The Bondi Beach massacre and the recently thwarted attempt by Muslim fanatics to perpetrate another massacre of Jews in Manchester, England- reportedly worse than what had happened in Australia only less than a fortnight ago- demonstrate the undying willingness and ability of homicidal lunatics to wreak havoc on our civilized world. Yet, those incidents, while tragic, constitute only minor components in a much bigger, very insidious, and more comprehensive plan by the Islamists to undermine, marginalize, and degrade Western culture. Instead of the confrontational, violent style of the past as manifested by terror organizations such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, their focus has now largely shifted to the infiltration of Western countries through some cracks and gaps that Western culture has recently developed, something which has made possible the emergence of supposedly well-meaning but certainly ill-conceived cultural perspectives and phenomena such as woke, political correctness, cancel culture, and identity politics, standpoints which have now long departed from their original, stated objectives and have since metamorphosed into a patched-up, anti-Western, oppressive, hateful, intolerant, and vindictive ideology, nourished and sustained mostly by the fuel of emotionalism. It seems that the Islamists’ way of spreading their abominable ideology will now aim at challenging and eroding the cultural values of the Western world and undermining its social fabric to such an extent that this will pave the way for the ascendancy of their warped vision of Islam in the West, or so the Islamists believe.

The reaction to Israel’s war with Hamas, especially in Western countries, has shown quite clearly how Islamist propaganda in alliance with the perverse idealism of the leftists in the West can derail people’s critical faculties to such a degree that even apparently bright young people from Western universities utter some of the most deranged, ludicrous nonsense ever expressed about a topic. That was partly brought about by the enormous amounts of money given to many of those universities by Islamist sympathizers some of whom- at least on paper- are known for being on friendly terms with the West. This development was aggravated by the presence of tens of millions of Muslim residents in Western countries, many of whom wasted no time in jumping on the anti-Western, anti-Jewish bandwagon. What followed was the spread of hateful anti-Jewish rhetoric, the outrageous public burning of the flags of Western countries like the US and Canada in those very countries, the sickening chanting of “Death to America” and “Death to Canada” in the US and Canada, the shamelessly vehement opposition to the public display of the British flag on British soil, the infliction of mindless terror on Jewish people during their celebration of Hannukah and on Western people during their celebration of Christmas, the public display of the ridiculously false “Jesus is Palestinian” drivel on a billboard in New York’s Times Square, and so forth.

While the Western world in particular should continue to keep its armed forces and intelligence capabilities in tip-top condition, one suspects that in the next few decades, the struggle with Islamism is going to be largely intellectual. This means that it will take a long time before Islamism is effectively neutralized. However, waiting is better than wishing. After all, it took centuries before the rough edges of Christianity and Judaism were softened by the likes of the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Age of Enlightenment. Yet, one is inclined to think that the domestication of Islam will ultimately come from the Arabic-speaking world, which is the heart of the Muslim-majority world. Unlike Western intellectuals, secular intellectuals from that region have the tools, knowledge, and experience to challenge, undermine, and defeat the Islamists, no matter how long that takes. Moreover, and again, differently from Western intellectuals, those MENA intellectuals are not restrained by any of the political correctness, cancel culture, woke, and identity politics palaver, nor do they have extensive vested financial interests with Muslim-majority countries preventing them from calling a spade a spade. As a matter of fact, there is much encouraging news on the horizon for the proponents of reason, liberty, and justice: For instance, there have been recent reports, including by the BBC (June 2019), of increasingly growing numbers of people in MENA who have moved away from Islam and into new philosophical stands in support of secularism. According to the BBC, over 30% of Tunisians and over 25% of Libyans have described themselves as “non-religious.” Non-religious people in other Arabic-speaking countries have ranged between 5% to 15% of the population. In addition, this survey has shown that not all Arabic-speaking countries see Israel as the worst threat. In Tunisia, only 14% of the population regarded Israel as the greatest threat, while in Libya only 24% did so. Both of those countries fared better than other countries in the region, including some that are seen as “friendly” towards Israel. For example, Israel was seen as the greatest threat by 79% of the Lebanese, 54% of the Egyptians, 42% of the Jordanians, 36% of the Sudanese, and 27% of the Moroccans. While it has not been officially and categorically announced, recent developments appear to suggest that the number of people renouncing Islam is significantly higher than that of those converting to it. Those who are not affiliated with an established religion worldwide- whether deists, agnostics, atheists, or otherwise- now number over one billion people, the third largest group after Christians and Muslims. The continuous advances in knowledge and science are most certainly on the side of those who are not affiliated with a religion.

The West currently gives the impression of being in a much weaker state than it has ever been in the modern era. Like the story of Shakespeare’s King Lear and that of Leo Tolstoy, the West, of its own volition, has of late decided to renounce to a considerable extent its erstwhile position of power and privilege, apparently in the hope that that would help it form much happier relations with the non-Western world. Sadly, and just like King Lear and Tolstoy subsequently learned- much to their chagrin- such an act of renunciation would only rob one of one’s earlier authority, influence, and prestige, and- even worse- would almost certainly incite others to abuse, disparage, and degrade one. That is exactly what the Western world has been experiencing in the last couple of decades, especially at the hands of the Islamists and their sympathizers. That is yet another reason why the final defeat of Islamism can and will only come from MENA. One trusts that King Lear and Leo Tolstoy would have agreed.

About the author

Husam Dughman is a Libyan Canadian political scientist, religious thinker, linguist, and an expert on immigrants and refugees. He received his formal education in Libya and the UK. Mr. Dughman later worked as a university professor of political science in Libya. Due to confrontations with the Qaddafi regime, he resigned from his university position and subsequently worked in legal translation. Mr. Dughman has been working with new immigrant and refugee services in both Canada and the US since 2006.

Husam Dughman has published a book entitled Tête-à-tête with Muhammad. He has also written numerous articles on politics and religion. He has just completed the full manuscript of a book which he hopes to have published in the near future. The new book is an in-depth examination of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and the non-religious school of thought.