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Facing Mecca and Reality |
September 2002
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What Went Wrong, by Bernard Lewis
The question Professor Lewis asks has been plaguing the Islamic World for a few centuries. In a nutshell, how has a civilization gone from being the leader and world beater that Islam was a thousand years ago, to what it is now, a place that produces only oil and political extremism.
That last sentence may appear a bit unfair until one considers how great Islamic culture once was in relation to the rest of the world. It was the followers of the Prophet Mohammed, Blessed be His Name, who taught Europe our current number system, invented "0," gave us the names of the stars (e.g., Betelguese), and on and on. And the armies of the Caliphs reach to Tours in France, and to the gates of Vienna -- twice.
In a very readable way, a great student of the question offers many partial answers, and it may be putting words in his mouth if I synthesize them into a universal answer, so this is my own interpretation. Islam has failed because, like Communism before it, it announced itself to be the ultimate truth, and it needed to learn nothing from others. At the same time, it forgot to grow its wisdom and new knowledge rather than revere the words of dead scholars.
As a religion, Islam has made many men and women better people than they were before adopting it. It has contributed greatly to human knowledge and culture. It is losing to the West because rather than adapt to the new ways that have come along (perhaps from God himself?), the culture has chosen to resist them. Islam can progress, but first it must accept that, while man may have heard God's word in full as expressed in the Holy Koran, perhaps he didn't understand all of it. Doubt is an uncomfortable thing, but it does allow us to learn from our mistakes because we recognize them as such.
Order
What Went Wrong.