Important Column

Spengler delivers another excellent, excellent column on the differences between Islam (and Mormonism) on the one hand and Christianity and Judaism on the other. I do disagree with him on one point, though.

Spengler states:

"It is dangerous to publish anything that Muslims might interpret as blasphemy, as Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's largest newspaper, discovered when it published 12 cartoons of Mohammed, some portraying the Prophet in violent acts. Muslim protests and threats caused two of the cartoonists to go into hiding. After Arab foreign ministers condemned Denmark for refusing to act against the newspaper, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen offered a near-apology in his New Year's address.

"Strange as it may seem, the pope must whisper when he wants to state agreement with conventional Muslim opinion, namely that the Koranic prophecy is fixed for all time such that Islam cannot reform itself. If Islam cannot change, then a likely outcome will be civilizational war, something too horrific for US leaders to contemplate. What Benedict XVI thinks about the likelihood of civilizational war I do not know. Two elements of context, though, set in relief his reported comments concerning Islam's incapacity to reform."

The implication here is that Benedict is making his statements quietly because he fears retribution. This strikes me false. Instead, it seems to me that Benedict made his statements in the forum he did not out of fear, but out of prudence. His opinion on the reformability of Islam is certainly not one to be disregarded lightly- indeed, I am inclined to agree with it, but Benedict realizes that he may be wrong. Furthermore, active Western engagement with Islam, be it American foreign policy or French attempts to restrict the wearing of the hijab by Muslim girls in French schools , are premised on the notion that the West and Islam can be reconciled to some degree or another, and a statement such a statement as the one Benedict made, made by a figure with his standing in a public forum risk undermining these efforts at a time when the jury is still out on this count. In other words, I suspect Benedict hopes he is wrong but fears he may be right and doesn't want to issue what may end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy. What's more, if he is right, it is essential that people are aware of the irreconcilability of Islam and the West and that steps be taken to ensure that we are prepared to deal with what would be the inevitable failure of Western policy both in the Middle East and Europe.