Islam

When Douglas Wilson was untangling and trying to make something clear a while back he joked … “If we have trouble getting it down in one gulp, perhaps we can borrow a steak knife from Rushdoony or somebody. He was a bit of a crank, but he did know how to make steak knives.”

Rushdoony was great at cutting something down to bite size, using the light of Gods word, and exposing what mans heart was really doing…(side note: Otto Scott noted that Rushdoony had memorized the bible at an early age and that there was never a topic that Rushdoony couldn’t bring scripture to bear on.)

From “A Christian survey of World history” Rushdoony started the Islam section with some basic observastions about Islam. In a contrast to Christianity Mohammad said …“ He is a Muslim who is one outwardly” for Mohammed, righteousness is essentially externalism and Pharisaism. As long as a man goes through the motions of performing certain rites and maintaining an outward form of faith, He is a true believer…

…this externalism led as it always does, to statism. It is not mans heart that needs changing in Islam, but his society…Islam means “ to resign oneself” and Islam calls for the submission to a Moslem social order as mans salvation.

The Koran…its theology is Unitarian and fatalistic. Its goal is the submission of men to a Moslem ruler.

The externalism of Islam led to the ability to organize militarily, but not to govern well. Submission is helpful for military discipline, but in a society it leads to stagnation. Stagnation has indeed marked most of Islam’s history.

Exorcize, try and think of anything innovating ever coming out of Muslim Nations