End of an era of innocence

English writer and critic Martin Amis offers Americans and Europeans to stop coddling with Islam, do not care about political correctness and look the truth in the face.

Religion - the theme of slippery. In the West, for religious faith today there is no convincing justification - except for their ignorance and reactionary and sentimentality. To the east is not the case: we recognize that in many major countries religious beliefs define the essence of almost every human being. And we agree that faith - is a world-historical force. We also see that all religions have their own terrorists - Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, even. But these religions we are not too worried. We are concerned about Islam.

I want to be understood correctly. We respect the Prophet Mohammed, this brilliant historical personality that combines a revolutionary, warrior and ruler. It is Christ and Caesar "with the Koran in one hand and a sword in the other," wrote Walter Badzhot about it (British economist XIX century. - Esquire). We respect Muhammad. But we do not respect Muhammad Atta (the leader of the terrorist attacks September 11, 2001. - Esquire). We respect Islam. But Islamism? It's hard to respect the spiritual power, calling for our destruction.

Our today's reality - an incredible and can not be represented in the late 1990s. It was a time when America could afford the luxury of a whole year deal with Monica Lewinsky. Now it seems that Monica and Bill lived in an era of innocence. Since then the world has suffered a moral wreck, comparable to the spiritual consequences to the Great Depression of the 1930s. From the West - a colossal surrender, enhanced interrogation techniques, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, two wars, tens of thousands of corpses. All this should be sober compared with the achievements of the opposing ideology. I have to say again that is not very well understood by: most fanatical Islamists want to destroy everything and everyone, except the fanatical Islamists, with any Mujahid considers it necessary to get rid of all non-Muslims - or draw in their faith, or to kill.

Islamists believe that anyone who for the sake of "common cause" tear itself to pieces by a bomb, prepared for heaven. Sam Harris in his book "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the future of reason" emphasizes the completeness and speed of "salvation", which secures a suicide bomber. "Martyrdom - the only way for a Muslim to avoid harsh proceedings, which will in the day of judgment, and proceed straight to heaven. Instead of centuries of rot in the ground, waiting for interrogation, which will lead the angry angels martyr instantly rises in the garden of God .... " In addition to the virgins, "like pearls preserved by" Koran promises suicide bombers wine "from the current source - it does not suffer from headache and weakening" and heavenly immortality of his relatives. And it's not only his good deed for the clan, which until recently could count on a reward of $ 20 000 plus 5000 Iraq from Saudi Arabia.

Suicide terrorism - striking phenomenon foreign to us, so alien that Western public opinion has been unable to rationally respond to it. Of course, very few people want to be subjected to critical analysis piety of the Palestinian mother who, having grown up one of the suicide bomber, expressed the wish that her youngest son followed in the footsteps of his brother. But it's time to stop at least to respect her "anger." It is time to wonder force entrenched and violent ideology, power pathological death cult.

About self-sufficiency or extreme nelyubopytstve Islamic culture, many said. Islamic powers the late Middle Ages scarcely recognize the existence of the West, until they began to lose his battle. The tradition of intellectual autarky was so strong that Islam remained indifferent even to an easily accessible and clearly useful innovations, including, incredibly, to the wheel. But Islam has appeared still susceptible to European influence - to the influence of Hitler and Stalin. Similarities between Islamism and the totalitarian cults of the last century, it is easy to see. Anti-Semitic, anti-liberal, antiindividualisticheskie, anti-democratic and, most importantly, antirational, these cults were also cults of death, which served as a driving force for them and fuel. The main difference - in that paradise that the Nazis and the Bolsheviks wanted to create was the earth, and the soil to fertilize it had millions of corpses. Death to them all the same was death. For Islamists death - is the desired goal and holy; death - this is the beginning.

Suicide bombings - more than terrorism. This horrorizm (from the English. Horror - «horror». - Esquire). This is the ultimate evil. A suicide bomber fueling bitterness against people and their potential victims. Let us recall the massacre of striking with the Brazilian de Menezes in London. Or panic on a bridge in Baghdad on 31 August 2005, provoked by a false rumor. This is the fruit sverhterrora: should whisper a few words, and a thousand people are killed in a stampede.

In July 2005, I flew from Montevideo to New York with my six year old daughter and her eight-year-sister. Now I know that the six-year girls may look suspicious, but my youngest daughter is not the case. Nevertheless, I half-hour wait until the security officer methodically searched her backpack, looking at each crayon, probing toy duck.

It would be nice to find a more accurate word than "boredom" for debilitating numbness that came over me.

We are daughters arrived safely in New York. There's some metro stations in order to combat terrorism police searched all passengers. And I could not help to imagine a future in which the trip by bus is equivalent to flying a plane of El-Al (Israel's airline. - Esquire). In the safety of Long Island I watched TV reports from my home town, where there were still three of my children. Showed Londoners coming July 8 to work on foot, tense and watchful (the day after the bombings in London on 7 July 2005. - Esquire). At that moment I realized how right was Eric Hobsbawm, said in mid-1990 that terrorism is part of the atmospheric "pollution" of Western cities. This cost-effective program. Blow up in New York - contaminate Madrid. Blow up in Madrid - London is dirty.

I suspect that the era of terror will be remembered as the era and boredom. Not that boredom what experience jaded and spoiled, and sverhskuki supplementing sverhterror bombers and give it a complete. Boredom - this is something that our opponent does not feel. Let me explain: the opposite of religious belief - is not atheism. This independence of mind. Speaking of the era of boredom, I do not mean the queues at the airport and searches in the subway. I mean a global loss of independence consciousness.

As fundamentalist Judaism and medieval Christianity, Islam total. This means that the person he claims to be in full. Personality it does not exist, there is only the umma - the community of believers. Ayatollah Khomeini in his multi writings often returns to this theme. In most religions, he says, the faithful believe that if they comply with all the formal requirements in the rest of the time can behave more or less as they please. "Islam is not like" - insists we Khomeini. Islam follows you everywhere - in the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom, and after his death - in eternity. "Islam" means "submission" - the rejection of the independence of consciousness.

In 2002, the gross domestic product of Arab countries was less than the GDP of Spain; Islamic countries are far behind the West and the Far East in terms of production, the creation of jobs, technology, literacy rates, life expectancy, human development, intellectual vitality. Plus factors such as tyranny, corruption, lack of civil rights and civil society. What's wrong? My answer is all the fault of irrationalism, dark logic of depriving the Islamic world the talent and energy of half of its population. The impulse to rational analysis among Muslims now, of course, very weak. But what would happen if we spend most of the next 300 billion dollars (the cost of US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. - Esquire) on the rise of self-consciousness in the Islamic world?

Bitterness inherent in all religions and all ideologies. Every belief system includes a share of illusion and therefore can not defend themselves only on a conscious level. To something insulting or embarrassing believer responds hormonally. Never forget the expression on his face gatekeeper Jerusalem Dome of the Rock, when I lightly suggested that he neglected some calendar ban and let me in. His face, before cool-friendly, a mask, and the mask announced that it now has every right to kill me and my wife, and my children. I realized then that the expression "deeply religious" - a gross abuse of the concept of depth. You can not call something profound because it is the only thing that is available; rather it is a gloss to cover up the void. Millennial Islam - the ideology imposed on religion. One illusion to another. This is not just a trend toward bitterness. Bitterness - that's all there is.

In the case of religion, that is, belief in the supernatural, the past comes into play - not 2,000 years, and about five million. And yet, it's time to show impatience. Intellectually and morally opposition to religion already occupies a strong position. Independent-minded people it is time now to fight for a strong position in the spiritual sense.
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