Thought Contagion

A FEW WEEKS AGO I SEARCHED Google to see if someone had written about Islam as a meme (if you don't know what a meme is, click here). I found several articles, but none were what I was looking for. Then I came across an excerpt from the book, Thought Contagion. It was exactly what I was looking for. And I already owned the book and had even read it! But when I read it, the World Trade Center was still standing and the information was only mildly interesting. Things have changed, and I was reading it like it was the first time.

The author, Aaron Lynch, looked at several institutions in his book — families, politics, and religion — and in the religion section, he looked at most of the major religions. Including Islam. What can memetics (study of memes) tell us about Islam and the trouble in the Middle East?

Memetically, Islam is a very successful memeplex (group of memes). Several embedded memes help make it so. For example:

If Muslims drift away from Mohammed's teachings, God will end the world. That makes converting others and promoting Islam a matter of survival. It also motivates Muslims, as Lynch points out, "to dissuade each other from losing faith."

It is a requirement of Islamic faith to make a public prayer five times a day. The unusual posture attracts attention, and the prayers can be heard by nearby people. This helps the religion spread. And the fact that the Muslim is repeating his prayers five times a day makes it very easy for him to stay focused on his religion. It would be almost impossible for him to forget his beliefs.

Islam is different from other religions in at least one important way: It began at a time and in a place where no empire constrained its spread. In other words, if you start a religion within the Roman Empire, you're going to have certain limitations. The Romans would see any new religion — especially a militant or political religion — as a threat to its power and would make sure you stayed peaceful. A religion that preached tolerance and goodwill toward others might survive, but a violent or militant or political new religion would be quashed immediately.

But Islam had no such restriction when it began, so it could incorporate "conversion by warfare" into its memeplex, and it did. As Lynch wrote, "The faith provides for a jihad or holy war, which historically led to Islamic rule over whole societies." Once a country has been attained by war, pagans were often given the choice: convert to Islam or die. That is written into Islamic law. If any members of the newly acquired country are Christian or Jewish, they are required to pay special taxes and become a second-class citizen, unless they want to convert.

This information answers a question I've had for a long time. Why are there "Muslim" countries? Do you see Buddhist countries? Hindu countries? Christian countries? I know there are countries where these religions are in the majority, but has the religion taken over the government? No. But the way Islam was created, taking over the government is what the faithful will do. Not the extremist. Not the crazy ones. The faithful Muslims, if they follow the teachings of Mohammad, will take over the government, establish the religion as the national religion, and rule using Islamic law.


memes for war

According to the Koran, if you die while fighting for Islam, you are guaranteed eternal paradise. This meme not only encourages bravery in battle, but it encourages continual warfare against non-Muslim nations. You cannot die fighting for Islam if there is no fighting going on. This answers another question I've had for a long time: Why can't the people in the Middle East just work out their differences and get on with their lives? That question assumes that warfare is not desirable. I'm assuming war is a temporary break in an otherwise progressive, peaceful, productive life. But that is an assumption that was not shared by the writer of the Koran.

So continual warfare is part of the teachings of Islam. And another meme has been added to reduce the costs of war. When men die, the ratio of women to men changes, of course, leaving widows childless or unable to take care of the children they already have. But the Koran says each man can marry up to four wives. This makes the men more at ease with going to war, and makes sure warfare doesn't reduce the numbers of the next generation of the faithful.

This is all very interesting in a detached, academic sort of way, but as you can easily surmise, this has profound implications. How then, should the rest of the world interact with Muslim countries? The religion has slowly spread and taken over countries. Should they be stopped? How can you stop such a thing?

In the heyday of Islam, Muslims were invading India, China, Europe, and Africa all at the same time, spreading strongly, taking over countries, building an Islamic empire. They were fought back and contained, and have been contained for a long time. But they are inventing new methods to fight.

What can we do? The first thing is to know what we're dealing with, and political leaders repeating "Islam is a religion of peace" doesn't really help clarify the situation. Most Muslims may practice peace and tolerance, but the doctrines of Islam are a different story.

If you feel you have no influence over world affairs, that is one significant mistake in your thinking that needs to be corrected. Here is a good place to start.


moderate muslims

I have heard from several people saying they are Muslims and they have no desire to fight anyone. Obviously, it is possible to be moderate about anything. But Islam requires a lot from its followers and appears to inspire more commitment more often and with more militancy and governmental aspirations than other religions.

As you may have noticed, there wasn't a lot of outcry from Muslims condemning the September 11th attack. According to Stephen Schwartz, part of the reason is that radical Muslims have cleverly controlled the Western media's coverage. The radical Muslims are well-funded by Saudi Arabia and well-organized. And living in democracies. But, Schwartz says, they are not the majority of Muslims.

Schwartz went to Uzbekistan and interviewed three Islamist defectors. Two of them were ex-Al-Qaeda members. The general impression from these men is that the leaders of the movements are "murderous and fanatical" but the followers get sucked into it by clever recruiting methods. And once you are in, I imagine, you might be afraid to get out because you know what these people are capable of.

The point to all this is that although Islam may be a danger to the free world if it is followed strictly, it is possible to follow Islam moderately and in fact the majority do already.

Read the Koran (you can do it online) and decide for yourself what it really says. This is the manual terrorists are using. Since you and I are their target and we are in this war whether we want to be or not, it seems like a good idea to know what manual they are reading. I think you'll find it surprising.

If you would like to help fight the war of memes, get started here.

Read more: The Terrifying Brilliance Of The Islamic Memeplex