On Islam

This book is an account and evaluation by a renowned political philosopher and professor of several key and often shocking actions in the decade from 2006-2016. These incidents, in one way or another, had Islamic origins. The author discusses the difficulty that Europeans and Americans have in recognizing that this militancy is not just caused by “terrorists”, as if that were some kind of independent movement or mind-set. Violence has a source. No one undertakes it without a cause that is worth, in his mind, the risk even of death. Islam is unique in its description of a world within Islam that supposedly lives peacefully by the law of Allah, and a world outside of this sphere which is a world at war with Islam. Fr. Schall also reflects on the similarity of Islamic voluntarist philosophy, which is necessarily used to account for the many contradictions found within the Qur’an, and the voluntarism that is found now present in most western societies and governments. The study of Islamic thinking and of western nominalism show common roots. Both, in different ways, end up with a world devoid of any natural order. His main concern is the abiding existence of Islam over time, a constant prodding to achieve the goal of submission of all to Allah as a political and cultural fact. This book is a record of Schall;’s own reaction and understanding of the incidents in which Allah was claimed as the reason for the crisis caused by various shootings, bombings, and killings.