Europe Must Convert to Islam: Muammar Gaddafi

No doubt it is but a publicity stunt in order to get media attention.  And to some extent it worked.  The distinguished French newspaper Le Monde quickly picked up Gaddafi’s claim.  As of this moment (15h00), the New York Times has not mentioned it.  As I read the story, I asked myself three questions: (1) Is there any chance of Islam being accepting of other religions?  (2) Is it reasonable to expect a public outcry from other Muslims?  (3) Will there be a public outcry from others?

Imagine the Pope or a Cardinal asserting that Europe should return to the days of old and fully practice Catholicism.  There would surely be a public outcry on the part of many.  The Pope or Cardinal would surely be branded as intolerant of other religions.  And then Muslims would talk about the extent to which there is such unwarranted hostility towards Islam.

But is this a one way street?  Is that while other religions can be hostile towards Islam, there is no such thing as hostility on the part of Islam towards other religions because, after all, the thought is none other than Islam rightly sees itself as superior to other religions and in Muslims publicly asserting the superiority of Islam what we have is nothing more than the truth being asserted. 

The concern that I have just raised has two dimensions to it.  One is the issue of religious tolerance on the part of Muslims.  The other is the insistence on the part of non-Muslims generally that Islam be tolerant of other religions.  I do not hear cries of tolerance from Muslims.  It is particularly noteworthy, though, that I do not hear cries of tolerance from non-Muslims.  And that concerns me greatly.

In terms of social practices, few things are more objectionable than double-standards.  If the Christian and the Jew are expected to make all sorts of public gestures with regard to sanctity of all religions, especially the three monotheistic ones, then the Muslim should be held to that standard at well. 

To state the obvious, it is clearly racism against Muslims to insist that all Muslims are terrorists.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  But just as it is not wrong and discriminatory to insist that in the United States, there will be no marriage between Muslim men and girls who are barely in their teens, it is not wrong and discriminatory to insist that Muslims adopt a public posture of tolerance towards other religions.

Not to insist that Muslims adopt such a public posture is to give Muslims and Islam a public standing that we shall surely come to regret.  Not to insist that Muslims adopt a public posture of accepting all religions as viable—especially three monotheistic religions—is to give Islam a standing of superiority vis-à-vis other religions.  And that is wrong. 

Here another way of putting the point: Being respectful of Islam cannot possibly entail any form of self-deprecation.  Yet, a form of self-deprecation is precisely what we engage in when in the name of equality and respect we are very vocal in our instance that Christians and Jews to be tolerant of one another, but we seem to lose sight of the validity of this ideal when it comes to holding Islam to the very same level.  

Lest there be any confusion, I take the private-public distinction to be a valid one, an obvious one, and a fundamentally important one.  I understand that no one in the throes of her or his particular form of religious worship, either alone or with others engaging in the same worship practice, is going to extol the virtues of some other religion.  That borders on absurdity.  In public, though, we can with perfect consistency acknowledge that other religion have holiness as their aim.  Being respectful of other religions, we require no more of us than that acknowledgment. 

This brings me back to Mr. Gaddafi.  His assertion that Europe must convert to Islam was most callous and insensitive to the reality that Christianity and Judaism have holiness as their aim.  And the deafening silence of those who would waste no time criticizing a Christian or a Jew who make a like statement bespeaks a horrendous hypocrisy that I am ever so confident will come back to haunt them.  

I cannot imagine a liberal tolerating such a claim on the part of a Christian or a Jew.  It will ever so wonderful day when I can also say that I cannot imagine a liberal tolerating such a claim on the part of a Muslim.