The notion of revealed truth, which Christianity and Judaism also embrace, takes on an absolute scale in Islam. Nothing is further from the Greek philosophical concept of free thought and its critical relativism than the simplistic dogma of Islam. What Hannah Arendt has not mentioned in her decryption of the secular totalitarianisms of the 20th century is that Islam offers a perfect model of totalitarian thinking in its teachings, profound doctrine and political practices. Its totalitarian thinking is much more dangerous than any other kind since it claims to be illuminated by divine light and not by the inconsistent Hegelian historical reason that inspired communist totalitarianism and failed in the long run.
This Muslim close-mindedness is also evident in Islam’s attitude of disembodiment (the rejection of images and a schizophrenic attitude toward sensuality), its rigidity and hypocrisy. In Islam, the use of Arabic writing, especially calligraphy, plays a pivotal role. The beauty of the written word in Arabic is consubstantial to the message, endowing it with power. Hence the rejection of images, colours and the representations of nature. In accordance with the truth of Islam, the flag of the Islamic State (Daesh) bears no colours nor illustrated symbols, merely carrying the brutal profession of core faith with which the Koran opens and that Allah has decreed, calligraphed in white Arabian letters on a black background in the form of a slogan. One can only wonder at the paradox of Islam, an ideological and political religion which intellectualises its symbolism by textualising it, while simultaneously epitomising an intransigent message that erodes every ounce of intelligence.
Formalism, hypocrisy and violence coexist in perfect harmony and balance within the constraints of the Islamic straitjacket, leaving no room for reflection. This mechanical rigidity applies to any and every act, whether eating, bathing, defecating, praying or anything else. Everything is classified into fixed categories: it is either obligatory, recommended and permitted (halal), or inadvisable and forbidden (haram, impure). Intentions are of little significance: only the form matters. One is thus under the impression that the requirements of Islam are intended for simple minds, those unable to assess expediency and incapable of analysis and self-discipline, people who are only prone to obeying a monolithic code. Obviously, this simplistic formalism does not encourage any kind of creativity or adaptation within the Muslim umma…
But apart from this, what Islam promotes and legalises is hypocrisy, especially in the shape of double-talk, lies and sophistry. When in a position of inferiority or weakness, Muslims are to resort to cunning and concealment strategies, similarly to the Prophet Muhammad himself, in order to safeguard the interests of Islam and pave the way for a future offensive. Sophistry (reversing the meaning of words through false demonstrations) and bad faith are equally recommended. For example, since Islam literally means ‘submission’ and advocates the jihad, the holy war, will it not bring an end to all conflicts once it has achieved final victory and imposed global submission, thus leading to peace? Therefore .... Islam means peace! It is to this very sophistry for useful idiots that Jack Lang and Laurent Fabius have succumbed when claiming that Islam is ‘a religion of peace’.
Islam Versus Chrisitianity and Judaism
Of course, both medieval Christianity and the Catholicism of the Counter-Reformation were essentially intolerant. This, on the one hand, often conflicted with the teachings of Christ, which, unlike those of Muhammad, were neither authoritarian nor threatening. Furthermore, Christianity had to come to terms with the European spirit, inspired by the rediscovery of Antiquity during the Renaissance period. The cult of the saints and of the Virgin Mary (considered by Islam to be the equivalent of idolatrous polytheism) has mingled with the concept of Redemption and prevented Christianity from sinking into totalitarianism despite its desire to be the sole true universal religion. As for Judaism, it has kept totalitarianism at bay despite the strict requirements of its foundational texts, because it has always been meant to be the ethnic religion of a single people, a people chosen by God, never striving to impose the Jewish faith or doctrine upon others.
