Re: On Islam's strength's and weaknesses.
The dimensions of the Orthodox revival in the Russian Federation have been grossly exaggerated. Religious piety is rather superficial and essentially an adherence to social conventions, originating from a somewhat restored Patriarchate, while the state administration collapsed, and the traditional link between the Orthodoxy and the Russian national identity. Doubtlessly, religious fervour has increased, since the fall of the Soviet Union and the sidelining of Communism, in general, and Marxist atheism, specifically. Nonetheless, the trend has already started a slight reversal, while neither the clergy nor Orthodoxy ever reached the levels of influence, power and fundamentalism they possessed under the Czarist regime, even if we take the "obscurantist" '90s, under Boris Yeltsin, into account.
Originally Posted by
athanaric
The massive increase in Islamic fanaticism and terrorism over the last few decades might be a decadent echo of the religious fanaticism in the (European-) Christian world around the time of the Reformation and the Thirty Years War, which as we know was followed by Enlightenment etc.
The decline of the Islamic faith has already been well documented. Turkey is the most prominent example, despite the government effort's to negate the trend, in order to increase its domestic popularity. However, the same phenomenon can be observed in the entirety of the Arab world, with the percentages of religiosity in a slow but gradual retreat, especially among the youth. This data is not surprising, considering the shrinking illiteracy and the growing urbanisation. Even the descendants of Muslim immigrants to Europe become less religious, since their quality of life improves, while they come in contact with modern perspectives and ideas, which render the religious prejudices of their ancestors obsolete and socially uncomfortable. The sudden outbursts of fanaticism and bigotry can usually be explained as manifestations of popular anger or despair, as a result of political violence and especially financial misery (the Middle East in particular has been very harshely affected by global warming and the subsequent draughts, as well as deindustrialisation). For instance, the only exception of the Eye's graph concerns Yemen, an impoverished country that has basically disintegrated, since the Arab Spring and the civil war of 2014.