“They’re Not Invading, They’re Being Invited” - Historian on Islam vs. Western Civilization

Patrick Bet-David (0:00)

Is Islam the problem, or has the West become weak and tolerant?

Raymond Ibrahim (0:05)

Wow, well, I often address that specific question, and the answer is yes to both. So, Islam is inherently, intrinsically, not compatible with Western civilization. Let's just be honest, as a religion, as an ideology. And again, this is not, I'm putting Muslims aside for now, this is not an artificial distinction. I think I can speak about the religion, and then we can talk about how Muslims fit in to the religion. But the religion in and of itself is inherently incompatible with Western civilization, simply because it teaches and expects things of Muslims that are antithetical to Western norms. No religious freedom as understood in the West. If you're born to a Muslim father, you're a Muslim. If you in any way, shape or form try to break away, especially by converting to a religion, say Christianity, you're an apostate, and you are to be put to death. That's the law.

There's no nuance to it, there's no... The only nuance is one idea is that women shouldn't be killed, they should be imprisoned and starved until they come back to Islam, which doesn't make it a whole lot better. Same thing with the idea of blasphemy. If you speak against Islam, put to death.

This isn't radical.

Patrick Bet-David (1:13)

In Muslim majority countries, not if I'm a Muslim in a different country.

Raymond Ibrahim (1:17)

No, no, I'm now talking about what Islam teaches. And then we'll look at it, how it manifests in various countries and epochs and how people treat it. But what I'm trying to say is the religion itself, as it is, it just doesn't work with the West. There's no religious freedom. So if you're a Christian or a Jew, you're called Ahl-i-Kitaib, people of the book, you have limited rights, nowhere near the same rights of a Muslim. So you can live in an Islamic country, but there's all sorts of restrictions on you about churches, about what you can do, what you can say, what you can wear.

Your word has no validity at a court of law against the Muslim. So things that, of course, by Western standards would be considered completely discriminatory. So that's why I say it's not compatible, Islam itself. Now we can talk about how different countries allow their Islam to be expressed, how different people, the vast continuum, and we can talk about that. But the religion itself, it's just simply, it's a black and white. This isn't a hard question. People try to complicate it, but it's just, it's not.

Patrick Bet-David (2:19)

It's not compatible. But the question is, is the West becoming too soft?

SPEAKER_3 (2:24)

Oh, right, the second part, yes.

Patrick Bet-David (2:25)

And weak, where we're like, we lack paranoia. So maybe, the question is, are we too judgmental towards Muslims and Islam, or are we not paranoid enough? And we're like, it's okay, nothing's gonna happen here.

Raymond Ibrahim (2:39)

Much more the latter. And so, I forgot your original question, which was, is it this or is it that? So first I said Islam is inherently a problem. And yes, the other problem is the West is just like an ostrich has its head in the sand, doesn't wanna acknowledge it.

Like you said, we're not too judgmental. We're actually trying to be too naive. Okay, we don't want to acknowledge this. Everything I just said about Islam, no mainstream source would ever wanna say that openly. This is horrible. How dare you? How can you say this about a whole religion of two billion people? I get this all the time. Okay, but it's the fact.

So the combination now is this, and we'll get into the history because it's relevant to what I'm gonna say now, but just as a quick precursor. So what Muslims did historically was they would invade and conquer all throughout the world, in Christian lands, not in Persia and Hindus, all around.

But the people fought back, the Christians, let's say. The difference is now, and Islam was a powerful force. Now Islam is really, believe it or not, a very weak force. But it's being enabled and empowered by, let's say, the West. Okay, so now when people, for example, in Britain, it's very common to hear people complain, Muslims are invading our land, to which I often say they're not invading, they're being invited. It's a whole different ballgame. They're not coming with swords and forcing their way in while your police and your armies are trying to hold them back. It's quite the opposite. They're bringing them in, they're giving them everything they want, and they're shutting you down when you speak and they put you in jail. So it's a double whammy. Yes, Islam is inherently what it is, and the West, for whatever reasons, which we'll get into, is doing everything possible to enable and empower it.