When radical Muslims shout “Allahu Akbar,” they are declaring a certain assumption. Do you know what it is? Assumptions are the most powerful and dangerous of ideas, so it is important to get them right.
Everyone on the planet starts with one of three basic core assumptions. One is true. The others are not. In a previous post I described Type 1 assumers. People who think this way are persuaded that everything that exists really is something physical. The natural, material world is what is real. Non-physical things are either unimportant or fantasy. This cannot be proved so it has to be assumed. I am sure you have met people who assume this way.
The second core assumption is exactly the opposite of the first. This second way of assuming also begins with the assumption that everything boils down to one thing. However, that reality is not physical. It is non-physical – something mental or spiritual. Like Type 1 assuming, this cannot be proved, but must be assumed. This is what I call Type 2 assuming. The physical world that we see around us is not important or it is not really real. We only think it is. It is actually a projection on our mind by a spiritual power, generally for our testing to see if we will pursue the things of the world or spiritual things. Maybe you have heard this type of assumption expressed this way. “The world you think you see is just an illusion. It really is an expression of the divine, the world spirit, a high power, Gaia, Brahman, etc.” However it is expressed, the common thread is there is but one reality, and that reality is non-physical. It is a spiritual ideal that we may one day attain.
Pay close attention here, because it is the pursuit of the spiritual ideal that is key to understanding how Type 2 assumers think. When jihadis yell “Allahu Akbar,” they are saying “Allah is greater.” He is greater than your government. He is greater than your God. He is greater than anything. He is the ideal.
Ideals are non-physical, non-personal things. Unlike the God of the Bible, Allah is not personal. You cannot know him like you can know other persons. Allah is not personal because he is completely different than anything else. To say Allah is personal like we are personal is to commit blasphemy, as nothing is like Allah. Persons are created and will cease to exist, so Allah cannot be a person. He is greater than that. Everything that is created is not equally real as Allah. Allah is what is real and important.
If Allah is non-physical and non-personal, then he really is not a “he.” “He” is an “it” – it is an ideal. Allah is everything that is perfect, and it is the pursuit of that perfection that drives every Type 2 assumer. Over time we can progressively become more and more perfected as we cast aside the cares and concerns of this seductive, illusory, physical world. In fact, for Muslims, heaven is a place to pursue ever increasing degrees of perfection of the virtues. In this life, it is the pursuit of the ideal human society that drives many Muslims. That ideal society involves the creation of the ideal government (a caliphate) run by ideal law (sharia), and everyone must conform. Universal conformity to the ideal is not optional, but necessary. If everyone does not conform, the ideal cannot be achieved. Even if a person is not a Muslim, they must still submit and conform to Islamic law and culture so the ideal may be realized.
If ideals are real and they can be achieved, then the greatest good is whatever achieves that ideal. This means that terrorism is justifiable if it achieves the ideal and conforms people to it. The greatest atrocities in human history have been committed in the name of an ideal. The various other religions of the world, except Christianity and Judaism, have an ideal as their core assumption, and are prone to the same pitfalls as Islam. See what difference an assumption makes? Which core assumption you start with controls everything you say, do, and think.