David Brooks writes: “How much is religion involved in jihadism, or psychology, or politics?…For clarity on that question, it helps to start with William James’s classic work, ‘The Varieties of Religious Experience.'”
I might have suggested a different book. How about the Qur’an? When one opens the Qur’an to answer the question “how much is religion involved in jihadism,” one encounters these passages:
2:191: “And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you, and persecution is worse than slaughter.”
4:89: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.”
5:33: “This is the recompense of those who fight against Allah and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be killed, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement.”
8:12: “When thy Lord was revealing to the angels, ‘I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast terror into the unbelievers’ hearts; so strike above the necks, and strike every finger of them!”
8:39: “Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s entirely; then if they give over, surely Allah sees the things they do.”
8:60: “Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to strike terror thereby into the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not; Allah knows them. And whatsoever you expend in the way of Allah shall be repaid you in full; you will not be wronged.”
9:5: “Then, when the sacred months are over, kill the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.”
9:29: “Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and do not practice the religion of truth, even if they are of the People of the Book — until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”
9:111: “Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of Allah; they kill, and are killed.”
9:123: “O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you; and let them find in you a harshness; and know that Allah is with the godfearing.”
47:4: “When you meet the unbelievers, strike their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads. So it shall be; and if Allah had willed, He would have avenged Himself upon them; but that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will not send their works astray.”
Brooks writes, working from William James: “It seems blindingly obvious to say, but the spirit of religion begins with a sense that God exists. God is the primary reality, and out of that flows a set of values and experiences: prayer, praise, charity, contrition, grace and the desire to grow closer toward holiness. Sincere faith begins with humility in relation to the Almighty and a sense of being strengthened by his infinite love.” James was writing primarily about religion within a Western framework, but all that does indeed apply to some degree to Islam. However, in Islam Allah is not infinite love, as he does not love non-Muslims. Two more Qur’an verses:
3:31-32: “Say: If you love Allah, then follow me. Allah will love you and forgive you your faults, and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. Say: Obey Allah and the Apostle; but if they turn back, then surely Allah does not love the unbelievers.”
30:43-45: “Then turn your face straight to the right religion before there comes from Allah the day which cannot be averted; on that day they shall become separated. Whoever disbelieves, he shall be responsible for his disbelief, and whoever does good, they prepare for their own souls, that He may reward those who believe and do good out of His grace; surely He does not love the unbelievers.”
What’s more, that “charity” that flows from the realization that God is the primary reality does not extend to non-Muslims. Again, the Qur’an:
48:29: “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah; those with him are harsh against the disbelievers, merciful among themselves.”
Brooks, like virtually all Western analysts, tends to see Islam through a Judeo-Christian prism, instead of evaluating it on its own terms. He can’t let go of his preconceived notions long enough to make an accurate assessment. And it doesn’t help, of course, that an accurate assessment is so politically incorrect and unacceptable to today’s political and media elites.
“Religion’s Wicked Neighbor,” by David Brooks, New York Times, June 17, 2016:
…On the other hand, Donald Trump is abhorrently wrong in implying that these attacks are central to Islam. His attempt to ban Muslim immigration is an act of bigotry (applying the sins of the few to the whole group), which is sure to incite more terrorism. His implication that we are in a clash of civilizations is an insult to those Muslims who have risked and lost their lives in the fight against ISIS and the Taliban.
The problem is that these two wrongs are feeding off each other. Obama is using language to engineer a reaction rather than to tell the truth, which is the definition of propaganda. Most world leaders talk about Islamist terror, but Obama apparently thinks that if he uses the phrase “Islamic radicalism” the rest of us will be too dim to be able to distinguish between the terrorists and the millions of good-hearted Muslims who want only to live in fellowship and peace.
Worst of all, his decision to dance around an unpleasant reality is part of the enveloping cloud of political correctness that drives people to Donald Trump. Millions of Americans feel they can’t say what they think, or even entertain views outside the boundaries laid down by elites, and so are drawn to the guy who rails against taboos and says what he believes.
The fact is that 15 years after 9/11 we still haven’t arrived at a true understanding of our enemy. How much is religion involved in jihadism, or psychology, or politics?
