Churchill sobre el Islam. “No hay fuerza más retrógrada en el mundo que el Islam”

Comentamos aquí el concepto netamente negativo de Churchill sobre el Islam. Además del libro sobre la guerra con Afganistán, escribió otro de la guerra contra un Madi (mesías) local:

Churchill wrote of the Mahdi’s jihad, the succession of the Khalifa and Omdurman in a two-volume book published by Longmans in 1899. Entitled «The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of Sudan», Churchill wrote on page 248-250 of the second volume: ««How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

 

«Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytising faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science – the science against which it had vainly struggled – the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.»

 

This contentious passage became abridged in a shorter version published in 1902. However, the abridged version still contained some harsh words for the fanaticism of Islam. In Chapter One, Churchill wrote: «Fanaticism is not a cause of war. It is the means which helps savage peoples to fight. It is the spirit which enables them to combine – the great common object before which all personal or tribal disputes become insignificant. What the horn is to the rhinoceros, what the sting is to the wasp, the Mohammedan faith was to the Arabs of the Soudan – a faculty of offence or defence.»

 

In Chapter Two, Churchill stated: «All the warlike operations of Mohammedan peoples are characterised by fanaticism» and in its third chapter he observed: «After the fall of Khartoum and the retreat of the British armies the Mahdi became the absolute master of the Soudan. Whatever pleasures he desired he could command, and, following the example of the founder of the Mohammedan faith, he indulged in what would seem to Western minds gross excesses. He established an extensive harem for his own peculiar use, and immured therein the fairest captives of the war.»

Recopilemos: fanáticos, indolentes y fatalistas, malgastadores, retrógrados, groseros, agresivos. Una joya como yernos…

History: Winston Churchill On Islamism