The New Islamic Empire

By Ronald L. Dart

They are people of the desert. To the western eye, they appear backward, undeveloped, fanatical, even bizarre. Yet they are the remnants of one of the greatest empires the world has ever known. And they are destined to effect your life more directly than you can ever imagine.

They are the peoples of Islam. There are 800 million Moslems in North Africa, the Middle East, Middle Asia, the far east and the rest of the world. The followers of Mohammed are five million strong in the United States, and by now, there may be 100 million Moslems in the Soviet Union.

Drop by your local bookstore and browse the current affairs section. Here you should find something on all the major issues that face our nation in the twentieth century.

Well, nearly all. In my bookstore, I found nothing dealing with Islam or the Arab peoples. Perhaps it is of small moment to Americans that Moslem fanatics held 48 diplomats hostage and nearly wrecked the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Maybe the two major oil shocks of the seventies that brought our economy to its knees have faded from our memory. Was it just a bad dream, or were we all lined up around the block for a tank of gasoline not long ago? Wasn't it because of an Arab oil embargo? And what were our armies doing in Iraq during Desert Storm?

Islam is an Arabic religion, and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina are in Saudi Arabia. As an accident of fate, or as a result of divine providence, Saudi Arabia sits on roughly one fourth of the world's oil reserves and supplies about 18 percent of the free world's oil.

When we add the rest of the Arab world, plus Iran and Iraq, North Africa, and the oil producing Islamic nations of the far east, it is plain that the followers of the Prophet have a stranglehold on the most strategic commodity in the world. When they can agree on policy, they can bring the world economy to its knees. When OPEC decides it will be so, even a powerful nation with its own oil reserves can end up with shortages of heating oil, lines at the gas pumps, and raging inflation.

Ask any American. Well, ask any American in his thirties.

It seems strange, in a nation that has already experienced two severe "oil shocks" at the hands of Islam, that we know so little about these people, their religion, where they come from, and where they are going. We look upon them as backward, illiterate, inept, "camel drivers," and hold them in contempt. We have no idea what drives them because we know little or nothing of their history. Many assume there is little history to know.

How wrong they are.



THE ISHMAELITES



The Arab peoples are brothers to Israel. They are the descendants of the firstborn son of Abraham. When Abraham and Sarah were old and despaired of having children, Sarah suggested they try something not entirely unheard of even in our world

It's interesting that the author of this piece chooses

to focus on the supposed queer "otherness" of Moslems.

Notwithstanding the lip-service paid to "Islamic

contributions to civilization," we should take note of a

number of contradictory things about his rhetorical

tactics.

For one thing, the imputation of "inscrutability" is a

shopworn tactic of Western imperialism, which has been

used over and over again to justify every sort of bullying

and atrocity against "brown people" for the sake of the

enrichment of European elites since Columbus.

For another, the author himself betrays his own religiously

motivated biases, spending more time on the supposed

Biblical roots of "the Arabs" than on anything so

contemporary as the "energy crisis" and OPEC.

So much for European exceptionalism or the uniquely

theocratic tendencies of Moslem countries. Does the

author really forget that Europe launched the Crusades and

prosecuted them for hundreds of years, precisely to conquer

"the infidels" (principally Moslems) and convert the world

to Christianity by force of arms?

Another peculiarity that betrays the narrowly European

and pro-imperialist outlook of the author is his strange

insistence on the nefarious "control" exercised by

"Arabs" over oil. Supposedly, we are to believe that

this constitutes a unique threat to the well-meaning and

innocent West. But, curiously, the control of a handful of

(mainly US-based) megacorporations, principally from the

auto, oil, petrochemical, and allied industrial complexes

over most of the world's economy poses no such threat.

Nor does the author detect any threat in the control of

the most powerful means of persuasion in human history, the

world's electronic and print media, by another interlocking

group of six megacorporations.

No, instead of locating a threat to the world's peace

and equanimity in the fantastic accumulation of wealth

and power by a handful of the world's richest countries,

corporations, and individuals, it seems all the threats

to our safety and comfort come from "the East," the

perfect bogeyman -- far away, armed, fanatical, ideal

bait-and-switch to justify the continued building and use

of the most dangerous and destructive armaments in human

history, for the protection of the richest, greediest,

and most destructive ruling class in human history.

