A world without Islam

By Seth Brown     2/3/11 6:00pm

Fourteen hundred years ago, the prophet Muhammad began receiving revelations from God that led to the creation and subsequent rise of Islam in the Middle East. But what if Islam had never come to be? Author Graham Fuller, the former vice chair of the National Intelligence Council and a former CIA Station Chief in Kabul, argued that the relationship between the West and the Middle East might be remarkably similar to how it is today.Fuller, who spoke Jan. 27 at the James A. Baker Institute III Institute for Public Policy, said that even before Christianity, there were conflicts between the East and West - such as the wars between the Greeks and Persians - and the relationship between the Western Church in Rome and the Eastern Church in Constantinople deteriorated over time. When the two finally split, Fuller said that, despite the official religious explanation, the real causes of the split were similar to those he said have led to the current conflicts between East and West - not religion, but factors like politics, economics, power, geography, imperialism, colonialism and intervention into the Muslim world.

"If most of the Middle East had remained Christian, would they have welcomed imperialism?" Fuller asked. "Would they welcome constant warfare and invasion?"

Fuller, who published the book A World Without Islam in August, said the title was deliberately provocative but was not meant to suggest that a world without Islam would be a better place.

---

---

"The book is really meant to shake up traditional thinking about the conflict between the East and the West," Fuller said. "You can explain huge amounts of what is going on today even taking out this Islamic factor."

Fuller said that states often try to find higher justifications for their actions in religion, but noted that religion is not the only possible source of such justifications.

"It's absurd to suggest that religion itself is the source of this conflict," Fuller said. "We know human nature well enough to know that we will find reasons."

Recognizing whether or not Islam is the key source of conflict is very important, Fuller said. He said if Westerners recognize the role of the long history of Western intervention in the Middle East instead of blaming Islam, then, while it may be difficult to recognize what each side is responsible for, it will prevent a religious conflict.

"We need to get away from the simplistic argument that Islam is the problem," Fuller said. "History did not begin with 9/11."

Jones College freshman Clinton Willbanks said he thought Fuller's point was representative of today's complex global society.

"It's a different perspective than what you normally hear in the news," Willbanks said.

Economics graduate student Emre Coskun said he thought Fuller's analysis was both objective and realistic.

"I wish the U.S. politicians would hear what he said and take the necessary precautions," Coskun said.

---