Why the Muslim and Western Cultures Will Continue to Clash

The Muslims consider the American culture as having become totally depraved. The best indication of this to a traditional Muslim is the collapse of the traditional American family. 

Qutb had written, “If free sexual relationships and illegitimate children become the basis of a society; and if the relationship between man and woman is based on lust, passion and impulse, and the division of work is not based on family responsibility and natural gifts; and if the woman is freed from her basic responsibility of bringing up children; and if, on her own or under social demand, she prefers to spend her ability working for material productivity rather than in the training of human beings, because material production is considered more important, more valuable and more honorable than the development of human character, then such a civilization…cannot be considered civilized, no matter how much progress it makes in history or science.” 

From the Muslim point of view, to quote Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of Hezbollah, “The enemies are after Islam. Not the official Islam that moves freely in the royal palaces, but the Koranic Islam. These are the committed Muslims that the enemy seeks to destroy. (And the enemy) calls us extremists, radicals and terrorists.” 

From the Muslim point of view, any culture that threatens the truly devout Muslim’s religious commitment is considered the “enemy”. Therefore, Western culture is the obvious enemy of Islam and America is the leader of all the Western countries.

 Muslim revulsion reaches its apex on the subject of homosexuality. The Koran describes homosexuals as “people of the wrath of Allah”. Most Muslims find the legitimizing of what they perceive as sinful conduct to be disgusting and unspeakable. One can only imagine the Muslim reaction to the CNN televised scenes of homosexual men and lesbian women exchanging marriage vows in San Francisco and Boston. 

They are appalled when people from the West defend these couples on the basis of “human rights”. From a lecture at Cairo’s Al Azhar University: ”We must caution our children against this accursed disease. If these perverts proliferate, the honor of the entire Muslim society will be violated.” One Saudi businessman stated to the author; “You have no idea what goes on in the desert, but this does not mean that Muslims endorse this perversion in our society. If we accept homosexual marriage, what comes next? Are we then to legalize marriage between a man and his camel?”

DYI Comments:  The differences between western cultures and the Islamic nations at its core is women and their connection to family.  When Osama bin Landen was alive he ranted how the west abused our women by being in the work place; that we took advantage of them simply to increase our profit margins; exploiting them to serve strangers(customers) treating women as if they nothing more than consumer products.  American and Western European women along with their men hold a totally different view.  An Islamic household would see this as abuse as opposed to liberation by American/Western European women.

BACK IN TIME

There was a time that we held these similar views of the more traditional household.  Today you will have to find very traditional Catholics, fundamental Protestants or orthodox Jews holding these views regarding women and the family.  During the 1980's and 1990's there was vigorous discussion regarding our "culture wars" in its redefining of family and women.  Of course this change moved though western Europe and the U.S. without violence except for isolated cases regarding abortion.

Technology transformed the family

There was a time having a large family was out of necessity to insure its survival.  More hands the better for doing all of the dawn to dusk farm work. Surplus foods to sell in order to purchase finished products enhancing the family's standard of living.  As farm technology progressed fewer children were needed and larger food surpluses.  All of the excess labor moved into the cities as they spawned the factory jobs.  Advances in medicine, farm equipment, lowering of child mortality large families began their decline.  As we move through time more and more automation are doing away with low skilled work.  As an example for every one assembly line job that went to China 1.7 jobs were automated out of existence.   Education in this high tech age is not just necessary but crucial if you desire to be in the middle class.

"Education in this high tech age is not just necessary but crucial if you desire to be in the middle class."

Children today are a large expense.  Many will not be out of the house with their first "real job" until the age of 23 or possibly 25!  That's a quarter of century!  Hence smaller families.  You have to have fewer child in order to afford putting them through all of the rigors of growing up and becoming educated.

Middle Eastern Countries

Syria
Economically the majority of these countries to be blunt, are backward.  No doubt Europe today along with the U.S. are having political and economic problems, however, nothing compares in scope as exampled Syria (before the civil war). Syria has 25% percentage of their population is/was employed in agriculture.  Only until recently due to drought conditions has pushed that number down to 17%.  Compare that to the U.S. or Canada which employs around 2%.  As western technology arrives in the middle east along with Syria their traditional way of life centered on women and traditional family life is under attack.  Hence the need to strike back at the American/Europeans who are exporting their immorality.  What they are really fighting is technology.  Syria's birth rate was already dropping changing women/family landscape to a more western direction.
 Fertility rate

Country	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Syria	4.06	3.95	3.84	3.72	3.61	3.5	3.4	3.31	3.21	3.12	3.02	2.94	2.85	2.77	2.68

These groups such as al Qaeda or ISIS and others who will follow are able to strike fear; however, they will be unable to turn back the direction of smaller families.  As that occurs women will simply have more time for other pursuits.  Simply stated if a women has two children she will only be pregnant for 2 percent of her life, assuming 3 years between births, entering school at age 7, she will be involved in core motherhood for 10 years.  Assuming a life expectancy of 80 years or 12.5% of her life in direct motherhood.

Those are the seeds of feminism as women spend far less time nurturing children they become less and less dependent on men.  This is why some Islamic cultures have banned women learning how to read or write in their attempt to maintain their dependency.  Unfortunately it is human nature to blame others for the changes in their societies. And those few who become radicalized violence becomes their only solution.  As long as they are unable to obtain weapons of mass destruction (chemical/biological/nuclear) these violent episodes will be a mere pimple in history.  Of course for the families who lost loved one's it never will be small event in history.

Iran

Iran will soon be a pro western style country with many attributes similar to Europe.  Why?
Fertility rate

Country	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Iran	2.2	2.02	2.01	1.99	1.93	1.82	1.8	1.71	1.71	1.71	1.89	1.88	1.87	1.86	1.85

DYI