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It is interesting. There are a number of members of this community that see an Islamic take over of the world. I suppose anything is possible.

However, here is the problem I see. Muslims are basically tribal at heart. T.E. Lawrence found that out in WWII. He spent a lot of time forming alliances with Bedouin and Arabic tribes to combat the Nazis in Saudi Arabia, and the Axis powers. But he found out that at the time his alliances were most needed, his tribes were absent. He found that being tribal meant that the true allegiances were to their own tribe, not the bigger enenmy. If something better came along, their allegiances shifted accordingly. Islam is basically a tribal religion.

Alright having said that, the Middle East and the Muslim today is not the same as in the days of Lawrence. We are no longer fighting isolated Bedouin tribes in a vast sand ocean. Social media, the Arab Spring, and a shrinking world had made the average Muslim in the Middle East somewhat more sophisticated.

However, it is still a tribal world view, just on a larger world stage. The fight between Shia and Sunni would stop any attempt to make the world Muslim. The shifting allegiances and competing interests would stop them in their tracks before they got traction. It is not a religion that could maintain a world domination. It would eat itself from the inside out.

t1nick 8 Apr 23
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I've been reading all the comments below, and not one mentions the third largest, and most cohesive, branch of Islam. A faction whose guiding principle is to integrate into the local community, aiding and improving it with no "missionary" zeal to convert it to Islam.
Any idea of which innocuous branch I am writing?

Are you referring to Wahhabism?

@Marionville @maturin1919 The branch of which the Aga Khan is the spiritual leader. Many people don't even realise that the Ismailis are a muslim sect.

@Petter it’s a branch of Shia-ism isn’t it?

@Marionville Technically yes, but about as close to main stream Shia as Anglican is to Roman Catholic, with Orthodox representing Sunni.

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For contrast the Christians stopped a lot of their infighting when they decided to just identify as Christians first and not as a specific denomination. There are exceptions of course but that allowed them to come together as a single force here in the US.

I would respectfully argue that they on the surface seen to be united. But under the surface they are as divided as any group.

@t1nick My point was that they're generally not trying to kill each other these days though like the sunnis and shiites are. Meaning muslims have a chance to change and present more of a united front like you wrote about.

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I think it’s a mistake to believe that there is such a thing as a universal Islamic philosophy of conquest. Just like Christianity, there is no universal interpretation of Islam. I have travelled and lived in Muslim countries, such as Malaysia, and never found the majority to be anything other than welcoming and kind, and pretty tolerant of other religions. As you have pointed out, just as in Christianity, there are sects and schisms. There are fundamentalists in both religions too, and there are those who would kill members of an opposing sect just as quickly as those of a different faith or none. The current jihadists hate anything liberal or progressive and modern, and want to halt and even regress the advances of the last 2000 years. That is except when technology such as the internet and mobile phones help them to advance their pernicious ideology! That isn’t so different from the fundamental Christians trying to return us to biblical times either, is it? The thing is, the clock can not be turned back....once the genie is out of the bottle it can’t be squeezed back in again. It is fanciful at best to think that Islamic State or any other group will ever be able to wipe out the civilisation of the last two millennia. They can however, create havoc and sow fear amongst us, but it’s up to us not to allow that to happen.

So true, Islam, Chriatianity. Buddhism, none are monolithic. I was arguing a point presented by another member who insists Islam is monolithic and all evil at that and is going to take overbthe eorld in our lifetime.

@t1nick I realise that...I was actually in agreement with you.

@Marionville TY

@t1nick NW.

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Well put. As much time as various Islamists spend fighting adherents of other religions (or no religion), they spend a greater amount of time and effort fighting one another over factional disputes.

Islam is currently in the same historical state that Christianity was in the high Middle Ages, split between contending kingdoms. It was that which brought about the Pope's call for a Crusade to reclaim Jerusalem and reunite the religion. The same can be said for those Muslims who urge their followers to spread their faith to the rest of the world through violence; they are in a medieval mindset, unfortunately possessing 21st century weapons. Their existence also calls forth a medieval response from certain Western minds, who want to meet them with sword and fire. And waterboarding.

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