As highlighted by historian Alain Besançon, member of the Institute and author of Contemporary Religious Problems (Fallois Editions), Islam is neither compatible with the notion of a secular republic and democracy, nor with Christianity and Judaism. Its worldview differs from the latter’s, as does its God. The three central principles of Christianity, meaning the precepts of the Trinity, Incarnation and Redemption, are utterly rejected by Islam. The ‘Jesus’ mentioned in the Koran is a simple, secondary preacher who had no divine nature whatsoever, was not God incarnate and never died on the Cross. This factitious Islamic Jesus bears no connection to the Christian Redeemer. Nevertheless, this has not stopped Christian intellectuals and ignorant prelates, who have all already submitted, from rejoicing at the fact that the Koran mentions Him.
There is of course a kind of continuity between Judaism and Christianity, a kinship, thanks to the connection that exists between the Old and New Testaments and the account of the Messiah. The actual rupture between Christianity and Judaism is due to the fact that the Jews do not believe in the reality of Christ as the Messiah whose coming had been announced by the prophets, regarding him instead as an impostor or, more precisely, a schismatic. But this has never led the Jews to hate Christians or to persecute the Jewish apostates who have converted to Christianity.
Christians, especially Catholics, ‘respect’ the Muslim religion nowadays, although this attitude is not mutual (since Christians face persecution in almost all Islamic countries). Islam has always considered Christianity and Judaism to be fraught with lies and errors, which is its right. That the Church should ever praise and respect Islam is a sign of submission, resignation and surrender. This frightful tolerance displayed by Christians towards Islam began with the Second Vatican Council, when the Nostra Aetate declaration expressed a preference for Islam in comparison with non-Christian religions, agnosticism and paganism, whereas Islam has always condemned and rejected Christianity and abhorred Judaism, as confirmed by several Koranic Suras.
Islam is presented as being the successor of Judaism and Christianity with regard to Revelation. It is supposed to be the third and final pillar of the so-called Abrahamic religions, the first two being the Jewish and Christian religious systems, of course, which would make it the ‘last of the revealed religions’, meaning those that acknowledge that Jews, Christians and Muslims are all the sons of Abraham. This statement is however a fallacy, because the Abraham that the Koran refers to bears no resemblance to the one that the Bible speaks of. Similarly, there is little distinction in the former between Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the sister of Aaron and Moses. In fact, Muhammad never stated that he intended to pick up where Judaism and Christianity had left off and thus embrace their legacy. His intention was to replace and abolish them through authoritarian means, despite drawing inspiration from them in a highly disorderly manner.
Having been allegedly instructed to do so by God, Mohammed wanted to restore the Adamic religion (and not the ‘Abrahamic’ one), which dates back to the creation of mankind, before history itself began. Islam rejects the Jewish and Christian Scriptures (the Old and New Testaments) as ‘falsifications’. What is more, the Judeo-Christian Bible is banned in most Muslim countries. The religion of Mohammed does not think of itself as a continuation of Judeo-Christianity or an improvement upon it, but rather as a new, unique and a-historical foundation, one that is not subject to discussion and whose application is as final as it is eternal. It abrogates all the past errors and lies that every other monotheistic or polytheistic religion is guilty of and establishes, in the sole language of God himself, i.e. Arabic, a single religion for all humanity to follow until the end of time: Islam.
It is from this idea that the naturally totalitarian imperative of Muslim faith springs, a faith which, logically speaking, could never tolerate anything other than itself, whether in the field of beliefs (faith) or that of socio-political organisation (law). Relentless and si
mplistic, this mental mechanism erects itself in the shape of irrefutable dogma and is extremely effective. No dogmatism has ever been this powerful, despite the schisms that divide Islam.
As I have previously explained in The New Jewish Question (Du Lore Editions), Islam’s unfailing anti-Jewish attitude cannot be explained on the basis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What accounts for it is a specific historical factor: the rivalry between Mohammedan and Jewish tribes. The founder of Islam never shrunk from slaughtering his enemies. Moreover, Islam draws heavily on Judaism in its religious foundations and often modifies them, which generates rivalry and a kind of jealousy. And then there is the Israeli-Palestinian question, of course, which began in 1948 and has exacerbated matters further. Its impact is however not decisive. What is significant is that Islam condemns the Jews in its foundational decrees, as seen in numerous Koranic verses.
