Everything Sam Harris says of radical Islam could be said - and much more so - of Satanism or even Discordianism. They are religions which explicitly call for violence and the destruction of social order. But the fact is that the “beliefs” of Discordianism and - to an extent - Satanism are somewhat tongue-in-cheek, somewhat satirical commentary on life and the human condition. Woodenly literal reading of a text does not convey its intended meaning. This is as true of Greek myths as it is of the Bible or the Q’ran. So, there is always an element of subjectivity involved in understanding religious texts (or any text, for that matter).
It is true that Mohammed united the Arabs with Islam and created - in one fell swoop - the raw material from which the Ottoman Empire would be built. Islam is undoubtedly imperial. But so are the fragments of the Old Testament that call for the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites, and so on. The same can be said of almost any monotheistic religion.
But what really matters are not Sam Harris’s ideas about what Islam “obviously means”, what matters are the schools or pedigrees of Islam. There are radicalized schools of Islam. There are more radicalized schools of Islam than there are radicalized Christian sects.
I am not aware of any reputable mullah who can trace his pedigree back to the prophet giving Osama bin Laden the authority to act as he did with the stamp of approval of Islam. So, Harris is being extremely disingenuous in substituting his own judgment of what Islam “obviously is” for what Muslim scholars and leaders - who can trace their pedigree back to Mohammed and who are not just fly-by-night radicals - actually teach.
Religion is a human activity. I don’t think I get to substitute my judgment for what constitutes a “proper chess match” for the judgment of the World Chess Federation. Similarly, I don’t get to substitute my judgment that Islam is “not a religion of peace” because of ancient history, that is, that it was founded on blood and conquest (no different than Mosaic Judaism or, much later, Roman Christianity). The upsetting of Muslim moderation and the radicalization of Muslims is, in fact, a response to their betrayal by their own secular leaders into the hands of the West. We (the West) are bombing, torturing, occupying and pillaging them. And then we blame their religion when they become radicalized.
Clayton -