Islamic Dark Ages

Some Arab friends of ours made the comment to us recently that Islam is strangling their society, people and culture... and is THE reason for most of the issues in the Middle East. They cited corrupt governments, now two nullified (Tunisia and Lebanon) in the same month... (and Egypt and Yemen now in turmoil) lack of employment (especially women), slowly developing economies, and lack of personal freedoms as evidences.

Those of you who read my blog or have heard me speak, know that I'm not normally critical of Islam, but I need to tell you, I agree with our friends' assessment.  I am having trouble thinking of one model society (Afghanistan anyone?) that points to the success of Sharia' law or Islam.  In fact, what we see is the opposite... nearly every Islamic society is in complete chaos.  Can you think of one Islamic nation that you'd want to live in?  I live in one, and can't say I don't fantasize about moving back 'home' most days. The truth is, we are living in the Islamic Dark Ages.

It wasn't always this way, in the 7th an 13th centuries, when Islam was young, Islamic societies were at their pinnacle and contributed greatly to scholarly learning.  During this period, called the Islamic Golden Age, artists, engineers, scholars, poets, philosophers, geographers and traders in the Islamic world contributed to agriculture, the arts, economics, industry, law, literature, navigation, philosophy, sciences, sociology, and technology, both by preserving earlier traditions and by adding inventions and innovations of their own. Not that all was perfect, however of the societies on the earth at the time, one would not necessarily have pointed to the barbaric plague ridden Christian Europe as their first choice of model nation at the time.  

Many Arabs frankly feel a sense of longing to return to the Islamic Golden Age, because there has been little to celebrate in the 1000 years since.  I don't pretend to know the reasons, though I have theories, however it is important to understand this collective embarrassment is found commonly among Muslims.  Muslims are a proud religious group and they take particular offense to the current state of affairs.  Many react in anger and violence at anyone who points out anything bad about Islam (i.e. Danish cartoons), while Islamists seek to overthrow any government and do away with any influence that doesn't include complete adherence to Sharia Law. They think that the world needs a return to the Golden Age of Islam to bring about peace.

Conversely, whenever something remotely positive occurs, Muslims go ballistic with joy... the Asian cup soccer games recently gave me insight into this here in our country.  You would have thought they won a million dollars, the joy and celebration was just over the top, way beyond normal sports fever.  Because there is little to rejoice about in the Muslim world, when even the smallest thing happens, it's a big deal.  

Christianity had its Dark Ages too, following the decline of the Roman Empire.  The European Dark Ages line up pretty well with the Islamic Golden Age... an interesting coincidence?  Probably not.  

True peace can only be found in Christ.  Europe during the Reformation woke back up to the message of the Gospel.  They Dark Ages were snapped by hope and the Scripture made accessible to common men.  The current Islamic Dark Age can only be broken by the hope and peace of the Messiah who was sent to reconcile all men (read: even Muslim fundamentalists) to himself.  We are praying for a Reformation in the Muslim world.  May God bless and bring revival, and prosperity, and hope to the 1.2 billion sons of Ishmael.