And the core of our confusion is that we are unclear about what a religion is, and how it might relate to violence sometimes carried out in its name.
For clarity on that question, it helps to start with William James’s classic work, “The Varieties of Religious Experience.” In that book, James distinguishes between various religious experiences and “religion’s wicked practical partner, the spirit of corporate dominion, and religion’s wicked intellectual partner, the spirit of dogmatic dominion, the passion for laying down the law.”
In other words, there is the spirit of religion and, frequently accompanying it, its wicked neighbors, the spirit of political and intellectual dominion.
It seems blindingly obvious to say, but the spirit of religion begins with a sense that God exists. God is the primary reality, and out of that flows a set of values and experiences: prayer, praise, charity, contrition, grace and the desire to grow closer toward holiness. Sincere faith begins with humility in relation to the Almighty and a sense of being strengthened by his infinite love.
In some sense the phrase “Islamic radicalism” is wrong because terrorism is not a radical extension of this kind of faith. People don’t start out with this kind of faith and then turn into terrorists because they became more faithful….

ziggystardust9435 says
”I believe women should have no rights and gays should be executed!”
AH! I REBUKE YOU you republican jerk!
“No, I am Muslim and this is my religion”
Oh, so sorry. Please don’t think I’m Islmapohobic.
Listen, being nice to these people doesn’t work. The experiment has failed. See – Orlando.
We can no longer afford to “split the pot” with everyone who wants a piece, especially with “refugees” from the Middle East. It’s too risky. Most of us are making below living wage and just had our health insurance forcefully taken away. My healthcare is up to $420 per month; compare this to my $25/month car insurance (from Insurance Panda) or my $10/month renters insurance. Both private enterprise (take note, Obama). Do we really want our tax dollars aiding these terrorists?
Close the border, deport these criminals who broke the law to get here, and strengthen our military again or more attacks will happen right here at home AGAIN.
will Rodgers says
jihad is the central core of islam no matter what sect or branch or nation ou are from. The West is losing to this cult – they are nor a religion. We are losing because they perceive our hand wringing as weakness and like dogs attacking someone when they are down they are all set to pounce on us. The writer clearly does not understand nor has he ever read islamic jihad history. The US fought against the Barbary Pirates [ just another name for islamist terrorists in the early 1800’s. They were doing what they do now. Attacking defensless US passenger and cargo ships. Plundering all goods and ENSLAVING and holding for hostage all aboard. They sold the women into their sex slavery just as they do today. President Jefferson created the USMC to man ships, invade Lybial and their North Africa Ports. They killed every muslim in sight; confiscated all their stolen posessions, and freed all the slaves. Once the muslims saw that the US was not weak, they went back to their mud huts for nearly 100 years . like bees or ants or rats every now and again you have to exterminate many and get the queen Bee or mother ant eradicate the source. that will stop them for s time, All your fancy posturing and faux intellectual analysis of the situation is a pile of crap. We need to protect ourselves from a radical cult of people who believe we need to be eradicated. Why do you egg heads think it is OK for Iran to stand on the floor of the UN and say all Jews must be killed, and next they will eradicate the “Great Satan” America. However, you see nothing wrong with that, but my thoughts about eradicating them before they do it ito us will seem bigoted and cruel to your fuzzy sense of ‘humanity’???? GFY
JawsV says
I can’t even look at the NYT anymore because the libtards are so dumb about Islam I can’t stand it.
Peter Charles says
And they refuse to learn. That is the irrational part.
JawsV says
That, too. It’s been 15 years since 9/11, and tens of thousands of jihads later, and these idiots still don’t get it? Are they mentally deficient? They’re supposed to be highly educated and intelligent. So, what the hell happened? Why can’t they comprehend Islam??? It’s not complicated! I just don’t get it.
Adrian Johnson says
The NYT & liberal intellectual friends make the mistake of thinking that Islam can be reasoned with; it can’t. Islam is not intellectual.
Islam cannot be negotiated with,bribed, or bought off; as there is nothing it wants other than world submission to Islam.
The NYT crowd does not understand that Muslims, when they attain majority population mass (via large families) in a democratic country, will use democratic means to vote in Sharia law for everyone. Modern liberal democracies commit cultural suicide by allowing Muslim voting majorities, and there is nothing they can do about it unless they resist “Islamic Jehad” with “Christian Crusade”.
