Islam Rediscovered
12. Islamic Fundamentalism
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of western civilization were the oppressors, while
the Muslims were the oppressed.
However, in actual fact, the internal degeneration of
these Muslim empires had reduced them to the
state of wood infested with white ants. It would
only have been a matter of time before they
collapsed on their own. It was only by a fortuitous
concatenation of events that the military might of
western civilization was ostensibly the cause of
their fall.
Be that as it may, the upshot of this was that the
entire Muslim world became averse to western
nations. At an earlier period this aversion had
already manifested itself towards the British and
the French, and then somewhat later towards the
U.S.A., for, in actuality, it is the Americans who
have been leading the western since the end of the
second world war.
Now, I should like to identify and analyse the origin
of the present extremist aspect of Islamic
fundamentalism, which has made such a rapid
descent into violence. The principal reason for it
having come into being in this virulent form has its
