Vi elsker døden mere end livet

Endnu et terrorangreb standset, og endnu engang erklærer jihadkrigere, at de elsker døden mere end livet. 

Et af problemerne i forbindelsen med vestens forhold til Islam er, at vi kan slet ikke sætte os ind i den blinde tro, der hersker blandt ikke blot det mindretal, der sværger til jihad og martyriet, men også den blinde tro på koranens ord generelt. Også den blinde tro på, at muhammad er profeten over alle profeter, hvis ord og eksempel man skal efterfølge betingelsesløst og uden spørgsmål. Som et flertal af muslimerne af samme årsag mener, man ikke må kritisere.

For at ikke tale om den blinde og massive støtte til sharia, henrettelse af frafaldne fra Islam, stening af utro kvinder, hvor opbakningen i flere lande kommer fra flertallets side af, ifølge denne undersøgelse fra PEW.

Vi har selv skabt så stor en afstand til religiøs formørkelse og blind tro, at vi ikke kan sætte os ind i, at i året 2013 eksisterer blind og makaber tro i bedste velgående i den islamiske verden.

Så stor en en afstand, at selv de videnskabeligt skolede blandt os fornægter den mørke virkelighed, Sam Harris' betragtninger:

I have long struggled to understand how smart, well-educated liberals can fail to perceive the unique dangers of Islam. In The End of Faith, I argued that such people don’t know what it’s like to really believe in God or Paradise—and hence imagine that no one else actually does. The symptoms of this blindness can be quite shocking. For instance, I once ran into the anthropologist Scott Atran after he had delivered one of his preening and delusional lectures on the origins of jihadist terrorism. According to Atran, people who decapitate journalists, filmmakers, and aid workers to cries of “Alahu akbar!” or blow themselves up in crowds of innocents are led to misbehave this way not because of their deeply held beliefs about jihad and martyrdom but because of their experience of male bonding in soccer clubs and barbershops. (Really.) So I asked Atran directly:
“Are you saying that no Muslim suicide bomber has ever blown himself up with the expectation of getting into Paradise?”
“Yes,” he said, “that’s what I’m saying. No one believes in Paradise.”
At a moment like this, it is impossible to know whether one is in the presence of mental illness or a terminal case of intellectual dishonesty. Atran’s belief—apparently shared by many people—is so at odds with what can be reasonably understood from the statements and actions of jihadists that it admits of no response. The notion that no one believes in Paradise is far crazier than a belief in Paradise.


But there are deeper ironies to be found here. Whenever I criticize Islam, I am attacked for my purported failure to empathize with Muslims throughout the world—both the peaceful billion, who are blameless, and the radicals, whose legitimate political grievances and social ties cause them to act out in regrettable ways. Consider this standard calumny from Glenn Greenwald:

How anyone can read any of these passages and object to claims that Harris’ worldview is grounded in deep anti-Muslim animus is staggering. He is at least as tribal, jingoistic, and provincial as those he condemns for those human failings, as he constantly hails the nobility of his side while demeaning those Others.

The irony is that it is the secular liberals like Greenwald who are lacking in empathy. As I have pointed out many times before, they fail to empathize with the primary victims of Islam—the millions of Muslim women, freethinkers, homosexuals, and apostates who suffer most under the taboos and delusions of this faith. But secular liberals also fail to understand and empathize with the devout.