Does Islam Work?

Is Islam good for you? Is it actually beneficial for individuals and societies?

These questions have seldom, if ever, been asked. Most people in America today, having been the unwitting victims of a quarter-century of propaganda, assume that Islam, like all other religions, is peaceful and benign, beneficial to both individuals and societies, albeit “hijacked” at the hands of a “tiny minority of extremists,” the likes of which we see in all religious traditions.

Yet the constant drumbeat continues: there are jihad attacks around the world virtually every day, and increasingly in the United States. All of their perpetrators insist they acted in accord with Islamic teachings. There is a distressingly large number of converts to Islam who have become terrorists, while it would be exceedingly difficult to find a convert to Christianity or any religion other Islam who became a terrorist acting, by his own account, in accord with his new religion’s teachings.

Societies that implement Islamic law, meanwhile, are uniformly human rights basket cases. Even in majority-Muslim countries that do not implement Islamic law, such as Turkey and Egypt, non-Muslims do not enjoy full equality of rights with Muslims. In fact, Muslims do not accord non-Muslims full equality of rights in any majority-Muslim society on earth. These states are also generally in the tank economically, with the notable exception of those who have experienced that happiest of geological accidents, and struck oil.

So is there something about Islam that not only makes many converts turn to terrorism, but also that hampers economic growth, as well as the development of truly pluralistic societies in which people of differing beliefs can live together with equal rights, without trying to subjugate or kill one another?

The answer is yes, according to my new book, The Tragedy of Islam: Failure and Excuses, and these are not abstract or idle questions. For as our national divisions grow deeper, and the legion of those who live here but hate the United States and all it stands for, and has stood for historically, grows larger, there is an increasing number of voices who say that there is a solution to our societal confusion, and that solution is Islam.

Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, preached on Feb. 2, 2024 that America was on its way out, and that the world had to prepare accordingly: “America has grown old. It is old. It is on the verge of retirement. It is about to be admitted into a nursing home.”

The solution for America as well as for the rest of the world, said Salah, was the religion of Muhammad. He even claimed that Muhammad himself had prophesied an Islamic America: “The Prophet Muhammad has said: ‘A small army of Muslims will conquer the white house, the house of Kisar [the Persian ruler].’” In case any of his listeners missed his point, he continued, “Ever since the days of Adam and to day—this is 2024—we have never known of any house that was built and named ‘the White House,’ except for the ‘White House’ in Washington.” He didn’t bother to disclose to his audience why a Persian ruler was occupying America’s Executive Mansion. Instead, Salah drove home the point that Islam was in America’s future: “Perhaps this hadith is clear evidence that the future caliphate [that will follow] the ways of the prophets will lead to the spreading of Islam, and Islam will enter every home in every continent without exception, including every home in America.”

This is a more common view than most non-Muslims realize. a Muslim speaker told a large crowd in New York City at a rally in Feb. 2026: “Oh, don’t scare them, brothers! Relax! They’re over here on purpose to be like, ‘Oh my God!’ Who’s seen those videos where they’re like, ‘Oh my God, the Muslims are taking over New York City!’ Seen those? You seen those? Let them know that we are taking over New York City! Takbir!” The crowd responded with enthusiastic screams of “Allahu akbar.”

This also recalled a video that surfaced back in Dec. 2025, in which a young Somali Muslim in the U.S. holds a large photo of President Donald Trump and says: “My biggest fear in life is that this man may never witness our full takeover. Yes, he may never wi— witness that. He already witnessed our partial takeover, our little success, in America…. So. He’s old and sick, I know, he may not witness our full takeover. But I promise you that his sons will witness.”

Maybe they will. But would Islam’s success in the U.S. mean success for the population of the country in general? That’s what Islam’s call to prayer, repeated five times daily, promises: “Come to prayer,” it says. “Come to success.” The Qur’an promises that those who serve Allah will prosper in this world as well as in the next.

But is that promise true? The answer to that question is clear, and that in itself is the tragedy of Islam.

Forsake the lies, embrace the truth: Become a PJ Media VIP today — you'll get all the content and none of the ads. Use code FIGHT for 60% off.