Islam’s Secret Pagan Past Is Driving Its War on Secularism

Since the roots of Islam lie in tribal Arabian paganism, which worshipped idols and images, the response of Islam to the secular age is inherently violent. In Islam there exists a mechanism that sees unbelief as a threat, and this threat already existed in the Arabian Peninsula in the time of the Jāhiliyya. In fact, Islam perceives in the secularist a reflection of the Arab himself before he converted to Islam; therefore, this rejection is so absolute, it is in essence a rejection by the Muslim of his own pagan past.

This is somewhat similar to the Crusaders from Germanic lands who traveled in the name of the cross to defeat the infidels, when in fact they themselves had been idol-worshippers only a few centuries earlier. Thus, jihad in the name of religion is nothing but a mechanism of struggle arising from hatred toward the “secular self” within every believer, whose foundations are rooted in the tribal Arab culture upon which Islam was overlaid. Therefore, when Islam embarks on holy jihad against the infidels in Christian lands or in Israel, it is in fact waging war against its own past. This is a convenient way to cope with the increasing forces of secularization.

Another way we see how contemporary Islam has hidden secular features is in its wide adoption of cultural Marxism or post-colonialism as tools of critique. A culture grounded solely in a monotheistic metaphysical worldview would have great difficulty internalizing Marxism so deeply, as a critical mirror turned toward the outside world. Only a nihilistic, materialistic foundation latent in Islam, which indeed is revealed in its imagery of paradise and the afterlife—can so easily absorb such a godless foundation.

Thus, the adoption of secular Marxism on the one hand, directed against supposedly secular enemies, and jihad based on tribal, secular wars against the infidels on the other, are at present the two ways in which Islam confronts secularization—perhaps not with such little success after all.