The modern history of Islamic-Western relations is marked by two major turning-points, both of which resulted in far-reaching changes. We may now be at the beginning of a third major turning point—one of equal magnitude to the other two.
But first, let’s look at the earlier turning points. The first was the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Once one of the largest empires in the world, it controlled much of North Africa, West Asia, and large parts of Eastern Europe. It seemed just a matter of time before the Ottoman Turks would conquer all of Christian Europe and all of Africa.
Then in 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded and subjugated Egypt with little resistance. “This crushing defeat,” observes historian Raymond Ibrahim, “was followed by any number of European powers conquering and colonizing much of the Muslim world.”
Although the Ottoman Empire limped on for another 120 years, these events caused many Muslims to lose confidence in the Islamic way. Faced with the superior weapons and technology of the West, many Muslims began to emulate the West. As Ibrahim observed:
“The Islamic way, the Sharia was the old failed way … thus during the colonial era and into the mid-twentieth century, all things distinctly Islamic — from Islam’s clerics to the woman’s “hijab,” or head scarf — were increasingly seen by Muslims as relics of a backward age, to be shunned.”
As you can see, this was a long, drawn-out turning point. The changes that came about didn’t happen in a day. However, between 1917 and 1924, a series of events occurred which marked a very definite turning point.
The First Point
In 1917 at the end of World War 1, the Allied Powers occupied and partitioned the Ottoman Empire (which had chosen to fight on the losing side). Then in 1923, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Ottoman Sultanate was abolished and the secular Republic of Turkey was established. Finally in 1924, the Ottoman Caliphate was abolished and the Ottoman Empire officially ceased to exist.
Ataturk’s contempt for Islam is shown in a letter he wrote to the caliph shortly before removing him. “Your office, the Caliphate,” he wrote, “is nothing more than a historic relic. It has no justification for existence.”
Following Turkey’s example, other Muslim nations, such as Iraq and Iran, took the path of westernization and secularization. The tenor of the times is captured in an article by Ali H. Allawi, a former Iraqi cabinet minister:
“I was born into a mildly observant Muslim family in Iraq. At that time, the 1950s, secularism was ascendant among the political, cultural, and intellectual elites of the Middle East. It appeared to be only a matter of time before Islam would lose whatever hold it still had on the Muslim world. Even that term — “Muslim world” — was unusual, as Muslims were more likely to identify themselves by their national, ethnic, or ideological affinities than by their religion.”
Lessons for the West
The decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire offers several important lessons that the Christian West should take to heart:
- Not too long ago in historical terms, the Muslim world underwent a profound moderation.
- This moderation was precipitated by realizing the superiority of Western weaponry and technology.
- The moderation of the Muslim world was accomplished not by a deepening of faith in Islam, but by moving away from it.
- Instead of realizing that moderate Islam was the result of a dilution of faith, many in the West, especially Church leaders, concluded that the “Islam lite” of the last century was the true and authentic Islam. When authentic (militant) Islam returned with a vengeance toward the end of the twentieth century, many in the Church refused to admit they were wrong. Rather, Church leaders such as Pope Francis continued to urge Muslim to go deeper into their faith.
With these points in mind, let’s look at the second major turning point in the modern history of the Muslim world. Unlike the fall of the Ottoman Empire, this reversal is much easier to pinpoint.
The Second Point
The Iranian Revolution of 1979 that ended the westernized government of the Shah was a reaction to the secularization of the Muslim world.
It was not just an Iranian revolution. Its roots lay in the establishment of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1929. Moreover, like the French Revolution, it was designed to spread. And so it did.
Within a couple of decades, many of the enlightened reforms ushered in by Ataturk, the Shahs, and other westernized leaders were swept away by what one observer called the “Black Wave” — the reimposition of the hijab and other fundamentalist clothing for Muslim women. In the 1970s it was not unusual for women to wear miniskirts in Tehran; in the 1980s and afterwards it would have been suicidal.
But many in the West were unable to grasp what had happened. They had grown accustomed to the more moderate, “mildly observant” form of Islam of the post-Ottoman Muslim world. And so they tried to fit what was happening in Iran and elsewhere into their existing narrative.
That narrative relied heavily on the belief that Muslims and Christians shared much common ground. For example, the Second Vatican Council’s declaration, Nostra Aetate, focused almost exclusively on the similarities between Muslims and Christians. It briefly mentioned a “few quarrels and hostilities … between Christians and Muslims,” but urged all to “forget the past.” In 1965, it was fairly easy to forget the violence of the past since secular rulers kept the militant side of Islam firmly in check.
Twenty-First Century Muslims
In 2007-2008, hundreds of Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox clergy, theologians, academics, and other notables signed the “Common Word” document — an open letter from Muslim leaders calling for an emphasis on the common ground allegedly shared by Christians and Muslims.
Catholics were so committed to the common ground thesis that some even found common ground with the “reforms” of Ayatollah Khomeini. They criticized the Shah for importing “Hollywood” values into Iran, and they praised Khomeini for bringing back an emphasis on God, family, modesty, and decency. After all, they argued, the ankle-length outfits that Iranian women now wore were little different than a nun’s habit.
In short, despite the return of radical Islam, many in the West couldn’t let go of their dreams of commonality and shared values.
So, the second major turning point reversed many of the advances the Muslim world had made since Ataturk dismissed the Caliph. By the 1980’s moderate Islam was fast disappearing.
Taking Over
In its place we can now see the outline of a new Islamic empire. Muslims already control North Africa, and the rest of Africa is being rapidly Islamized. Meanwhile, due to its short-sighted immigration policies, most of Europe is thoroughly intimidated by the growing population of largely unassimilable Muslims. Many seem to have lost the will to resist, and even the police are in full appeasement mode.
In Rotherham, England, a father who tried to rescue his daughter from the Pakistani rape gang that had kidnapped her was arrested instead of the kidnappers. In Dundee, Scotland, a diminutive 14-year-old was charged with possession of a “bladed weapon” because she tried to protect herself and her sister by waving a kitchen knife to ward off a Muslim immigrant seeking to harm them. A court in Hamburg, Germany levied a fine of 3,600 euros on Michael Sturzenberger, a man who had been slashed and stabbed by an Afghan Islamist who then went on to attack five other people — including a policeman who later died of his injuries. The Muslim man was arrested and convicted — but so was Sturzenberger, who was convicted of “incitement of the people” for having made some mild remarks to Muslims at a rally that supposedly offended them. This happened four years before the stabbing that almost cost him his life — but instead of concluding that Sturzenberger had suffered enough, the judges apparently conclude that they must even the score for the Muslims who had been so grievously offended.
Muslims are on course to take over governments all over the world. In addition, they are close to dominating the United Nations. The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation is the largest voting bloc in the UN. Meanwhile, the media covers for Islam, educators praise its accomplishments, and the European Union has spent 10 million euros to convince Europeans that the Quran was one of the main pillars of European civilization. Naïve Christians, in the meantime, are still seeking common ground with Islam, oblivious to the fact that Muslims have forced tens of millions of Christians in Africa off the ground they once lived on. Instead of seeking common ground, many Muslims seem intent on acquiring sole possession of it.
The outlook is gloomy, but nothing ever stays the same. There are indications that a turn back to moderation is still possible in the Muslim world. More on that in Part 2.
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This article originally appeared in the September 20, 2025 edition of The Stream.
Picture above: Muslim Father and Son
Picture credit: Pixabay
