Analyst's note: By their fruits we shall know them. Here is a review of but a few patterns that remain as powerful today as in premodern times and are key to understanding Islam and Muslim life.
"Muslim life is shaped by the many unintended consequences of Islamic injunctions."
(New Testament | Matthew 7:15 - 20)
15 ¶ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Also see Christians ordered to teach Wiccan, pagan rites
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How does Islam shape the way Muslims live? The religion’s formal requirements are the narrow base for a far wider structure of patterns that extend its formal rules, stretching them in unexpected and unplanned ways. A few examples:
The Koran strictly bans the consumption of pork, leading to the virtual disappearance of domesticated pigs in Muslim-majority areas, then their replacement by sheep and goats. These latter overgrazed the land, which led, as the geographer Xavier de Planhol observes, to “a catastrophic deforestation” that in turn “is one of the basic reasons for the sparse landscape particularly evident in the Mediterranean districts of Islamic countries.” Note the progression from Koranic dietary injunction to the desertification of vast tracts of land. The scriptural command was not intended to cause ecological damage, but it did.
Islam’s unattainably high standards for governmental behavior meant historically that existing leaders, with their many faults, alienated Muslim subjects, who responded by refusing to serve those leaders in administrative and military service, thereby compelling rulers to seek personnel elsewhere. This led to their systematically deploying slaves as soldiers and administrators, thereby creating a key institution that lasted a millennium from the eighth century.
Islamic doctrine ingrains a sense of Muslim superiority, a disdain for the faith and civilization of others, which has had two vast implications in modern times: making Muslims the most rebellious subjects against colonial rule and obstructing Muslims from learning to modernize from the West.
Those scriptures also imbue a hostility toward non-Muslims, which in turn generates an assumption about non-Muslims’ harboring a like hostility toward Muslims. In modern times, this projection has created a susceptibility to conspiracy theories, which has had many practical consequences: For example, because Muslims worry that anti-polio vaccinations will render their children infertile, polio has effectively become a Muslim-only scourge in 26 countries.
The annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the Islamic hajj, began in the seventh century as a local custom that then became an international meeting that facilitated the transfer of everything from Islamist ideas and political movements (the Idris of Libya) to luxury goods (ivory), plants (rubber to Southeast Asia, rice to Europe), and diseases (meningococci, skin infections, infectious diarrheal and blood-borne diseases, and respiratory-tract infections, including perhaps the brand-new MERS-CoV).
The daytime fast during Ramadan often leads observant Muslims to exercise less. They also “tend to overeat upon breaking their fast, and usually the meal involves heavy, fatty foods that are high in calories,” notes the head of the Emirates Diabetes Society. One survey in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, found 60 percent of respondents reporting excessive weight gain after Ramadan.
Although orphans enjoy an honored status in Islamic law (kafala), that honor is tied to a tribal structure incompatible with modern society, resulting in Muslim orphans’ today being persistently discriminated against, even by Muslims in the West.
Islam’s scriptures have provided the base from which many other patterns evolved, including: the establishment of dynasties through conquest, not by internal overthrow; recurrent problems with dynastic succession; power leading to wealth, not the reverse; the near absence of municipal governments; inadequate regulation of cities; laws arising from ad hoc decisions, not formal legislation; reliance on hawalas for money transfers; and the practice of suicide terrorism.
These inadvertent patterns, sometimes called Islamicate, change over time, with some (slave soldiers) becoming defunct and others (the rise in polio) starting only recently. These patterns remain as powerful today as in premodern times and are key to understanding Islam and Muslim life.
