The association fallacy—where X is present, so too must Y—has done much to conceal Islam’s true nature.
One need only turn to British politician Jacob Rees-Mogg, who recently defended Islam, for a perfect example of how this fallacy operates.
As we have already shown, his defense often relied on “lies by omission.” He suggested, for example, that Sultan Mehmet’s brutal sack of Constantinople in 1453 was *nothing *like the Crusader sack of 1204—being instead apparently driven by a “benevolent” concern to preserve “scholarship and philosophy.”
As Mogg continued, however, it became clear that presenting Islam’s past as much more advanced than Europe’s was his ultimate point. Thus he cited several Muslim polymaths, including al-Khwarizmi (780 – 850), who produced Arabic-language works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography; and Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406) an Arab historian, philosopher, and sociologist.
Mogg’s implicit point is this: how can a civilization, in this case, Islam, be at the cutting edge of science, philosophy, medicine, even architecture—and yet be accused of being inherently backwards, barbaric, and/or radical? Clearly all the radicalization we see today—including ISIS and other terrorist groups—are aberrations, unfortunate byproducts of historical forces and evolving circumstances (poverty, ignorance, grievances, colonialism, territorial disputes, etc.). Clearly Islam itself is innocent, seeing how enlightened it was during its heyday.
Even if one were to accept the claim that Islam was historically more advanced than the West (which will be addressed another time), note the unspoken assumption: the more advanced a civilization is, the more progressive, enlightened, tolerant, and peaceful it must be. Where X exists (scholarship, philosophy, literature, and science), so too must Y ( tolerance and coexistence).
Is this true?
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