Ain’t gonna happen.
maghan says
Is Brooks’s behavior deliberate or not. An intelligent man in these trying times would get a copy of the Qur’an, the Hadith, and the Sira and read them. Brooks has not done that. Why? He should also have read what very intelligent men such as David Hume, Maimonides, Bertrand Russell, Mark Twain, et al. have said about Islam over the ages.
He also makes some blind a priori assumptions about religion–namely that religion assumes that there must exist a single god who is “infinite love”. This is just total ignorance. There are many religions that don’t share Brooks’s characteristics at all.
Brooks describes the Christian deity with its characteristics at odds with the OT deity, the Greek deities, the Mayan deities–and Islamic deity–Allah, the Moon God.
The only thing that most religions would tend to have in common is that there is some metaphysical causal agent/s that are the ultimate source of phenomena in the experienced world. In this regard, Islam is to be understood only if one reads its literature–without any presumptions.
mortimer says
David Brooks has not read and studied any of Islam’s foundational texts, and yet, he preposterously presents himself as an authority on Islam.
How did he get his AUTHORITATIVE understanding? By guessing? By surmising? By listening to TV preachers? Or by sitting down at the keyboard and making stuff up to meet a deadline?
David Brooks has nothing to contribute because he has no knowledge of foundational Islam to impart.
Nothing to contribute? He should say nothing.
The NYT editors are unacquainted with Islam’s source texts. They should not hire writers who merely makes stuff up. This article had no valid points, because David Brooks does not know that Islam is in a universe of its own and David Brooks is like an undergrad who has not read a single book on the reading list.
ProudAmerican says
Never liked this guy, always comes off as an arrogant twit.
common sense says
Ha ha ha! Robert “how about the Koran eh?” hehehehhe LMFAOM
Robert I’d love to see you debate anyone of these so called “experts” who get on these shows. They are awful!
And why have we not seen anyone dare to open a Koran on national prime time news and read even some of its various directives to incite chaos and murder?
Don McKellar says
This Brooks is merely the NY Times pet “conservative” and the part-time “conservative” pundit for the PBS Newshour. He is not a thinking man, but rather a near perfect example of a faux intellectual who is, at heart, a slave to political correctness over facts and critical thinking.
You will never, ever find David Brooks or self-righteous fools like him, actually opening up the Koran or any serious factual analysis of it unless he had a knife to his throat. They DON’T WANT to know what they’re talking about. His mind is made up, don’t confuse him with facts. The facts regarding Islam are irrelevant to him at this point.
I found that he does have a use, however. It has been highly entertaining to watch him squirm and go into near fits as Donald Trump destroyed the other GOP contenders while saying whatever the hell he wanted about anything and everything. That nearly drove this Brooks phony right off the deep end a few times on the show.
Champ says
I might have suggested a different book. How about the Qur’an?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Indeed!
And another eye-opening book that immediately comes to my mind:
“The Truth About Muhammad” by Robert Spencer
When I first learned about Jihad Watch *that* was the book that first got my attention–and of course the quran, too. But The Truth About Muhammad was a REAL eye-opener for me. I had NO idea that muhammad was such a notorious criminal. Like so many, I actually thought that muhammad was a peaceful man, but merely misguided in thinking that he was a ‘prophet’ of God; since there are a lot of false prophets out there, who have come and gone. But I didn’t realize that muhammad was a pedophile and mass-murderer, etc; so I deeply appreciate Robert’s commitment to the truth–not only about muhammad, but about islam and company, as well. I was stunned to learn that muhammad was such an evil guy. Jeez who admires someone like that, let alone considers him to be a ‘Perfect Man’? That’s nuts!
Adrian Johnson says
Excellent book– I also highly recommend the “Jehad Watch” website as a great primer and education about the reality of Islam, “moderate Muslims” and surprising current events (such as Muslim immigrants persecuting fellow Christian immigrants) which doesn’t make the news because it embarrasses the liberal mindset.
maghan says
That’s why Brooks doesn’t want to read it. He must know about the claimed basis for ISIS’s acts, but he is afraid to confirm or disconfirm them.
