Monday, November 30, 2020

Islamic Hybridism

This was originally meant to be a Community Post for my YouTube channel, but it ran long. It’s a good deal shorter than the usual essay-length post reserved for Extensive Arguments, and though I have two unfinished Sequence Trilogies that have been pending for eons, and embarrassingly so, I’ll publish this too-long-for-the-community piece over here anyway.

The post being moved here started out as a Poll soliciting answers to a deceivingly simple question. As with my other polls, I added a few short lines to explain the broader context of the query, only to then catch myself snowballing the explanations in order to make doubly sure that no one downplays the gravity of what's being queried. So much for that.


Motivation for the Poll: The string of murders in France and elsewhere in Europe over the last two months, particularly the aftermath-spurred debates over how to solve or mitigate the problem of Islam-inspired violence legally or socially, while avoiding overkill (i.e. human rights violations). To those who have decided that there’s no overkill, or that there’s no point in worrying about overkill, you're probably not the target audience, and I imagine you’re in for a disappointing read.


The intended poll:

 

Non-muslims familiar with the Qur’an are correct to rank-order Muslims in the following way, morally speaking:

 

Cultural Muslims > Moderate Muslims > Devout Muslims > Islamists > Jihadists

 

A: Agree

B: Disagree

C: Agree in theory, but this specific ranking is wrong

D: Ambivalent (on non-empirical grounds / i.e. the value of non-judgmentalism)

E: Indecisive (because we lack some pertinent facts / still pro-judgmentalism)


To answer contextually, you will need to keep reading. (Sorry)