"Christianity’s unwillingness to assert the limits of behavior..."

"... — a loss of confidence, if you will — has given Islam the upper hand with women who are suggestible and vulnerable to propaganda."

That's from Herbert London who's attempting to understand why women would convert to Islam (though I'd not limit his thesis to women):

Very recently Tony Blair’s sister-in-law, journalist Lauren Booth, embraced the faith after what she described as a “holy experience” in Iran. Based on what Ayaan Hirsi Ali has described as the brutal, totalistic character of Islam, one is obliged to ask why any modern career woman would opt for conversion to the Muslim religion.

After all, as so many autobiographies of Muslim women note, the religion bans anything that is fun (“haram,” or forbidden). No chewing of gum, no bicycle riding, no make-up, no eating in public, no painting of nails, no pets, no questions, and of course, no answering back. For many Muslim women, there is an eagerness to assert independence as soon as adulthood is reached.

How then does one explain Lauren Booth? She notes that in the city of Qom “I sat down and felt this shot of spiritual morphine, just absolute bliss and joy.” What precisely was Ms. Booth seeking, and why did she find it in Islam? Although it is difficult to generalize, I suspect that the convert is in a search for meaning in societies where the “anything goes,” permissive attitude of the moment proves to be a superficial void. Islam is totalistic; modernity, with all its freedom, is often vacuous.

...

Of course, the question that remains is why Christianity doesn’t provide the moral guidelines so many women are seeking. As I see it, Christianity’s unwillingness to assert the limits of behavior — a loss of confidence, if you will — has given Islam the upper hand with women who are suggestible and vulnerable to propaganda. Some might contend these converts have gone from the frying pan into the fire, but as they see it, Islam has offered meaning in lives without it and has provided strictures for lives that have only known license.

A kite will not fly unless it's restrained.  Man cannot be free unless he's moored morally to a grounding set of beliefs.  London has put forth a most interesting theory.  Christianity's failure to provide moral boundaries might be leading many to embrace the constricting beliefs of Islam. 

Read the whole thing and add this to your list of things to ponder this Advent season.

Crossposted at Wizbang.

Comments

[Fr Patrick of Monterey]

I don't think Ms Booth's conversion to Islam has much to do with the limits of behavior. She accurately describes the experience in Iran in terms relating to morphine, not exactly a compliment to any religion or deity. The comments about the article are fascinating and well worth a read. I would love to see a discussion between Ayann Hirsi Ali and Lauren Booth--in an apartment far away from religious centers and about six months from now.

[Locutisprime]

Christianity's failure to set boundaries? Me thinks not. Christian boundaries are clearly established in scripture, so nothing has been left remiss by the religion IMO.

It is our conscious decision as individuals and as a society, to choose to openly disobey Christian scripture that has led to our own demise.

And the social reinforcing of the reasons why we should continue to disobey Christian scriptural teachings. These are what are really at the base of the relative comparison of why Islam is considered more preferable to a lax Christianity by these converts.

One of the many reasons that Christians are hated by Muslims? Is our debased social and moral values and our failure to control and limit the participation of women in our societies.

So this individual postulates that the appeal of Islam is the strictness of the Muslim faith?

I would place that theory right next to the musings of one Marquis De Sade.

These women must only be seeking what they long for and deserve. Right?

Try hustling that on the present day street corners of America.

[chuck aka xtnyoda]

Those that are burned out from their own excesses often look for a savior in legalistic regulation from a strong authority figure.

They desire to be saved from themselves.