Spengler: Jihad is the sacrament of Islam to achieve eternal life
Spengler has a profoundly disturbing piece today on Jihad as the redeeming sacrament of Islam, just as Catholicism has its sacraments. It is a terribly depressing piece, but we do not find fault in its logic.
Why is self-sacrifice always and everywhere the cost of eternal life? It is not because a vengeful and sanguineous God demands his due before issuing us a visa to heaven. Quite the contrary: we must sacrifice our earthly self, our attachment to the pleasures and petty victories of our short mortal life if we really are to gain the eternal life that we desire. The animal led to the altar, indeed Jesus on the cross, is ourselves: we die along with the sacrifice and yet live, by the grace of God. YHWH did not want Isaac to die, but without taking Abraham to Mount Moriah, Abraham himself could not have been transformed into the man desirous and deserving of immortal life. Jesus died and took upon him the sins of the world, in Christian terms, precisely so that a vicarious sacrifice would redeem those who come to him.
What distinguishes Allah from YHWH and (in Christian belief) his son Jesus is love. God gives Jews and Christians a path that their foot can tread, one that is not too hard for mortals, to secure the unobtainable, namely immortal life, as if by miracle. Out of love God gives the Torah to the Jews, not because God is a stickler for the execution of 613 commandments, but because it is a path upon which the Jew may sacrifice and yet live, and receive his portion of the World to Come. The most important sacrifice in Judaism is the Sabbath - “our offering of rest”, says the congregation in the Sabbath prayers - a day of inactivity that acknowledges that the Earth is the Lord’s. It is a sacrifice, as it were, of ego. In this framework, incidentally, it is pointless to distinguish Judaism as a “religion of works” as opposed to Christianity as a “religion of faith”.
To Christians, God offers the vicarious participation in his sacrifice of himself through his only son. That is Grace: a free gift by God to men such that they may obtain eternal life. By a miracle, the human soul responds to the offer of Grace with a leap, a leap away from the attachments that hold us to this world, and a foretaste of the World to Come.
There is no Grace in Islam, no miracle, no expiatory sacrifice, no expression of love for mankind such that each Muslim need not be a sacrifice. On the contrary, the concept of jihad, in which the congregation of Islam is also the army, states that every single Muslim must sacrifice himself personally. Jihad is the precise equivalent of the Lord’s Supper in Christianity and the Jewish Sabbath, the defining expression of sacrifice that opens the prospect of eternity to the mortal believer. To ask Islam to become moderate, to reform, to become a peaceful religion of personal conscience is the precise equivalent of asking Catholics to abolish Mass.
Islam, I have argued for years, faces an existential crisis in the modern world, which has ripped its adherents out of their traditional existence and thrust them into deadly conflicts. What was always latent in Islam has now come to the surface: the practice of Islam now expresses itself uniquely in jihad. Benedict XVI has had the courage to call things by their true names. Everything else is hypocrisy and self-delusion.
Salman Rushdie said “It wasn’t always like this - this religion of permanent outrage. This isn’t the religion I grew up with…” So why is it happening now? Part of the answer is oil, part is global communications, and part is the great leap forward of the West over the last 130 years in technology, wealth, and licentiousness. Thus we have an existential crisis. But it is not clear to us that it is simply an existential crisis for Islam, as Spengler says. It is both an existential crisis for Islam and for the modern world in its current form. For the West and the modern world to prevail, we need the likes of Sam Harris and his friends to join that battle, and to date they have been consumed with fighting the wrong enemy.
UPDATE
A note from Ayman al Zawahiri on the connection between Jihad and salvation might be apt
September 19th, 2006 at 8:14 am
[...] Dinocrat quotes both Spengler and Salman Rushdie. [...]
September 20th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Sir,
It is an irony that Pope chose to deride the prophet of Islam for his concept of Jehad as “evil and inhuman” which is a form of self defense - both spiritual and physical.Pope the infallible being the vice regent of god on earth had to apologise, which belittled his own stature became the ‘first Pope the fallible’.
Before accusing the prophet Pope should have read the history of Christianity which it self is filled with blood shed and arson. During the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 AD the invasion of Moorish Spain, tens and thousands of Muslims and Jews were butchered as they refuse to convert to Catholicism. In North America they annihilated the whole race of Red-Indians. In South America and Australia the Aborigines were reduced to a miniscule minority due to systematic purging. When the Catholics regained Jerusalem in 1099AD about 70,000 jews and muslims were beheaded. In India after the failed mutiny of 1857 the roads of Delhi, Meerut, Lucknow in India saw the blood bath of Hindus and Muslims for months together. In contrast to this when Mohammed the jehadi, invaded Mecca in 630AD about 10,000 Jews, Christians and pagans inhabitants who for 20 years had prosecuted, tortured and driven him out to Madina were all pardoned without any blood shed. Instead of reading evangelical literature and medieval king’s distorted history Pope may read “Rise and fall of Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon” the famous European historian to get the true history of Islam and Christianity.
Yours truly,
M.Abdaal Akhtar
36/2 Ashoknagar
Bhubaneswar-500-017
Tel- 2530050
May 9th, 2007 at 2:15 am
About 3 years ago I dropped into a black hole – four months of absolute terror. I wanted to end my life, but somehow [Holy Spirit], I reached out to a friend who took me to hospital. I had three visits [hospital] in four months – I actually thought I was in hell. I imagine I was going through some sort of metamorphosis [mental, physical & spiritual]. I had been seeing a therapist [1994] on a regular basis, up until this point in time. I actually thought I would be locked away – but the hospital staff was very supportive [I had no control over my process]. I was released from hospital 16th September 1994, but my fear, pain & shame had only subsided a little. I remember this particular morning waking up [home] & my process would start up again [fear, pain, & shame]. No one could help me, not even my therapist [I was terrified]. I asked Jesus Christ to have mercy on me & forgive me my sins. Slowly, all my fear has dissipated & I believe Jesus delivered me from my “psychological prison.” I am a practicing Catholic & the Holy Spirit is my friend & strength; every day since then has been a joy & blessing. I deserve to go to hell for the life I have led, but Jesus through His sacrifice on the cross, delivered me from my inequities. John 3: 8, John 15: 26, are verses I can relate to, organically. He’s a real person who is with me all the time. I have so much joy & peace in my life, today, after a childhood spent in orphanages [England & Australia]. God LOVES me so much. Fear, pain, & shame, are no longer my constant companions. I just wanted to share my experience with you [Luke 8: 16 – 17].
Peace Be With You
Micky
June 18th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
By Ozer Khalid
Award nominations, Nobel laureates and peace prizes have always been etched with tinges of political color. Orhan Pamuk being a case in point. It is sad that a royal knighthood also fall prey to such biased political hues.
http://ozerkhalidphotos.blogspot.com/
July 11th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Perhaps you see no fault in Spenglers logic, but logical argument is only as good as the assumptions and axioms it is built upon.
As Muslim, I do not agree with his conclusions, and doubt his assumptions are correct. To paraphrase a Muslim scholar I have met and respect: “If this is how you interpret Islam, then I’m glad you are not a Muslim.”
September 10th, 2008 at 1:19 am
It would be very helpful if the religion of Islam would produce a clear catlogue of creeds as have the Christians. I can’t figure out a religion interpreted by every individual teacher.
If one exists, please refer. Thank you