The Muslim Legacy

For most Americans my age the Muslim world came into focus in the 1970's when oil-rich nations were thrust into the spotlight because of oil shortages. Before then they were just another group of the world's backward people whose dress and customs made them little more than an interesting story in the National Geographic.

Money and leverage certainly changes things.

Today this throw-back culture threatens what Americans would call the modern civilized world with terrorism, economic blackmail, and an expanding population that may swallow up the "Old World" European cultures in our lifetimes.

Much of the Arab and Persian, Sunni and Shiite complaints about the West revolve around Israel and the Arab population that thrived and grew when Jews began settling in the region in the 1880's, purchasing land from wealthy Muslims of the Ottoman Empire. These "Palestinians", little more than serfs at the time, benefitted agronomically and economically from Jewish immigration, but tragically have since elevated themselves only to the status of political pawns in the region. The Palestinians were offered self-rule and peace along-side Israel in 1936, 1947, 1949, 1967, 1979, 1981, 1993, 2000, and since. But a jealous and covetous hatred for Israel, along with interference from other Muslim states, seems to be stronger motivation than peace and self government. Only the Arabs that have assimilated into Israeli society have thrived.

But the Palestinians are like many of the Muslims in the Middle East in that they suffer from centuries of poor leadership. Modern telecommunications lay out before them the fact that they are powerless and have little compared to much of the world, and so they throw tantrums for the TV cameras. Having nothing, some choose to throw away everything. They will not be placated and they will not be ignored.

Many of the leaders in the region are throwing the same tantrum, and throwing away opportunities for their children and their children's children. With all those billions of oil dollars coming in, where is the richness... where is the greatness to show for it?

I'm no expert on Islam, but it doesn't take a historian or an anthropologist to see the waste and suffering that these oil-rich people have needlessly borne because of their intolerant religion and their self-serving leaders.

When I was young I heard stories about World War II and how the Germans and the Japanese sought to take over the world. At that time the Soviet Union was doing its best to export Communism to poor nations in Asia and Cental America. I remember the euphoria of the 90's when the Cold War ended, but it was short lived.

Now the world faces a new threat which is more insidious and just as ominous as those in its past. Its proponents use a new kind of warfare and display patience in their incremental progress. Europe is awakening to this fact... perhaps too late. These once proud European nations are like a faultering Rome under the onslaught of barbarian hordes... hordes with money to buy modern technology and weaponry.

I believe there will one day be peace between Islam and the West, but that peace will come when one culture is assimilated into the other. We should all hope and pray that our lazy, politically split culture develops the resolve to be the one left standing at the end of the day.