The Archbishop of Cadbury

Well, it looks like the Archbishop of Canterbury has put his foot in it again. Poor fellow, he was just employing the only tactic he knows, sweet concession and treacly obsequiousness to all but his own faithful. There is a term for the belief that in any clash of wills the other guy is always right, and it's not Christianity. It's called masochism. Christ called upon us to turn the other cheek and to forgive our enemies. I don't recall his saying anything about kissing the ass of every barbarian that comes along.

You don't have to be a Roman Catholic to see the clear superiority of the Pope in this matter. The Pope actually thinks Christianity and the Western Civilization it informed and fostered are worth defending. He understands that Islam is not just another spiritual option, but a competing faith that cannot rest until it either prevails or dies.

Muhammad knew the basic tenants of both Judaism and Christianity. There were plenty of both in Arabia. He chose to concoct his own version of monotheism after they rejected his claims. Who can really claim that from the beginning Islam was an improvement on either faith? Who can read the Koran after reading the Old Testament and not sense that something has been lost rather than added? Who can do the same with the Sermon on the Mount and not feel the same?

Our Medieval forbearers understood that Islam is not so much a faith as a heresy. Islam is a tragic diversion from what is best in the Abrahamic tradition. Islam is stunted, unable to reason beyond one interpretation of one book. It never outgrew its warrior birth. It came into riches in its infancy and never had to develop beyond the easy pickings of the sophisticated peoples it conquered. It can never live in peace with other cultures because at its heart it knows that the shallowness of its theology and the brittleness of it's precepts cannot withstand interaction with more more complex or refined modes of thought. It is forced by its own simplicity to demand respect rather than earning it in the minds of men.

Modern Muslims know that their culture no longer produces men of science or art or learning except in imitation of men of the west. Islam's greatest triumph against the West was to crash one western invention (the airplane) into another western invention (the skyscraper). And this was accomplished by an act of deceit.

The one thing that Islam has is the desperate belief that it is correct despite all the evidence. This desperate and simple belief system can only prevail when it comes into contact with people who lack beliefs. People like the poor simple Archbishop. If he were a worthy Archbishop, he would have called on all the Muslims residing in the UK to respect the customs and laws of the Christian land that they took refuge in and seriously consider adopting the faith that created the wealth that drew them in the first place.