This month two million Muslims made the pilgrimage called Al Hajj to Mecca. Obedience to the Qu-ran dictates that every able Muslim make the hajj once in his or her lifetime to perform religious rituals initiated by the Prophet Muhammad fourteen centuries ago.

The focal point of the hajj is the Black Stone housed in the Ka’aba within the Holy Mosque. Pilgrims walk around the Ka’aba seven times to symbolize their submission to Allah. Obedience to Allah is foundational to Islam and central to the Islamic critique of America and the West.

The most important and influential of the Islamic critics of the West is the philosopher Sayyid Qutb. Born in Egypt in 1906, Qutb became disenchanted with Arab nationalism as a weapon against Western imperialism. As an alternative way of life he promoted Islam as more than just a religion.

Qutb believed that Islam is not merely a set of beliefs; rather, it is a way of life based upon the divine government of the universe. The very term “Islam” means “submission” to the authority of Allah. This worldview requires that religious, economic, political, and civil society be based on the Koran, the teachings of the prophet Muhammad, and on the sharia or Islamic law. Islam doesn’t only regulate religious belief and practice; it covers such topics as the administration of the state, the conduct of war, the making of treaties, the laws governing divorce and inheritance, as well as property rights and contracts. In short, Islam provides the whole framework for Muslim life, and in this sense it is impossible to “practice” Islam within a secular framework.

Qutb insists the institutions of the West are antithetical to Islam. The West is a society based on freedom whereas Islam is a society based on obedience. Moreover, in Qutb’s view, Western institutions are fundamentally atheistic: they are based on a clear rejection of divine authority. When democrats say that sovereignty and political authority are ultimately derived from the people, this means that the people-not God- are the rulers. So democracy is a form of idol worship. Similarly capitalism is based on the premise that the market, not God, makes final decisions of worth. Capitalism, too, is a form of idolatry or market worship.

Qutb contends that since the West and Islam are based on radically different principles, there is no way that Islamic society can compromise or meet the West halfway. Either the West will prevail or Islam will prevail. What is needed, Qutb concludes, is for true-believing Muslims to recognize this and stand up for Islam against the Western infidel and those apostate Muslims who have sold out to the West for money and power. Once the critique is accepted by Muslims, the solution presents itself almost automatically to fanatics such as Osama bin Laden- Kill the apostates! Kill the infidels!

Qutb is raising issues of the deepest importance: Is reason or revelation a more reliable source of truth? Does legitimate political authority come from God or from man? Which is the highest political value: freedom or obedience? These issues are central to what the West and America are all about. Qutb’s critique reveals most lucidly the argument between Islam and the West at its deepest level. For this reason it should be considered carefully by thoughtful people in America and the West.

The task of transforming Muslim fundamentalists into classical liberals will not be an easy one to perform in the Islamic world, where there is no tradition of separating religion and government. We need not require that Islamic countries adopt America’s strict form of separation, which prohibits any government involvement in religion. But it is indispensable that Muslim fundamentalists relinquish the use of force for the purpose of spreading Islam. They, too, should appeal to consent.

If this seems like a ridiculous thing to ask of Muslims, let us remember that millions of Muslims are already living this way. These are, of course, the Muslim immigrants to Europe and the U.S. They are following the teachings of their faith, but most of them understand that they must respect the equal rights of others. They have renounced the jihad of the sword and confine themselves to the jihad of the pen and the jihad of the heart. In general, the immigrants are showing the way for Islam to change. It is the same way Christianity changed centuries ago, giving up Christendom in order to survive and flourish in the modern world.