Israel vs. Islam: The False Moral Seesaw by Raymond Ibrahim

  Israel vs. Islam: The False Moral Seesaw 

 by Raymond Ibrahim

A recent development—both striking and troubling—has become increasingly difficult to ignore: the seemingly universal tendency to view Islam and Israel as inextricably linked.Across political, ideological, and cultural lines, many observers now treat Islam and Israel as inseparable concepts, locked into a rigid either–or framework. In this view, the two are mutually exclusive: if one is good, the other must be bad; if one is bad, the other must therefore be good. 

This inversion has become particularly evident as Israel faces mounting criticism. For decades, the prevailing assumption ran as follows: if Islam is bad, then Israel must be good. Today, however, the syllogism has flipped on its head. Increasingly, we are told—explicitly or implicitly—that if Israel is bad, then Islam must be good. This is flawed reasoning.

Consider what this assumption entails. The policies and actions of a tiny Jewish state, barely seventy-seven years old, are now said to define—or even redeem—the religion, history, and behavior of nearly two billion Muslims worldwide.

Whatever one’s views of Israel, such reasoning collapses under even minimal historical scrutiny. Historically, Islam has been—and in many respects continues to be—the West’s most persistent civilizational adversary. I have documented this extensively in my own work, from Sword and Scimitar, which examines Islam’s historic conquests of Christendom, to Crucified Again, which details the modern persecution of Christians in the Muslim world.

The historical record speaks for itself. From its very inception in the seventh century, Islam emerged as a militant faith that expanded primarily through violent conquest—above all against Christian lands and peoples. What is today described as the “heart” of the Muslim world—the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from Iraq to Morocco—was once the heartland of Christendom. Islam violently conquered it all.

For centuries thereafter, Islamic forces repeatedly assaulted Europe, the last bastion of Christian civilization. Nearly a millennium after Muslims overran Christian Spain in 711, they stood at the gates of Vienna in 1683. Even the United States was not immune. America’s first war as a nation—the First Barbary War of 1801—was fought against Muslim states that raided American ships and enslaved their sailors.

FULL ARTICLE AT: Israel vs. Islam: The False Moral Seesaw