Extremely Smart Jew Daniel Greenfield on Why the Left Can't Understand Islam

He says can't, but I think it's also "won't".

This is definitely one of the best essays I have read on the topic. 

He just nails it here, so read the whole thing.

This is an artfully crafted essay.

I've always said that leftists don't understand faith. The only thing that comes close to faith for them is their pride. Money comes close, they also feel that money solves problems-taking your money and redistributing it to other people and favourite causes is their idea of "fixing" a problem. The problem is that no amount of money can fix a problem that has nothing to do with money.

Most human problems are problems of the soul. There's no financial fix for that.

But back to Islam and the political left:

"The left has never been able to understand religion. It’s not so much secular or atheistic as it is consumed by a compelling belief system of its own which leaves no room for religious conviction.

"It cannot understand anything in terms of what it is. It can only understand things in terms of itself. The left cannot understand religion on its own terms, only in terms of how the religion fits into the left."

"Unable to understand religion, the left assigns it a place based on its alignment in the struggle. Is it a reactionary force that supports the existing order of a progressive force that opposes it? Is it working with the ruling classes or the oppressed? Is it on the side of the left or on the side of the right?"

"And so liberals don’t care what the Koran says. The Koran means nothing to them, just as the Bible means nothing to them. Religion is either on the side of social justice or it isn’t. Since Muslims are part of their glorious intersectional rainbow coalition, then Islam must be a good religion. It’s that stupidly simple. And no amount of Koran quotes will change that."

Furthermore: 

"When the left comes up against inconsistencies in its binary model, it doesn’t revise the model, instead it tries to understand why people are behaving so irrationally that they don’t fit the model...The left cannot process the idea that religion transcends politics. Leftists do not understand religion and therefore they cannot understand Muslims."