A World without Islam

A World without Islam Graham E. Fuller Little, Brown and Company, 2010 The current book, with its provocative title, is likely to entice those who believe that the Christian West, with the United States as its vanguard, is locked with Islam in a life-and-death struggle, a "clash of civilizations". Current foreign policy is related to this premise and if Islam in general can be contained, and "radical" Islam in particular neutralized, then anti-western terrorism and current troubles in Muslim countries would disappear. However, author Graham Fuller argues that differences in doctrine between Islam and Christianity are not the primary sources of conflict and points out that other social forces would have engaged the West in conflict had there been no Islam. The world would still not be as conflict-free as those who image a world without Islam would like to believe. Fuller's main theme is that religion serves as a vehicle to further social and political ends of the ruling elite - and if a god is truly on our side, then so much the better. Like political institutions, Fuller notes, religions have spent a great deal of time "striving to preserve orthodoxy" and quashing dissent. Religious dogma reflects contemporaneous secular interests and like secular institutions, religions have evolved over time to accommodate changing social norms and ideology. Both theological flexibility and rigidity can be readily observed in Christianity as well as in Islam. It should not be surprising that ruling elites have closely linked religious institutions to secular institutions, to shape social behavior towards a desired end, rather than for the purpose of mass spiritual salvation or enlightenment. Such social engineering has had disastrous consequences for the non-believing segment of the population, particularly for "heathen" minorities. Religious institutions, of course, do not have a monopoly on evoking behavior that leads to mass atrocities, as modern secular states have demonstrated. Thus, a closer examination of "religious-based" violence will frequently reveal profound socio-political and possibly ethnic roots. Fuller states that there is little "serious analysis" of the consequences of US foreign policy actions. In fact, analysis tends to focus on "others" - "why do 'they' hate us" and "why can't 'they' accept America's values" and abandon their "negative intentions". This leads to policies that inflame instead of reduce anti-US hostility. Without actually speculating on what the world would be like without Islam, Fuller argues that other institutions would have come into conflict with the West had Islam not been established. The main value of this book is the historical narration, from the fragmentation of the Roman Empire, the conflict between different factions within Christianity, the rise of Islam within this environment and the experience of non-western regions that have come in contact with Islam. Rather than seeing them as mutually exclusive, Fuller points to the close relationship between "religion, power and the state," and views the "clash of civilizations" through this lens. Religions are "vehicles for political power," a phrase that appears repeatedly in this book. Ethnicity, which "may or may not be augmented" by religious differences, is also viewed as significant, though secondary to political power. In contrast to the ethnic exclusiveness of Judaism, Islam preached universalism, similar to Christianity. However, early Islamic practitioners perceived their religion in ethnic terms, as an "Arab religion" - the Qur'an was written in Arabic and the Prophet was an Arab. Initially, conversions of conquered non-Arab peoples were discouraged. With further expansion out of Arabia into non-Semitic cultures, the need to secure cooperation from multiethnic populations superceded ethnocentrism. Just prior to the rise in Islam in the early seventh century AD, Eastern Orthodox Christianity dominated much of the Middle East. …