Quote:
Originally posted by Tropez
No it wouldn't. This extremism really took root very recently. It has its roots in colonialism, the tension in Isreal, the rise of the Saudi's and dictators.
Had that never happen, Muslim nations would've been like they were historically. Meaning they didn't take the book literally, and they were very heavy on science. They saw science as a way of understanding Gods work. There's much more to it but don't let the last 100 years shape your mind, creating a tunnel vision.
|
I agree with this except for the science part. Muslims already abandoned science long before western imperialism happened. It was after the Mongol invasion in the 13th century that islamic science started to decline and had stagnated since then and eventually came to an end two centuries later. Islamic fundamentalism, on the other hand, actually had its root in the 7th century breakaway group, the
Khawarij, but that had disappeared for centuries and then made a resurgence in the late 19th century as a response to western imperialism. Had imperialism never happened, Muslims would have been more socially progressive (their focus shifted from scientific to social/cultural development after the Islamic Golden Age) and these modern day Islamic terrorists would have never existed. External interference and invasion provokes Muslim terrorism. But Muslims were not historically any more violent than Europeans or Chinese. I'd argue that the latter two were responsible for far more deaths in history than Muslims. Radical Islam is a recent ideological trend which has more to do with the reasons already mentioned than the religion itself.