Especially noteworthy is the classic propaganda tactic

which forms the premise of the entire piece, the threat

of an "Islamic empire," noted in the title. Curiously,

the author notes the fractious nature of inter-Arab and

Middle East politics which would seem to discount the

likelihood of such a threat emerging. Nonetheless, the

fear of this admitted fantasy motivates him to write the

piece, whereas the painfully obvious historical and ongoing

REALITY of Western imperialism never enters the picture.

Interestingly also, notwithstanding the author's argument

for the uniquely theocratic nature of Islamic countries,

it so happens that, of all the Western countries, the

leading one in wealth and power is also by far the most

pious -- the US. US leaders, unique among the leaders of

Western nations, routinely publicly evoke God to justify

and sanctify their political actions. This is also

convenient. George Jr.'s reference to a "Crusade" may

have been halfwitted bumbling as is generally supposed,

but the fact of religious or quasireligious influences

on US regimes, is increasingly a reality. Anyone doubting

this should read up a little on the Reverend Billy Graham

and his close ties with top-ranking rightwing US political

leaders.

Sociohistorians of contemporary American culture have noted

the increasing influence of traditional and historically

right-leaning religious groups in the US, coinciding with

the shrinkage of the public sphere in the latter half of

the 20th century. These trends are closely related to the

rapid spread of suburban sprawl development patterns, and

the resulting breakdown of both rural and urban community

life. Into the void of social atomization and alienation

created by a homogenized, automobile-centric, sterile

nationalized megacorporate culture, religion has stepped,

to provide the "grounding" that has been ground out of

the ordinary lives of people under latterday American

hypercapitalism.

Historically, religious revivalism has been seen as a

threat to elites. "Ye cannot worship God and mammon both"

goes the refrain. Ever since Christ drove the moneychangers

from the temple, temporal rulers have had to devise

means of coopting and neutralizing popular religious

zeal. Nowhere has this cooptation and assimilation to elite

prerogatives been as successful as the US. The rise

of establishment-friendly religious cults has a long

historical development in the country, but has enjoyed

particular success here since the Reagan Administration.

Today, groups such as the Christian Coalition openly rally

their members in support for causes such as "free trade"

and tax cuts for the country's wealthiest individuals

and corporations, causes that would seem distant from the

concerns and motivations of traditional faiths. However,

true to their Puritan roots, leaders of these sects see

no irony in this, nor in the fact that the causes they

champion in many cases are directly contrary and harmful

to the personal wellbeing and self-interest of most of

their members. Indeed, therein lies at least part of the

ideological secret of the success of recent rightwing

US regimes.

I disagree with the first two words, "Unlike Christianity".

Christianity and other religions do seek to regulate society

in general. That is mainly what they do. Alan Watts, a

writer on religion and a former episcopal priest, called

the christian church "a sexual regulation society".

Islam uses physical sanction, ,American Christianity uses psychological sanction and then denies the fact that social ills like mass murder being rampant, suicide( teens especially), psychological disruptions etcetcetc, alcohol and grug use...might have anything to do with the perversion of life energy (christian teachings). The known enemy at least gets conformity. Our denial gets chaos.

Puritans, particularly'methodism', a particularly interesting form of elitism, where wealth , prosperity and position in the world are proof of the favor of god! is contrary to the injunctions of christ himself. but then christianity is mostly contrary to christ. that's what mohamut was a corrective of. an additional social event to correct the perversion of an idea in the hands of mankind. (this does not require a god to make it happen) Well, they all failed. We will never make it to a type one civilization.

Social darwinism, anglo men perverted by life killing religious indoctrination are the basis of our 'capitalism' which is much like drug use, satanism and other debaucheries. Some transcend , some, most don't. The same analysis willl hold true for the board room as in the gutter.

I find the whole thing interesting in that islam ,cristianity and judaism come from the same tradition. ITs like a big family fight. And it ignores every religion from the east of the caucasus mountains, and the far east.

As Hoffman so poigniantly explained. all three are MYCOPHOBIC religions. They repudiate the OLD RELIGION.

Things will be better when they pass from memory and we return to what worked so well, for so many millenia.