From Rob Tracinski at TIA Daily on the “Arab and Muslim dilemma”:
“The recent terror attacks on Westerners in Saudi Arabia reveal a crucial reason why a deadly clash between Islam and the West is unavoidable in the 21st century–and why only one of those civilizations can survive the clash….
…It might seem as if the focus of our civilization is material: industrial production, fueled by oil–while the focus of theirs in spiritual: the 14-century-old Muslim faith centered in the Saudi city of Mecca. In fact, the Arab world’s only real strength is its oil wealth–while our strength, a force which the Arabs both depend on and fear, is our ideas.
…Pakistani strongman Pervez Musharaff, in an op-ed for the Washington Post, recently described his vision for “Enlightened Moderation,” an article that echoed the same themes as former Malaysian strongman Mahathir Mohammed. The theme of these Islamic “reformers” is this: that the Muslim world needs the economic and technological development that is only possible if they import the education and technical knowledge offered by the West–studying our ideas, adopting our mental habits, and opening the Muslim world up to Western intellectual influence. But both Musharaff and Mahathir are desperately trying to find a way to do the impossible: to open their societies to the benefits of our civilization’s science, while maintaining their civilization’s traditional religious dogmas.”
Read the rest at TIA Daily.