Ever since the Enlightenment, the West has tethered itself to the philosophical concept of the autonomy of reason. Why is this significant? Because the last few decades of the 20th century ushered in new forms of tyranny born from within human freedom, something Aldous Huxley understood far better than Orwell.
The charm of the Great Satan is to remake the image of man from within an idealism outside of natural law. This gives unbounded license to the new philosophies of man, his view of the created order, law and culture. If the autonomy of reason becomes both radicalized and tied to an unhistorical view of human freedom/identity, then the West will implode in civil war. Just like the Athenians.
The issue of gay marriage is important, but not for the usual reasons. Islamic culture has very high complacency regarding both pederasty and child marriages, but I’ll tackle that another time, for now, we should look at how the West’s concept of autonomy, especially our desire to recognize same sex ‘marriages’ will undermine both the American Union and with it, all of Western Civilization.
How?
If the definition of marriage, a reality independent of reason, grounded in nature can evolve in terms of gender, Muslims are asking why not in number?
Islam sanctions polygamy, more specifically, polygyny; the ability for a Muslim man to keep up to four wives at once. This underwrites the entire welfare state throughout Europe! A (pious) Muslim can circumvent law by wedding one women in a government recognized marriage while joining several others in unlicensed, illicit unions devoid of legal standing.
This chaos is what happens when you permit positive law an autonomy outside natural law. Extrinsic definitions of ‘what constitutes a human person’ is also troubling throughout Islamic Jurisprudence. The lack of moral norms alone isn’t as troubling as the complete lack of juridical enforcement, something that cannot be addressed outside Islamic mutuality, a political and social communion unlikely to dominate anytime soon.
What to read more? Try David R. Rusin “Gay Marriage Has Islamists Eyeing Polygmay” in National Review or Islamists Watch from Daniel Pipes Middle East Forum in Philadelphia.
William Holland
William Holland 