Academia wakeup call
Academics, or anyone else, should be able to write critically about Islam, as they have about Christianity and Western culture, without fear of retribution by either jihadists or their own university administrations.
Islam itself must be contained until it has reformed, if reform is even possible. It is obvious that Islam is more than a religion, it is an ideology. Where other religions are content to give spiritual guidance, Islam makes exacting demands. The Taliban government was one of the purest attempts at instituting Islamic principals. To the jihadists, democracy is viewed as man’s attempt to replace God’s law. By definition, a jihadist uses violence to undermine democratic society; hence, democracies have the right to act, as they did with communism. The semantic differences between religion, ideology and philosophy cannot be tripping points to rational self defense. Persistent violent jihadism should be met with overwhelming force.

A post-Islamic world
Jihadists have bet everything on violence. Should they lose and Islam collapse, Arabs may find themselves in a state similar to the disillusionment of Russians when communism collapsed. Arabs would do well to recognize that Arab culture predates Islam. Just as Germans did not need to abandon traditional German culture when Nazism fell, Arabs can still retain the vibrant traditions of Arabia if Islam were to collapse in disrepute—a possibility after 9/11, and a certainty if jihadists were to trigger a nuclear weapon in the West. On the other hand, Non-Arab post-Muslims, long denigrated as second-class Arabs, may well, like the Soviet satellite republics, experience a post-Muslim renaissance.
Under today’s Islam, even the most liberal Muslim state like Turkey is for non-Muslims merely like the difference Jim Crow was to slavery for an African American. In the future, without a strong “West” to pressure for tolerance, even this minimal tolerance is unlikely. Then again, without a strong West, it is unlikely Islam itself would survive a strong (Far) “East.”

Words matter
It is folly to think words do not have meaning, as some Islamic apologists would have us think. A radical Jain, for instance, does not become more violent, but less so, according to dictates of Jainism. The Koran is a violent book. Muslims have to find ways to minimize this penchant for violence. It is questionable whether they can do this, even if many are so inclined. That leads us to whether it is worth it. Practically speaking, does Islam provide a good template for societies? Muslim states seem to be of two types: rich, authoritarian and discontent, or poor, authoritarian and discontent. The “rich” part of some states is wholly explained by the accidental fortune of being located on land floating on an ocean of oil.
Aside from whether Islam is practical, the Koran itself is rift with contradictions of earlier biblical texts. It takes a true believer to explain that Muhammad was actually correcting the earlier texts, and the proof is the Koran itself. Such circular logic makes it nearly impossible to reason with such people.

Is Islam truly monotheistic?
But logic has not played a strong role in Islam. Although monotheistic, Muhammad is elevated to all but the status of God, beyond criticism and even portrait. Muslims insist he was the perfect man, yet his actions contradict even the most basic respect for modern human rights. Muslims say they are the most rigorous of monotheists but believe in angels, demons (jinns), and heavenly virgins, called houriis. What are these but inferior gods to Allah, since they are neither man nor animal? Logically, they are hardly different than the hierarchy of gods worshipped by the ancient Greek polytheists, who ultimately deferred to Zeus, or Hindus today who call Brahman, the Supreme One, their highest god. Muslim Monotheism is thus reduced to semantics.

Mohammad: Does humanity need a violent role model?
It is already well known that humans often are inclined towards violence if not for some restraint, such as a role model. Logically, that model would be peaceful—and not simply with his followers—yet would remain strong. Certainly Jesus and Buddha were both. As nearer examples, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. showed us the peaceful power of Hindu and Christian principals, respectively. In Judaism, biblical characters were often punished or rewarded according to their moral behavior. The wealth of great Jewish minds in science and the humanities is testament to Judaism’s utility. In Contrast, Muhammad seems to be the very antithesis of this logic, inspiring violence even beyond man’s inherent natural capacity. Thus, even oil-rich, monocultural Arab nations are riddled with systemic violence in the name of Islam. In the end, it is difficult to not view Islam as redundant to Judaism and Christianity when at its best, and a violent, hysterical, supremacist ideology when at its most unique.
Apologists of course consider the preceding as an ignorant view of Islam, as though only lifelong scholars, who by Islamic definition are believers or they would be apostates, can opine on Islam. But religions are not science; they are meant for all. An informed lay person can express a valid opinion on religion, especially one that is threatening his or her life, as well as any power-hungry mullah can. Indeed, in all probability more so.

The decadence of Islam
It appears that Islam is in fact a decadent religion. The decadence here is not synonymous with hedonism, but rather, of violent parasitism. Even the accidental wealth from massive oil deposits cannot buy Arabs the values needed to sustain a competent culture. The thought-stifling dogma of the Koran, the practical impositions of sharia law, and the enslavement of women all add up to a culture that is at once both arrogant and incompetent at satisfying its needs without resorting to violence towards others. It requires the continual conquest and subordination of other cultures to feed its supremacist appetite. Once those cultures are drained and indoctrinated, it looks for new hosts. It has been a continual pattern for 1300 years. Muslim lands are drained of new ideas today, so it is again on the hunt. The West happens to be in its own sort of paralysis currently, so it may be easy prey. But we are in an age of instant mass-death through weapons of mass destruction.

Jihadists have no hope against China
Red China is the hegemonic gorilla that even suicidal Muslims fear, if only subconsciously, because of its power and equal unconcern for individual lives. China has the will to wipe every non-Han Chinese person off the globe, and Muslims are unwittingly acting as the catalyst. Muslims have no hope against Chinese manufacturing. Muslims cannot walk around freely in Beijing as they do in London . They cannot manipulate principals of human rights or freedom of the press, because those don’t exist in China . Without a West to defend them, Muslims will have met not only their Waterloo with China , but their Auschwitz .

An immense tragedy nears
Jihadists are a menace to all cultures, not just the “West.” There is a story of the person who saw that Nazis only came for others, so he did nothing. Then one day they came for him, but it was too late to act. Let’s not act too late. Let’s not let Islam destroy our lives and the lives of generations yet born. It is an immense tragedy for humankind that we are precariously close to disaster at the precise moment in history that we are so close to the possibility of genuinely ending world suffering through communication and constructive technology. China itself, sans its ideological aspects, is an early miracle of this possibility. Many problems currently afflicting the world are now solvable. Through biotechnology, we can end disease and hunger, and increase intelligence and well-being. Through the Internet, modern databases, and distance learning, we can extend education to all. Through democracy, law and a creative use of these exciting technologies humanity can finally live up to its potential. We can all get there together, peacefully and contently, if only… 

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