Why are we not who we were? Islam’s cultural threat

Part 2: Islam’s march across America and the West

Prominent historian Bromwell Ault speaks to readers across 80 years of observing the American landscape. He notes with extreme caution the dilemma of mass immigration and various incompatible cultures injecting themselves into the American way of life.

Could you give us an idea Mr. Ault as to the long-term ramifications of Muslims and the Islamic faith being imported into America in ever-greater numbers?

“Before engaging the argument of Islam’s place in America and, by extension,” said Ault. “In western civilization there is one essential, but rarely recognized, aspect of culture that should be made clear. Cultures can be, and have been, changed by individual efforts or actions; and by relatively small groups when a few individuals combine their forces.

“Ours is an age of technology ascendant in which basic forms of reporting news and opinion such as local newspapers, magazine and radio stations have been bought, combined and transformed into our mainstream media (MSM) complex to market an array of services or products capable of generating large and ongoing revenues. No longer dominated by their original attitudes and entities, they now comprise the personal, social, political and economic directions that guide our culture.

“In view of this existential transformation of our public media by technology and the combination of its ownership, it is important to restate that cultures (even ours) can be changed by individual efforts/actions.

“No two cultures are the same and all cultures, regardless of similar or identical origins, locations, or histories, show significant differences. And, while we generally think of cultures in terms of a mass rather than an individual scale, we have altered them more often and more significantly than we allow ourselves to admit.

“History offers some interesting examples such as the three extraordinary cultural shifts that occurred in Europe in the hundred years from 1450 to 1550. The first was Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press and moveable type in 1456; the next was Martin Luther’s posting of his theses to reform the Catholic Church.”

THE ISLAMIC MISSION

“First, before venturing into the many difficult areas of risk posed by our cultural engagement with Islam, we must make two things clear,” said Ault. “We believe unequivocally that anyone who comes to America has the right to the free exercise of religion as expressed brief promise has generated a long and intense political, legal and religious argument over its meaning and application.

“Our view and, we think, that of our founders is that religious faith is both a personal matter of multiple characteristics that de ne an individual and also a matter of belief that one is entitled to hold in an open society such as ours. Worship is something else, as it involves the expression of faith in small or large groups beyond the individuals’ borders.

“As most faiths proclaim unique elements/attitudes of divine origins, their peaceful coexistence can be problematic, and even impossible, when their expression requires the restriction or elimination of others.

“As a practical matter we feel that our Constitution guarantees the right to believe but does not guarantee the exercise of that belief if it limits or denies other beliefs, or harms their holders and/or the general public. We think this concept is absolutely basic to an understanding of our democratic government and to many of the thorny issues that have derived from it.

“Our second point of clarification is that contemporary Islam is very much a “mixed bag” of different sects, tribes, economies, boundaries, purposes and degrees of “religious purity”. The most evident confrontation within Islam is between the Arab Sunni Saudi monarchy and the Persian Shiite Iranian theocracy, but there are other lesser ones that have played supporting roles in Islam’s recent rise and challenge to WCIV. Tribes in the Near East (NE) are smaller in population but longer in existence than many of the region’s nations, which have only been created in the past century. As they are divided by a host of local, religious and economic issues, which seem beyond the reach of their governments to solve, the possibility of state collapse is always present.

“The Islam we face today is composed of so many shades, sizes and shapes in constant motion that we are unable to clearly identify their numbers or identity. As a result, we must use the broader term of Islam in referring to both the many parts of the Muslim political process and to expanding Islam as a cultural threat to America and WCIV.

“Islam, through its texts, proclamations, practices and behavior, contradicts our American culture across a wide range of its values and purposes. This is important because it has been true throughout our existence. We have neither the authority nor the means to divide Islam into component parts that can be absolved or held responsible for the very basic differences between our cultures, a tactic favored by multi-culturalists here and elsewhere.

“The important task for our time and government is to recognize the dangers that confront us and let the American people decide whether they should be resisted. Threats to national sovereignty/security can come in multiple forms — military, political, commercial, technological, social and cultural, all ready to be recorded by history.

“Any assumption that Islam can be assimilated into a wider world culture runs counter to everything Islam has claimed as its mission since its founding. It is what it is, and that has been, and still can be, aggressive. Expansive Islam is not part of an ecumenical community of like-minded equals. It is not just another religion we could easily add to our mostly Judeo-Christian mix. It is a controlling faith bent on ordering laws, culture and worship in ways that leave little or, mostly, no room for individuality.

And, where differences of opinion arise, we should expect no discussion groups, as persuasion and enforcement are often one and the same. So again we are faced with the question — “Where, how and by whom will the line of separation between moderate and aggressive Islam be drawn?”

“In America we have come to regard our long history of safety as a God-given right that will always protect us from the loss of territorial and cultural integrity indicated by most wars. And, while modern weaponry is shrinking our safety zone, Islam has a God and energy of its own, which it is in the process of reasserting in both the East and West.

“Returning to our concern for our culture and knowing that it can be influenced and changed by conscious individual or group efforts, we must be aware that Islam’s greatest threat to the U.S. is not on the battle fields of the NE but within the vaguely drawn boundaries of our culture. Very few people recognize the present danger that expanding Islam poses to our traditional cultural identity.”

Contact Mr. Ault: www.centerforpublicconscience.org