Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Christian Tolerance, Islamic Jihad

"Twin Towers" by Dolores Wesnak, 2002

My ongoing theme at Our Changing Landscape for the past several posts has been how Islamic culture is influencing Western society, and even transforming it. Here is my article Christian Tolerance, Islamic Jihad, also published at the View from the Right, discussing how Ethiopia, one of the first countries to adopt Christianity, temporarily succumbed to Islam. My argument in that article is that the problem was essentially one of tolerance, and even kindness, which is what Christianity advocates at a fundamental level. Ethiopia's Christian emperors allowed Ethiopian Muslims to infiltrate the country, from the lowest levels to the highest positions, accepting them as equal citizens. But Islam cannot tolerate non-believers - i.e. non-Muslims. The power and positions that Muslims were accorded eventually led to their outright invasion of Ethiopia and a temporary Islamic ruling presence, until the Christian leaders consolidated their forces and ousted the Muslim insurgents.

Although this 16th century tale has a positive ending, contemporary Ethiopia (again!), Europe and America may not be so lucky. There is, though, some hope, at least when assessing Geert Wilders's valient efforts in the Netherlands.