The Judeo-Christian world, and Israel is a founding member of this world, has recognized the danger of Islamic spiritual and physical assault on its very foundation. The Judeo-Christian world is trying to find the best way of handling the assault. Among the ways being tested are such as
· Support Secularism (France …) – here the belief is that Muslims may be attracted to secular ideas and in essence stop being the true Koran-guided Muslims
· Encourage Multiculturalism (Germany, UK …) – here the belief is that Muslims may decide to live in peace with Jews and Christians under Western, in essence Judeo-Christian laws, again stopping being the Koran-guided people in non-Muslim pubic surrounding
· Help Moderate Muslims defeat Extremist Muslims (USA …) – here the belief is that there are two Koran-guided Muslim communities – a moderate one and an extremist one, and that Moderate Muslims are like us and they soon may become a majority friendly to Jews and Christians
· Pretend the danger is not of Islamic nature and proclaim Islam is religion of peace (Current US administration …) – here the belief is that the proper words can change the spiritual fundamentals
· Assume the problems with Islamic world are rooted solely in Israel’s “occupation” of West Bank and “oppression” of Palestinian Arabs – here the belief is that after the EU and the USA force Israel to accept Arab demands on creating a fully independent Palestinian state, which would be able to let Iran and Arab friends of Iran militarily assault the State of Israel, Islamists stop terrorizing Europe.
It looks like nothing in the above is reducing the Islamic assault on Jews, Christians, Israel and the entire Judeo-Christian world, and here is why.
Science comes close to the point of proving that the spiritual traits of a human, and not just his/her physical characteristics, are determined by human’s genetic structure. Therefore the genetic structure of a human defines what constitutes “good” and what is “bad”, what we should love and support and what to hate and fight it. Humans with similar spiritual characteristics are congregated into a nation. The majority of humans in a nation have the same understanding of what is “good” and what is “bad” that we should love and support and what to hate and fight it. Since the genetic composition is of probable nature, in every nation there is a minority with other spiritual traits, and this minority is called extremists, dissidents, the fifth column, revolutionaries … However, the internal and external policies of the state of a nation are defined by the spiritual traits of majority.
History is full with the stories of national leaders who tried to lead a nation in the way that contradicts the genetic spirituality of the people – those leaders were able to preserve a “new way” only for a short time, after which everything comes back. In Russia, the Communists in 1917 and then the Liberals since 1991 tried to change the spiritual traits of the Russian people – all of them have failed, and Russia is returning to her native/genetic spirituality. In Germany, the Nazis since 1932 tried to change the spiritual traits of the German people – after the defeat of Nazi Germany all returned there to the original spirituality. In Turkey, Ataturk in 1918 after the defeat in the WWI tried to change the Islamic tradition of the country – now everything is back to its original spirituality. And the history of the world is full with such efforts.
The relations of Jews, Christians, Israel and the entire Judeo-Christian Western world with Islamic world are determined not by the proclaimed attractive slogans but ultimately by the fact that both sides are the people of the Book, and they are guided by their Books. The Jews are famous as the people of the Torah; the Christians revere the Bible, and the Muslims are guided by the Koran. Thus all people are the people of the Book – people of their Books. And even atheists are a sort of people of the Book since they follow the moral prescripts of their Books without acknowledging the Supreme Power as the author. At the core of current adversary relationships of Jews and Christians with Islamists are profound differences in the moral prescripts of Torah/Bible and Koran.
The majority in the Judeo-Christian world believes in the unique moral and economic benefits of Western civilization based on the moral concepts of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible – that is Ten Commandments and their derivatives. They consider their duty to help the rest of the world to realize the advantages of this civilization and to begin gradually moving to this civilization’s moral prescripts. Of course in this civilization there are killers, rapists, terrorists, but these days they don’t justify their actions by referring to the Torah/Bible prescripts – they are sinning against those prescripts.
The majority in the Islamic world follows the Koran’s guidance. For Muslims, Koran is the ultimate life guidance, and Koran is calling for eradication of unbelievers-infidels with no mercy for Jews and some mercy for Christians. All terrorist acts of Islamists against Jews and Christians, all abusive actions against their own women and murderous actions against their people with non-traditional life-style are being made with the reference to Koran’ guidance. While Judeo-Christian world acknowledges and accepts the validity of other religions, Islamic world is trying to eliminate all other religions but Islam.
Thus the spiritual ideals of Judeo-Christian and Islamic worlds differ fundamentally. Not like in the distant past, now the Judeo-Christian world doesn’t mind living in peace with other religions while conducting a spiritual dialog with them. Contrary to this approach, Islamic world doesn’t want any dialog. They conduct terrorist wars with the aim of weakening the will of the Judeo-Christian world to resist both the “peaceful invasion” of Muslims into Judeo-Christian countries and the “peaceful replacement” of the Judeo-Christian spirituality by Islamic one. Of course in Islamic world there are “people of peace” but so far they have achieved little.
If the assessment of the relations of Jews, Christians, Israel and the entire Judeo-Christian world with Islamic world as presented in the above is true, and of course I believe in its validity, the right way of handling the relations between the two worlds is to:
· Recognize that the moderate Islamic majority that favors peaceful coexistence with the others, especially with us the Jews, has not been created and therefore a magic formula for the truly peaceful coexistence is not yet in existence
· Continue nurturing the relations with a moderate community in the Islamic world who is trying to find a common spiritual ground with the Judeo-Christian word (President of Egypt Sisi or King of Jordan Abdullah)
· Preserve and enhance military readiness to suppress any Islamic terrorist actions all over the world to make absolutely clear that the Jews, Christians, Israel and the entire Judeo-Christian world are not going to be intimidated by Islamic terrorism.