A Close-Minded View of Islam

I found Sam Harris's article "The End of Faith" ridiculous and bordering on the irrational. I was left feeling insecure about his knowledge on the subject his article discussed. Basically Harris views Islam as an aggressive religion with the intention conquering the world through murders. Although he states that his argument is of faith and the difference between faiths I see no trace of this argument in his article. In my opinion he is giving readers reasons why Islam/Muslims are an inferior religion. It seems as if he has a bias of all Muslims. For example, on pages 108-109 he states that people should not praise Muslims for their advancements in education and technology. He states that there are better people in other countries who may be uneducated but they do not commit acts of violence.

From what I recall from Islam, there is a sect of Islm that adheres to the belief of self-sacrifice for the will and love of one's creator; they feel a call from God to perform self-sacrifice. It was Muslims from this sect of Islam that performed the terrorist acts on 9/11, I believe. Also, these Muslims are very similar to Japanese Kamikaze soldiers.

Relating this article to our class, Harris is either failing or intentionally omitting the use of allegory. Harris does not even attempt to apply an allegorical method in his "understanding" of Islam. For example he writes that the "bottom line is that devout Muslims can have no doubt about the reality of paradise or about the efficacy of martyrdom as a means of getting there" (113). Yet how does Harris know that their thought process/ways of conceiving the path to Paradise is not different from ours? Harris errs in two ways: taking things too literally and not attempting to understand the thought process of Muslims (which could be cured if he applied allegory) and two, that from the very start of his study he seems to have a "Westerner ego"where he sees the Western thought process as superior to that of the Arabs. It makes me wonder how Harris would approach religions such as those of the Ancient pre-Colombian Mayan and Inca, where sacrifice plays a significant part of their belief system.