TORONTO, Canada, September 11, 2002 — For this present generation of North Americans, September 11th was a day like none other; a day that forever altered the way the West looks at itself and the way it looks at the world. It was the day feelings of vulnerability replaced a long-held sense of security; the day the West was forced to look outside itself and ask not only, "who could do this?" but also,"why?"
The answer to the first question was evident early on. And as the days following 9/11 turned to weeks, and the weeks to months, many have attempted to explain the motivations for such evil in answer to the "whys".
In his compelling new book, "What's So Great About America", former White House domestic policy analyst Dinesh D'Souza, offers thoughtful, well-supported insights into the subject, and claims to explain 'Why They Hate Us.' D'Souza clearly believes it's not only natural for westerners to ask the question, but it's also essential for them to recognize the answer.
Harkening back to the Crusades, the author points out that "Islam and Christianity clashed not because they failed to understand each other, but because they understood each other perfectly well."(p. 12). Islamic thinkers possess a profound understanding of western culture, he says, while the vast majority of North Americans hold little knowledge of Islamic principles. Drawing on the works of Muslim writers, D'Souza sets out to educate his readers:
Ibn Khaldun (also known as Abd al-Rahman Ibn Mohammad) was born in Tunisia in 1332. He is best known as a historian, sociologist and philosopher, and as a stand-alone among his contemporaries.
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"(The terrorists) do what they do in the name of jihad, a term that literally means 'striving.' Some Muslims, especially in the modern era, understand jihad as a form of internal warfare in the soul against sin. But the Koran itself urges Muslims to 'slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Seize them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them.'* In his classic work, The Muqaddimah, the influential Muslim writer Ibn Khaldun asserts, 'In the Muslim community, holy war is a religious duty, because of the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.'** These passages convey how Muslims themselves have usually understood their religious mission ... the terrorists who profess the name of Allah and proclaim jihad are operating squarely within the Islamic tradition. Indeed, they are performing what Islam has typically held to be a religious duty." (p. 10)
D'Souza goes on to explain that Islamic thinkers (including bin Laden himself), view western culture as a serious threat to Islam, largely because, "The West is a society based on freedom whereas Islam is a society based on virtue." (p. 22) But if freedom is America's cornerstone, then Christianity is at the core of her foundation, and the author presents the case that it was exactly that foundation that enabled the West to become dominant on the world stage.
"I want to suggest that the reason the West became the dominant civilization in the modern era is because it invented three institutions: science, democracy, and capitalism. These institutions did not exist anywhere else in the world, nor did they exist in the West until the modern era. Admittedly all three institutions are based on human impulses and aspirations that are universal. But these aspirations were given a unique expression in Western civilization, largely due to the influence of Athens and Jerusalem - Athens representing the principle of autonomous reason and Jerusalem representing the revealed truths of Judaism and Christianity."(p. 60 - 61)
What's So Great About America
By Dinesh D'Souza
Copyright, April 2002
Regnery Publishing Inc.
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The author points out that Christian principles also lie at the root of America's socio-political system, saying that her founding fathers accepted the Christian view of man's corrupt nature. Knowing they couldn't transform human nature, the founders created a system that would "thwart the schemes of the wicked and channel the energies of flawed persons toward the public good" (p. 93) all of which have worked in concert to produce the world's greatest society in the twenty-first century; a society where virtue is not enforced by government sanctioned threats and edicts, but is rather, the product of free-will choice. It is a society Islamic thinkers find threatening, precisely because, "America stands for an idea that is fully capable of transforming the Islamic world by winning the hearts of Muslims."(p. 181)
Dinesh D'Souza has written an insightful book that presents logical, well-researched arguments about what it is that makes America exceptional in the world, and why she has come under attack. It is a book that enables westerners both to identify their cultural roots, and to more fully appreciate the unique society this generation has inherited as the gift of those that have gone before. It is a gift they will need to appreciate fully, in order to ensure that it will be a gift they too can pass on to their children.
* The Koran, trans. N.J. Dawood (New York: Penguin Books, 1995), 186.
** Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), 183.
Source: Patricia L. Paddey, Bible Network News
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