Some Reflections on Islam

In the Seventh Century, an Arab merchant in Mecca proclaims himself a prophet, the final prophet, The Prophet, the instrument of divine revelation. Muhammad, a complex man, a man of contradictions, possibly touched by the Hand of the Lord, but a man of violent emotions, sometimes rash and impulsive. Perhaps the most gifted man of his era, an inspiring leader, a superb military tactician, almost a force of nature - he is terribly flawed as a person, an enviable man, not necessarily an admirable one. Gratefully receiving the hospitality of Jews when forced to flee from his enemies, he devotes special efforts to win them over to his teachings, then gives way to bewildered rage when they refuse to accept him as Prophet. Nor is his personal conduct particularly praiseworthy in other respects.
After Muhammad's death, his lieutenants lead the conquest. Boiling out of the Arabian peninsula, columns of hardened soldiers astride camels, mules, and horses knife into exposed portions of the decadent Byzantine empire. Sometimes accompanied by burning and looting, killing in the heat of battle ... and after ... Islam spreads from Mecca to Damascus, to eastern Asia, to north Africa, and as far west as Spain.
Islam, a religion of conquest, a rigid, militantly intolerant, all-consuming culture, and yet... Islamic rulers became patrons of the arts and conservators of lost cultures, even encouraging learning and free inquiry. Islamic thinkers revitalized mathematics in the Middle Ages, contrived Arabic numbers, adopted the concept of zero, laid the foundations of astronomy (naming the very stars!). Islamic rulers brought together scholars of different faiths, provided sanctuary to the persecuted, created the marvelous Moorish architecture.
Maimonides, one of the greatest Jewish scholars found a home in 12th century Cordoba. The Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries became a refuge to Jews hounded out of western Europe (they became the armorers of the Sultan's armies). And yet... Islam periodically turned inward, swung toward rabid fanaticism, turned viciously conservative. Maimonides had to seek refuge elsewhere, and the Jews of the Ottoman Empire stagnated while the Enlightenment overtook western Europe.
Schisming into hostile factions, diverted from its path of universal brotherhood by tribalism and nationalism, contaminated by the mystique of the Assassin cult, Islam lost sight of its original ideals. Islam resists modernizing influences, and in some places still tolerates slavery and the oppression of women, even such abominable practices as female genital mutilation. It intrudes into secular politics, and denies a separation between Church and State. It rejects the notion of compromise, of pragmatism, of living in the "real world".
Yes, certainly Christianity and Judaism have their dark side. Mobs in present day Karachi scream "Death to Americans" and stone women appearing in public without a veil. Still, in Alexandria, in the Fourth Century, a Christian mob brutally tortured, then murdered the mathematician Hypatia, for the heinous crime of being a woman. Nor did Islam ever come up with anything quite as nasty as the Holy Inquisition.
And as for Judaism, there is always the biblical story of Dinah and Sichem. *
Perhaps, given another six centuries or so, Islam will "mellow" to the same point as mainstream Christianity. In a nuclear-armed world, though, can we be that patient? The Islamic nations need to be integrated into the world community, and Islam itself needs to cast off the shackle of the Dark Ages.
Islam itself is past due for a "Reformation," a massive reform movement that will erase, or at least mitigate many of its destructive flaws. Progressive Islamic sects, such as the Sufis, point the way toward an end to an adversary mindset. The Bahais admit to prophets after Muhammed, certainly a dangerous innovation for orthodox Muslims, but one whose time will, must come. The compulsory "haj", or pilgrimage to the shrines, has outlived its usefulness as an expression of faith, and has become an instrument of exploitation and a revenue source. An inner haj, or journey into one's self, would have a much more meaningful transformative effect on the pilgrim. Islam needs liberalizing influences, and a way of dealing with such pathological excrescences as Wahhabism and other brands of extremism.
The only alternative is a perpetual, on-off war between the militant Islamic states and the rest of the world ... a war that could very well lead to the fall of civilization.

* Then there are the monstrous crimes committed by secular states, whether the Armenian genocide carried out by the Ottoman Turks or the genocides, mass murders, and atrocities of the Nazis and Communists.

Possibly there exists the potential for evil in everyone - and religion, or politics, or pretty much any excuse can trigger its expression.