Editor,
I personally find the Islamic Awareness Week a disturbing attempt by multiculturalists to equivocate the nature of Islam.
Along with the good that Islam may embrace, this week should also be an opportunity to illuminate Islam's role in the misery and war that it advocates throughout the civilized world.
The near silence about the true role of Islam in motivating Islamic terrorists has two main causes: multiculturalism and religion.
Multiculturalism asserts that all cultures are equal and, therefore, none may criticize another. Intellectuals and politicians are therefore reluctant to declare the obvious superiority of Western culture to Islamic culture.
And the strong commitment to religion of many Americans, especially conservatives, makes them reluctant to indict a religion as the cause of a massive evil.
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But if we are to identify the fundamental cause of the terrorists' actions, we must understand at least two fundamental premises of the religion they kill for.
First, Islam, like all religions, rejects reason as a means of gaining knowledge and guiding action; it holds that all-important truths are grasped by faith in supernatural beings and sacred texts.
The Quran explicitly states that knowledge comes from revelation, not thinking. Christianity, in its pure form, entails a similar rejection of reason, but it has been heavily diluted and secularized since the Renaissance.
Islam advocates the subordination of every sphere of life to religious dogma. The word "Islam" means submission. The individual is not supposed to think independently but to selflessly subordinate himself to the dictates of his religion.
Second, as with any religion that seeks converts, a derivative tenet of Islam is that it should be imposed by force. The Quran is replete with calls to take up arms in its name.
These ideas lead to fanaticism and terrorism. In fact, what is often referred to as fanaticism of many Muslims is explicitly endorsed by their religion.
The terrorists are not non-Islamic bandits who have hijacked a great religion - they are consistent and serious followers of their religion.
It is true that many Muslims who live in the West reject religious fanaticism and are law-abiding and even loyal citizens. But this is because they have accepted some Western values, including respect for reason, a belief in individual rights and the need for a separation between church and state. It is only to the extent that they depart from their religion that they achieve prosperity, freedom and peace.
America has, with little success, groveled to so-called moderate Muslim leaders to strongly repudiate terrorism. Such a campaign cannot work, since insofar as these moderates accept Islam, they cannot convincingly oppose violence in its name.
A true path to peace would be one in which we proclaim loudly and with moral certainty the secular values we stand for: reason, rights, freedom, material prosperity and personal happiness.
Mark D. Erasmus
Daily Lobo reader
