Left Flank

What if Islam never existed?

It's an intriguing question. But Graham E. Fuller spares no praise for a world where art was inspired by the Qur'an, or where God-intoxicated men devote themselves to study or ecstatic activity, like the Sufis. Still, the bare geopolitical outlines of a world without Islam is not unrecognizable:

This, then, is the portrait of a putative «world without Islam.» It is a Middle East dominated by Eastern Orthodox Christianity—a church historically and psychologically suspicious of, even hostile to, the West. Still riven by major ethnic and even sectarian differences, it possesses a fierce sense of historical consciousness and grievance against the West. It has been invaded repeatedly by Western imperialist armies; its resources commandeered; borders redrawn by Western fiat in conformity with its various interests; and regimes established that are compliant with Western dictates. Palestine would still burn. Iran would still be intensely nationalistic. We would still see Palestinians resist Jews, Chechens resist Russians, Iranians resist the British and Americans, Kashmiris resist Indians, Tamils resist the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka, and Uighurs and Tibetans resist the Chinese. The Middle East would still have a glorious historical model—the great Byzantine Empire of more than 2,000 years' standing—with which to identify as a cultural and religious symbol. It would, in many respects, perpetuate an East-West divide.

Fuller asserts that "ethnicity, nationalism, ambition, greed, resources, local leaders, turf, financial gain, power, interventions, and hatred of outsiders, invaders, and imperialists" are more bedrock causes for the tensions in the region. "In the face of these tensions between East and West, Islam unquestionably adds yet one more emotive element, one more layer of complications to finding solutions. Islam is not the cause of such problems." Indeed, Islam might be a saving grace.

Fuller's argument is pertinent especially when conservative commentators like William F. Buckley (5:25) talk about the "Christian alternative". I wouldn't dispute the existence of religious support for political concepts, like freedom, but the Church history contradicts its own scriptural support. If scrolls imbued with false divinity can cause Christian practitioners to pause, then, if Fuller is correct, so might Muslims seek a reason not to quarrel over those deeper human truths.