Photo from Der Spiegel
Radical Islam is on the march in Europe. What is its appeal? With a birth rate that is well below replacement levels, Europe needs workers who will pay into a pension system for a rapidly aging population. But there i something more than that. European Christianity’s mainstream has made moral relativism the centerpiece of its philosophy. Unfortunately, non orthodox Judaism is the same in this regard. Abortion is not murder, but removal of a “cell growth”. Marriage, though optional is now no longer exclusively between men and women. People who adhere to traditional world views are now “bigots”.
“Christianity lite” and “Judaism lite” are losing adherents. People are looking for faiths that actually demand something of their adherents. There is a danger that the value of religious freedom could be lost in this spiritual search by rootless seekers. When people lose the distinction between societal, moral commandments and beliefs about spirituality and about particulars of scripture, there is a danger of compulsion in matters of faith.
But compulsion is not the sole province of religious fanatics. Secularists in America fight with zeal to see that religious schools do not get government money, thereby strong arming por people into government schools. The Catholic church is being told it must pay for abortions if they offer health insurance to workers in their facilities. Christians are ridiculed in popular entertainment.
It should not surprise anyone that Der Spiegel, a German news magazine is concerned about the rise of a new breed of radical Muslim preachers. There are real problems with rdical Islam. But the west can not fight radical Islam by watering down its own faith. That will only make the problem worse. There is a spiritual hunger on a well fed continent. And burning our spiritual grain silos will not feed the hungry.