Unlike the Church, which was once similarly involved in a problematic schism from the common Judaic matrix and accused the Jewish people of deicide for having crucified Jesus, Islam has not renounced its anti-Jewish stances. Christianity did remain anti-Jewish for several centuries (without being anti-Semitic in the ethnic sense), but relinquished this inclination in the end. Islam, by contrast, has stuck to it and kept it intact. This accounts for much of the constantly increasing hatred and violence against Jews among the immigrant Muslim populations of Europe, whose radicalisation is on the rise
Of the three major monotheistic religions, meaning Judaism, Christianity and Islam, only the latter has led to totalitarianism. How is one to explain this? Doesn’t monotheism bear within itself an element of totalitarianism as a result of its imperative of uniqueness? Despite its desire to profess a singular, divine and universal truth, Judaism has always been, paradoxically, the religion of a single people, chosen by God himself, and has thus been preserved from the temptation of imposing a single system upon the entire world. Instead of being required to convert all of humanity to their religion, the Jews are expected to teach mankind a certain morale. As for Christianity, a religion which has repeatedly come close to succumbing to totalistic intolerance (a fact that did not escape Voltaire’s attention), there are two reasons that have allowed it to evade totalitarianism in the end: the first is its spiritual complexity and the overhanging Messianic figure that advocates both sacrifice and love as supreme virtues, while the second is rooted in the Marian cult, the cult of the saints (who intercede with God) and the integration of the Greek concept of logos, which tempers faith through reason. And beyond a few exceptional cases, Catholicism has yet to engage in forced conversions, even though it shares Islam’s aim to convert all of humanity to its belief.
Such an attitude is out of the question in Islam, since the latter is supposed to remain inflexible and espouse its own totalitarianism, meaning the founding of a universal, unified and unique humanity under a single totalising law: the law of the Koran, forcibly imposed of course. Muslim theologians also argue that Christianity is not a genuine form of monotheism and that its God is neither theirs (Allah) nor the true one, a fact supported by Islam’s criticism of the Trinitarian dogma (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), the cult of the Virgin Mary and that of the saints.
An Aggressive and Obscurantist Form of Collectivism
Muslim prayer is a ritual act devoid of freedom. It is restricted to a repetition of various Koranic verses while remaining in a prescribed posture and kneeling in submission, the head pressed against the ground and facing Mecca. It is not a matter of personal dialogue with a protective God, but a mere recitation of certain phrases one learns by heart, an act that is to be performed at fixed times. This rigid rite eradicates subjectivity and replaces it. In its mental conformism, not only does Islam represent an obstacle to freedom of thought and therefore to creativity already at a very young age, but it even prohibits personal spiritual quests. It is a superstitious and aggressive type of collectivism.
Muslims have no personal and unrestricted relationship with their God, as Allah is an uncompromising and unforgiving master that is deaf to his worshipers’ pleas. It is obvious that such a religion / ideology, one that is based on the central concept of submission (the submission of all disbelievers to the umma as well as the latter’s submission to Allah) can only lead to the abolition of both individual freedom and collective inventiveness. Islam is a source of mental impoverishment and a decivilising factor, because it grants the notion of order a dimension of absoluteness (a concept that is otherwise positive when applied wisely) at the expense of freedom (even if liberty does lead towards anarchic permissiveness when implemented with excess) while ignoring the Aristotelian conception of Mesotes, i.e that of balance and equilibrium.
