If Cuba was a repressive Islamic republic spouting rhetoric and ideological beliefs antithetical to American values, a Saudi Arabia without oil maybe, would we have relations with it? We scorn the scions of Castro still because apparently we can't be seen condoning noxious anti-Western gibberish when it's camped out a mere pleasure cruise romp off the coast of South Beach - but if Cuba was an Islamic state rather than a communist one, would it all be smiles and Pina Coladas [virgin of course] 'tween us? I make fun since of course our stance on Cuba is more about forcing them to cry uncle than it is about anything else - but regardless the point being, how long do we continue to pretend Islam isn't more about the political than the spiritual - or put another way, that the spiritual isn't necessarily political when it comes to Islam? What does it cost us - if anything - to continue to act as if Islam is simply just another confessional choice? We scorn communism because we take its political beliefs to be destructive and threatening to our interests - if one concludes that Islam is at least as much about politics as it is about sin and a deliverance from thereof, how logically do we keep from lumping it in with communism?
Just wondering. I'd call it a thought experiment but I'm not sure one could legitimately call it thinking. Still, it is interesting: what would happen if an Islamic state suddenly sprung up on the US border? My guess is the political intentionality of Islam would very quickly eclipse in our thinking the shallow respect we grant Allah and his mysterious scribe.