Michael Brennick says
No, numb nut let’s look to the actual historical experience of Islam. It was founded as a belief system to support political conquest. It spreads by means of war, invasion and subversion. It demands that it be the dominant belief system and imposes it’s will on any other rival belief system. It sees it’s fulfillment in worldly total political, social and cultural control.
Wellington says
I used to read The New York Times for laughs but I can hardly even do this anymore. Want to see extra dumb in the NYT? Read the letters to the editors on the editorial page. You can’t believe anyone could be so foolish but letter after letter demonstrates there are plenty of exceedingly foolish people out there——and who believe themselves sapient no less. Yes indeed, truth is stranger than fiction, though I would note that those who manage and write for the NYT print a lot of fiction. .
Robert_K says
David Brooks is just a hand puppet of the august NYTmes, which itself is published by a self-hating (formerly) Jewish publisher Arthur Sulzberger, who will find a way to side with anti-Semitic Muslims of all types, Palestinian terrorists, Muslim Brotherhood members and the like.
The NYTimes is all for the Syrian refugees coming in to the US. Where was the NYTimes to be found when the Jewish refugees needed refuge in the US during the Holocaust?
pat says
Elite Ivy bumbling fool. Where do they find these effete fools?
TJFreedomjihad says
Pat, thanks for the rhetorical question to wit the short answer, but a book could and maybe has been written on this or should be:
Jonathan Gruber – MIT (economist), Ben Rhodes – Rice, (Phi Beta Kappa, novelist, potus speechwriter), others from/at Harvard, Yale, and Oberlin, etc. Usually the worst offenders from the ‘best’ thought of schools, these days. There are far, far, better colleges available that do teach true and classic ethics, and the classics, including Hillsdale and the like. Ethics, virtue, honor, logic are ‘dead’ nowadays, except with a few ‘whistleblowers’ and such! Ethos death watch began with Wilson’s term, intensified in the ’60’s, and hit the skids just before the crooked beast hussein regime got the “stupid Americans” low info nod-2008 and running) See hussein regime’s disdain for American voters, also here and many more places: http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/11/10/obamacare-architect-yeah-we-lied-to-the-stupid-american-people-n1916605
Don’t mistake the fact that all the crooked past of hussein was well available by 6 months before the 2008 election, on the web, in his ghostwritten autobiographies, and on DVD’s.
Rhodes admitted to having misled journalists regarding the correct timeline of U.S. negotiations with the recent Iran nuclear agreement, relying upon young, inexperienced reporters to create an “echo chamber” in order to sway public opinion to seal the deal.[11][12][13] (the gentle view on Rhodes, there is worse available- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rhodes_(White_House_staffer ))
The ‘non’ Affordable Health Care act of Gruber: his video words “You can’t do it political, you just literally cannot do it. Transparent financing and also transparent spending. I mean, this bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes the bill dies. Okay? So it’s written to do that,” Gruber said. “In terms of risk rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in, you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed. LACK OF TRANSPARENCY IS A HUGE POLITICAL ADVANTAGE. AND BASICALLY, CALL IT THE STUPIDITY OF THE AMERICAN VOTER OR WHATEVER, BUT BASICALLY THAT WAS REALLY, REALLY, CRITICAL TO GET FOR THE THING TO PASS. Look, I wish Mark was right that we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not.” http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/11/10/obamacare-architect-yeah-we-lied-to-the-stupid-american-people-n1916605
Deceit and lies, deflection and marginalization, daily, are what the hussein regime and crooked hillary and all the many rest are totally about. It is a period of nightmares, with more to come, from their complete waste of the globe’s time!
Which is exactly what 1400 years of islam, after abrogation, has done for the globe, coincidentally. islam ‘missionary’ murders, torture, hate and destruction, throughout all history. A model of perfect evil! Oh, and a pile of 300 million bodies of men, women, and children! Can anyone imagine such a thing is religious? And even if it were, it has always been America’s enemy, from the founding, to be destroyed as we did in Tripoli.
citycat says
Such Muslims as David Brooks seem to grin rather than smile.
No love for humanity, no compassion, no free thought, no concern for truth there.
