A Young Religion Sharpens Its Sabers

Two leaders addressed the world Sunday, speaking in different languages, thinking in different religious traditions, describing different goals.

This may be a short fight between the United States of George W. Bush and the Al Qaeda of Osama bin Laden, but it could be a long struggle between two cultures. On one side, Judeo-Christianity: older, softer. On the other side, Islam: younger, harder.

Consider President Bush’s speech. He was determined to be forceful, but he also wanted to be bountiful, dwelling at length on America’s humanitarian goals for the area.

By contrast, Bin Laden openly celebrated the deaths of his enemies and wished for more. America supported murder, he said, citing the death of Palestinians and Iraqis--no mention of the Muslims saved by U.S. action in the Balkans--and “so God has given them back what they deserve.”

Interestingly, while Bush mentioned God just once, Bin Laden invoked God a dozen times. Many factors explain these differences, but one variable, gloomy in its implications for the future, is the respective age of the religions in question. Judaism as a historical phenomenon is about 4,000 years old, Christianity is 2,000 years old. By contrast, Islam dates from the 7th century; as the new kid on the block, it’s still full of fight.

Indeed, a look back at the history of all three faiths shows that the younger the belief, the fiercer. Here, for example, is how the Old Testament Book of Joshua describes the Israelite campaign to conquer Canaan: “And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of his sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded.”

Then came the Christians. Lamb of God notwithstanding, the early believers were mostly lions, which enabled them to beat back Attila the Hun and go on to evangelize not only Europe but also the Middle East and North Africa.

Next up: the Muslims. They were often more tolerant of Christians than vice versa, but nothing in Islamic theology stopped them from being aggressors. Less than a century after Mohammed’s death in AD 632, his followers crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and overran Spain. They rampaged to within 150 miles of Paris until defeated by Charles Martel and his Frankish army at the Battle of Tours on Oct. 10, 732.

After that, the Christians went on the offensive again. In 1095, Pope Urban II delivered a proclamation that read: “I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends.” The result was the First Crusade, which captured Jerusalem in 1099.

According to eyewitness chronicler Raymond d’Aguilers, the triumphant crusaders killed without mercy, slaying even those seeking sanctuary in the Temple of Solomon: “Men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins. Indeed, it was a just and splendid judgment of God that this place should be filled with the blood of the unbelievers.”

No Western leader--Jewish, Christian or secular--talks like that anymore. Instead, like Bush, they want to be known as nice. Which is to say, no Western leader talks like Bin Laden talks today, as many Muslims cheer. Islamic culture, being so many centuries younger than its main rivals, still indulges in ultraviolent rhetoric of revenge and martyrdom.

Most likely, the sharp edges of Bin Laden’s faith will be sanded off by the passage of time, just as happened to Judaism and Christianity as they rattled through the millenniums. But this milding of Islam can’t happen too soon, and it probably won’t happen soon enough.