Islam Is a Civilization. So Is the West. Islam is a civilization: a complete moral, social, political and legal system. But so is Western Civilization. So here is an idea: Let’s call it a religion and apply some of the protections religions enjoy, if that is what it takes to defend it. Some will say that such a religion already exists: it is called Christianity. But there are several problems with that answer. Let’s be honest: fewer and fewer people believe in Christianity’s supernatural claims, and many therefore struggle to respect an institution that clings to them. Christianity is also now a global faith, with an increasing share of its believers in Africa and Latin America. It no longer belongs exclusively to the West, and the West no longer belongs exclusively to it. Western Civilization is a broader entity. It draws many of its values from Christianity, but it has also developed them further. Christianity gave us the dignity of every soul. The West turned it into rights, freedom of conscience, law above kings – things the Church itself resisted for centuries. The West is wider, and more evolved – it has moved beyond the religious institution that helped shape it. Christianity was the container. We kept the wine and smashed the bottle. For a while, the wine stayed on the table. Now it is evaporating – because values without a container become mere opinions, and opinions do not defend themselves. Why the word matters In the West, religion became a private matter: what a person believes about God. Our states protect religious freedom as a fundamental right. So Islam walks through the door marked religion, carrying its own ideas about law, family, politics and dress. These can all be presented as expressions of protected religious belief. Our civilization has no equivalent door. It is classified as "culture", "values" or "opinion." Something negotiable. Defend religiously grounded family law that conflicts with equal rights? Freedom of religion. Defend free speech, or any of our other values? "Far-right." One comprehensive worldview can invoke some of the strongest legal protections available. The civilization providing those protections is often treated as just one opinion among many. This is not tolerance. It is unilateral disarmament. So call it a religion No gods required. No miracles. Just look at what we already have. A creed: Every person has dignity. Truth is pursued through reason and defended through free speech. The law stands above the ruler. Property belongs to its owner. A person is judged by what he does, not by his tribe. Power is divided because no one can be trusted with all of it. Scriptures: Athens, Jerusalem, Rome. Martyrs: From Socrates, who died for asking questions, to the dissidents who died in the camps rather than lie. And here is the irony: the neutral secular state already teaches a religion. Neutrality, tolerance, freedom of conscience – these are not neutral values that emerged from nowhere. They are among the defining commitments of Western Civilization. We teach them every day – they are Western dogmas. We just refuse to say whose inheritance they are. The hard part Calling it a religion is not a trick of vocabulary. It is a commitment to do what religions do. We will never make leaving as costly, as Islam does – the freedom to leave is itself an article of our faith. So we must invest in the other side: transmission. Teach it early. Teach it as true, not as one option on a menu. Teach it with pride. The West is the only civilization that teaches its children to doubt it before they know it. Doubt is ours – one of our greatest inventions. But doubt is the crown of the system, not its foundation. You give it to someone who already knows which civilization he belongs to. We don’t need gods. We need believers. A civilization that refuses to regard its own foundations as sacred will eventually treat them as disposable. First others will do it. Then its own children.