Sufi shrines and theft of documents in 2012, and Islamic State’s destruction of the two-millennia-old temples and statues in the Syrian city of Palmyra this year attest to Islam’s contempt for anything that does not comply with its acolytes’ rigid and imperialist beliefs.  God’s will validates destruction to enable the creation of the Islamic caliphate. 

Once conquered, Islam considers that its lands must forever remain under Muslim domination, the concept of waqf, Arabic for an inalienable religious endowment.  This is the root cause of the Israeli conflict; it is why Spain and Portugal are a predominant target for reconquest; and it is why Greece and the Balkan States, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia are first in line for Islamic State’s plans for 2020.  The success of Islam’s conquests is seen as divine favour; any losses a failure to be rectified with invincible urgency.

Ref:  http://www.meforum.org/3419/turkey-islamic-supremacy

Ref:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_of_non-Muslim_places_of_worship_into_mosques