Quickies: Even Homer Nods Dept.

     The esteemed Ace deposeth and sayeth:

     I don't really think Islam, per se, is responsible for Islamist violence. I think it's tribal identity racism that's the engine of it -- the never-ending demonization of The Other, the never-ending conspiracy theories of how The Other is insulting you and slighting you and attacking you, etc.

     I must disagree. Tribal identity – what Tom Kratman and others have called amoral familism – does correlate with jihadist behavior, but not as strongly as Islam itself. Moreover, Islam actually teaches conversion by the sword and violence against “unbelievers.” The Qur’an is explicit on this matter, as are numerous of Muhammad’s pronouncements as recorded in the ahadith. The Middle Eastern-derived peoples and other criminally-inclined demographics (e.g., American felons) are highly susceptible to Islam’s pronouncements for a simple reason: it provides them with a religious rationale for what they’re already inclined to do.

     The most instructive contrast is between Islam’s effects on the behaviors of its principal demographics and Christianity’s effects on the barbarian hordes of classical-era Europe. Those tribes that adopted Christianity became peaceful: not perfectly so, but dramatically more so than the marauding Visigoths and Vandals who didn’t know or accept Christianity.

     Note also the highly illuminating correlation between Islam and rape. No aspect of tribal identity, which is explicitly endogamous, can explain this powerful correlation, which is observable wherever Muslims have been admitted to principally non-Muslim societies.

     History shows plainly that religious belief is the most powerful of all sociological forces. It eclipses race, nationalism, linguistic commonalities and differences, and all imaginable traditions. It wasn’t until Christianity succeeded in bleeding the aggression out of the peoples of Europe that Europe knew any peace at all...and it wasn’t until Muhammad gave the tribes of Arabia a religious rationale for a never-ending campaign of conquest in the name of Allah that their violence escalated from family feuds to mass warfare.

     There’s a reason the Crusaders marched forth behind banners that read:

Deus Vult

     That same reason is the engine behind Islam-powered violence of all sorts.