Apart from its marginal components such as Sufism, Islam is equally averse to mysticism, metaphysics and philosophy. It revolves around two axioms: ideology and ritual, two interpenetrating concepts. Islam is not focused on a personal relationship between man and his God, but on a collective relationship between the umma (the Muslim community) and a single overhanging, intolerant, impalpable, threatening and authoritarian deity: Allah. One should note that Allah borrows some of his features from the Mosaic Yahweh, including his severity and a leniency conditioned to absolute obedience, retaining a decidedly warlike aspect. Since its very inception, not only has Islam drawn theological inspiration from Judaism, but it has also adopted some of its ritualism (circumcision, dietary prohibitions, etc). This kinship has thus resulted in a constant animosity against Jews, greatly surpassing Islam’s hostility towards Christianity, with which it has fewer common aspects.
However, the Jewish Yahweh only concerns the Hebrews and, despite his severity, advocates neither acts of aggression against non-Jews nor forced conversions. The Jews thus keep to themselves. In Islam, on the other hand, all of mankind is targeted either by conversion or by submission through violence, which makes the Muslim religion similar to Marxist Communism. And this is always done in the name of some greater ‘Good’. Due to their fantasy of unifying humanity under a single law and system, Islam and Marxism follow the same collectivist logic.
But while Marxism and its socialist substitute are egalitarian and, for reasons of cynicism or ideological stupidity, result in various caste privileges, Islam, by contrast, remains much more consistent. Indeed, its divine law, the Sharia, consecrates inequality among humans under the pretext of apparent common sense. However, one quickly realises that this inegalitarianism is not one that is founded upon the acknowledgement of people’s different capacities, but upon the affirmation of unequal rights and status through discrimination, exclusion and oppression. Muslims and unbelievers (or other ‘infidels’), freemen and slaves (the enslavement of non-Muslims persists in Islam, and not just in the Arabian Peninsula, where such practice is carried out with a certain degree of covertness, but also in Iraq and Syria, where slavery is openly practiced by the Daesh), men and women are all subject to differences of treatment, with the former considered eminently superior to the latter.
Islam’s discriminatory inegalitarianism is completely counter-productive for the Muslims themselves, since it is non-selective: it undervalues humans and deprives itself of elites, not because of some humans’ lower capacity, but due to stupid, dogmatic exclusions that relate to religious or sexual imperatives. This obscurantism impedes the very expansion of Islam, since it antagonises people and constantly triggers revolts against the type of callous, brutal society that the Muslims attempt to impose.
Among Islam’s other requirements, the following are noteworthy: the legitimisation of violence (whenever necessary) in order to enforce Islam, as well as the lawful robbing of infidels (Kuffar, from the singular kafir) in accordance with what Muhammad himself practiced in his raids. This fact explains why, in European societies, young Muslim immigrants often justify their crimes in the following manner once they have undergone basic Koranic education: the taking of ‘spoils’ from an infidel is not a vile act of thievery, but a levy authorised by God and therefore legi
timate. In addition, one must not forget to mention the mandatory death penalty for all apostates and homosexuals, which is still in vigour and widely taught, even in Europe. Numerous acts of delinquency and crimes are committed in the name of the conquering and vengeful religion called Islam. Anti-Christian persecutions are justified in the exact same way.
Islam and Totalitarianism
To begin with, the word totalitarianism (and we all know that words tend to stretch beyond the things they refer to) was coined by Italian fascists to describe, in a positive sense, a regime in which State and society form one whole, a regime that is centred around the same ideology, free of any and all partisan conflicts and dedicated to the service of a common will. This was the doctrine of the Single Party State with its unique ideology and one-dimensional type of man who gave his duties to the public sphere priority over his own privacy. Hence the etymology of the term fascist: the people and the State are one, striving towards the same goal and fuelled by the same doctrine, just like the fascio (bundle) of the Roman lictors.
Hannah Arendt, who, similarly to many philosophers, chose to ignore history and rely on the abstraction of her own ideas without taking anything but the present into account, made one grave mistake: she believed that totalitarianism was a modern concept that only applied to fascist regimes, National Socialism and Communism. She assumed that totalitarianism was a phenomenon limited to the 20th century, thus confusing the word with what it designates.
Understanding Islam Page 3