Isis reveres the earliest, “purest” days of the religion, as practised under the Prophet Mohammed and his followers in the seventh century. Some 1,400 years later, it has built a repressive apparatus to recreate that ideal. Anyone deemed “heretical” has to carry a “repentance card” to show allegiance to Isis. Dozens of “un-Islamic” activities are punishable by floggings, amputation or death. Hair gel, music, cigarettes, Western-style haircuts and T-shirts with Western slogans are all banned. Minorities – Yazidis, Jews, Christians – are given a choice to convert or flee. The following are punishments for crimes: “Drinking alcohol: 80 lashes. Slander: 80 lashes. Spying in the service of infidels: death. Renunciation of Islam: death. Robbery: death by crucifixion.” The severest, and most degrading, of all: girls can marry at the age of nine, and should have husbands by the age of 16 or 17. Women who are not Muslims can be owned as slaves. In certain Isis-controlled regions, they must wear two black gowns to mask their body shape, and three veils so their eyes cannot be seen, even in sunlight. Women caught unaccompanied by male relatives, or breaching dress codes, are detained and flogged by the al-Khansaa Brigade, an all-female militia. Those accused of adultery have been stoned to death.
And yet, maybe because many of the Sunnis involved help run Iraq under Saddam, there are reports that the Daesh territories are otherwise well-administered and the population prefers Islamist rule to the chaos of modern Iraq and Syria. 80% of the people in Mosul are apparently content with their lot. I bet they avoid robbery, murder and adultery. Otherwise, it’s a bundle of laughs.
You may think it can’t last, but there is unwelcome news for Epicureans and other rational people: the very high birthrate among the religious, worldwide, is forecast to make them an even greater majority during this century. The poorer and more woefully ignorant they are the more children they have. We have to somehow tolerate being excoriated and pitied by religious leaders, some of whose beliefs are irrational, cruel, divisive and even brutal. The price we pay for being human.
You raise an excellent point about the high birthrates amongst religious extremists. Nowhere is this more poignant than in Israel, where the Haredi Jews have about seven children per women, far more than the more secular Jews, and contrary to popular belief, far more than the Arabs. This has caused a lot of problems. The Haredi have traditionally been exempt from national service for religious reasons. But as they increase their proportion if the population, this is becoming more of an issue. There’s also the issue if the role of women. Israeli society has traditionally prided itself on being a good place for women (at least in comparison with its neighbours.) But if the Haredi have lots of children, this keeps the women at home, preventing them from finding work. Being more religious, the Haredi are more likely to support religious political parties many Israelis understandably find objectionable. Finally, the higher birth rate will cause a proportional increase in religious and political conservatism, and a decline in liberalism and secularism. Amongst other things, this makes peace with the Palestinians less likely.
Christianity is currently the world’s largest religion, making up a third of the world’s population with 2.2 billion adherents. Pew research shows that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. The religious group will make up 30 percent of the world’s population by 2050, compared to just 23 percent of the population in 2010. That means the number of Muslims in the world will nearly equal the number of Christians by 2050. While the number of Christians will increase from about 2.1 billion to 2.9 billion by 2050, Muslims will jump from 1.6 billion to 2.8 billion.
This growth has to do with the relatively young age of the Muslim population as well as high fertility rates. Other religious groups have aging populations. Among Buddhists, for example, half of adherents are older than 30 and? the average birth rate is 1.6 children. By contrast, in 2010, a third of the Muslim population was under 15. What’s more, each Muslim woman has an average of 3.1 children, while the average for Christian women is 2.7.
The Pew research revealed two other interesting shifts in world religious perspectives.
Atheists, agnostics and those who do not affiliate with religion will make up a smaller percentage of the world’s total population by 2050 — even though the group is growing in the U.S. and Europe. The decline is primarily because those who are unaffiliated religiously have low fertility rates, with women bearing an average of 1.7 children in their lifetime.
Between now and 2050, the hub of Christianity will also shift — from Europe to sub-Saharan Africa. As of 2010, the majority of the Christian population — 25.5 percent — lived in Europe, but sub-Saharan Africa will become home to nearly 40 percent of the world’s Christians by 2050. Fertility rates are also behind this change. Christians living in sub-Saharan African have the highest fertility rates among Christians worldwide: Each woman has, on average, 4.4 children.?
(Adapted from an article on the NPR wrbsite, December 26, 2015, Copyright 2015 NPR.)