In a chapter on The Theory of Islamic Renewal, Walberg introduces us to theoreticians, converts and writers on Islam, presented according to geographic area. Their number will come as a surprise to readers whose awareness of Islam is limited to what is provided by the mainstream media, as part of its focus on the horrors committed by ISIS. (It fails to mention, for example, that beheading is the way approximately sixty criminals are put to death per year in Saudi Arabia, or that ISIS gains the support of populations under its control by implementing the Muslim Brotherhood's decades-long policy of secouring the poor - as does Hamas in the Gaza strip.)
Finally, Walberg spells out the political aspect of the Sunni/Shia divide, which is consistenly ignored by most people writing about the West's problems with Islam. That the Shi'a have traditionally been the downtrodden is made clear: the Iranian revolution did not come out of nowhere.
Walberg's monumental work is required reading for anyone seeking to view current events in their broader dimensions.Beyond the current threat of ISIS lie fundamental questions of civilization, which are coming to the fore in the standoff between the United States and Russia. That standoff has two separate facets: the one emphasized by the West is about territory: hungry for Russi'a vast mineral resources, Washington accuses Russia of violating international norms by returning Crimea to its centuries-long status as part of Russia, and of backing Ukrainian separatists, while the US is innocent when it engineers a coup d'etat against the democratically elected Ukrainian President with the goal of setting up on Russia's doorstep, the better to undermine it.
This is what is reported, more or less accurately, in the news. But beyond the political aspect of the standoff lies a cultural chasm, illustrated by Vladimir Putin's rejection of consumerism and vulgarity, that is shared by the growing anti-globalization movement as well as the Muslim world that comprises a fifth of humanity. Walberg writes: "Traditional Islamic society operated on the principal of social order where sanctions on behavior and promotion of art were intended to strengthen society, not aritifically create excitement, tension and turmoil as in the west today."
Belatedly giving Samuel Huntington his due, I believe that if Washington's aggressive policies do not end in a nuclear holocaust, the coming world face-off will be cultural: against US-led globalization as the engine that drives what I call vulgarity and Putin, as well as many other leaders, call decadence: the endless promotion of 'stuff' and 'fun' that transforms sentient beings into mindless consumers, indifferent to what their governments are doing both to themselves and other human beings across the world. And although I have been an atheist since the age of then, I belive that Islam will play a major role in that ultimate Great Game.
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