Jaladhi says
Not only these kinds of people are traitors to USA but also to the entire humanity – they continue to ignore, suppress the truth and spread lies about Islam being peaceful. If a Martian came over to Earth and saw Muslims in this killing spree what is he going to conclude . Will he agree with Brooks or tell the truth as it is? I am sure the Martian is better than all these libtards calling themselves humans!!
mgoldberg says
His moral depravity in stating that Trump is applying the sins of the few to the majority is akin to stating that Churchill and Roosevelt were applying the homicidism of the few to the majority in Germany.
It was the ideology that was the ruler, and so it is with Islam. The ‘shock troops’ of Jihad are the premier enstaters of the tyranny and the sharia. No one may stand against them within Islam lest they too be erased. Which happens all the time. Even to the fellow homicidists, since it specifically yields to the most violent, and authoritative. Brooks is a traitor of the liberal utopian variety. The deaths of all those who’ve been sacrificed to Jihad mean nothing to him. That’s just part of finding the ‘variety of religious experience’ in the jihadists that he so vulagarly performs
Prof. Just says
Here’s the best explanation: Some people simply lack a moral compass. Look at the former Enron leadership, for example. Money, power, ego fulfillment, and the like; these are their motivators, nothing more, nothing less.
Alexander the Grape says
David Brooks,
You, Sir, are a damned ignorant fool. And you would drag America and the rest of the civilized world to their destruction rather than open your tiny, bigoted, mind for one minute to look for truth, to seek enlightenment. It is out of your own mouth that comes the proof of your ignorance. Read the Koran, you fool, get educated before opening your mouth and commenting on those who do know its contents and speak from that standpoint.
Cecilia Ellis says
Here’s a compelling variety of religious experience:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3646865/ISIS-CRUCIFY-three-men-giving-70-lashes-locking-cages-punishment-breaking-Ramadan-fast-Syria.html
Lawrence says
I should add that yes I know Brooks is conservative. In the same way that Ryan and Georgie Bush are. They are in thought and action, all too liberal.
linnte says
Speechless. That’s all. Just speechless.
David Travis says
https://youtu.be/_hUVVlgEqxY
Angemon says
What what what? A talking head pundit that doesn’t know what he’s talking about but keeps to the lines of the narrative? Why, that’s unheard of!
R.E.K. says
“Trump is abhorrently wrong in implying….”
Trump is using words. Jihadists are using bullets and knives. Which is “abhorrent?”
The left thinks free speech is “abhorrent.” !!!
Dennis says
Brooks speaks about what he doesn’t understand. Don’t associate this persons ideas with those of Willlam James. His book, the variety of religious experience was one of my favorite texts at the U.
Jay Boo says
Shields and Brooks
Shields and Brooks on gun violence and how leaders responded to Orlando shooting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTeorG7tP0A
At the 6:24 mark both Shields and Brooks agree
“Radical Islam is defamation of a faith”
marble says
Islam seems to have but two major varieties of experience in that religion: submit or have your head removed at the neck.
eduardo odraude says
If Brooks would just review the texts at the following site, he would gain one of two things. Either he would conclude he had been in error in his grasp of what Islam is, or if he did not draw that conclusion, he would at least understand the argument people who are so-called Islamophobes use to justify Islamophobia. Then he could explain to us why we are mistaken in our concerns about the growth of Islam.
http://www.quotingislam.blogspot.com
Infovoyeur says
DIAGNOSIS: Patient Mr. Brooks suffers from poison residue of deposited un-truths and non-truths about Islam against which his antibodies of R.E.A.D. (resistance, evasion avoidance Denial) are fighting. This had caused system-clog (as usual in these cases).
PROPHYLAXIS: Standard detox with syringes of Truth to target each fallacy etc. with its antidote.
PROGNOSIS: Fairly poor, since “the patient has to want to change.” Massive corroded Defenses would have to be removed, but that would kill the patient even as truly moderating Islam would make it non-Islam.
Manuele says
EVERYONE OF THEM IN HIGHER PLACES OF CORPORATE WHO KNOWING TELLING THE PEOPLE, DEFENDING ISLAM ARE ALL STAINED WITH BLOOD MONEY FROM THE WEALTHY MUSLIM ARABS. THEY SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES.