Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? by Eric Kaufmann

Author:Eric Kaufmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
Published: 2010-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

Fundamentalist Islam has enjoyed an extraordinary resurgence since the late 1960s, caused by the demise of socialism and secular nationalism. The movement has been carried by competing Islamisms –some stateled, others anti-state –jockeying to outdo each other in fervour. The revival is both cultural and political, but the two cannot be neatly separated. The Salafi ‘Call’ to Islam, which the Saudis bankrolled from the 1960s, also spawned the Salafi-jihadism of Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda’s quest for an Islamic superstate has failed and remains unrealised even at the domestic level because authoritarian regimes have co-opted or crushed the insurgents. But secular liberalism is the lamb that has been sacrificed to appease the Islamists. Governments have given way on cultural policy, curtailing the civil liberties of secular intellectuals, women and minorities, not to mention anyone who just wants to drink, watch television or even fly a kite.

Demography played a backstage role in this drama. Population explosion flooded the cities with poor young people who were receptive to the message of the born-again Islamist intelligentsia. Islamists in turn managed to thwart family planning efforts for two decades, boosting the demographic heft of Islam on the world stage. Paradoxically, as Muslim societies modernise and contraceptives become more widely available, Islamists will open up a growing fertility gap over other Muslims, setting in motion a self-propelling dynamic. Not all Islamists will match Osama bin Laden’s twenty-five children (and counting) or his father’s fifty-four. But ironically, demographic radicalism will gain momentum if Muslim societies open up. Secularism’s triumph, it seems, sows the seeds of its own demise. Heads sharia wins, tails you lose.

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