Same planet, different millennium
Westerners and Muslims,
though living on the same planet and entertaining many contacts,
are not contemporaries
April 6, 2004
iranian.com
As the American presidential campaign unfolds, some of the questions
debated among the candidates and/or in the press seem baffling
if not totally alien to
outside observers , especially in the Muslim world . Thus for instance many
Muslims are flabbergasted by the discussions about legalized abortion
or same-sex marriages
. Indeed, to Muslim masses in general and to radicals in particular , these
subjects touch to domains which have been regulated once and for all by Allah
and his Prophet.
Anti-Western extremists make use of such occurrences in order
to fan up
suspicion in the mind of ordinary people and sell their fantastic
conspiratorial theories about America's intent to erase Islam
from the surface of earth. Indeed , some people around the Muslim
world firmly believe that the CIA with the help of Mossad attacked
the Trade Center towers in order to trigger
the so-called war on terrorism and the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Many
Muslims, especially in the Arab world, are shocked by
what is going on in the United States (or other Western countries for that
matter ) whose laws, media and governments are spreading concepts
contradicting "God's
commands": Equality between men and women; sexual freedom; acceptance of homosexuality;
mixing of the sexes in public including schools; interdiction
of "Islamic headgear" in state funded schools; miniskirts; nudity
; separation of religion and government; right of criminals
to a fair trial; prostitution; women climbing to senior positions;
human rights; children's rights; animal rights;
and so on...
The news media and movies are full of stories of adultery, child
abuse by priests, rape, gay festivals, same-sex marriages;
gambling
hotels in Las Vegas and
Atlantic
City; beauty contests and the like (Do you remember the riots in Nigeria
when a beauty pagent was planned there?). To a majority of ordinary
Muslims and
especially to the radicals, these facts are tantamount to a declaration of
war on God.
Whenhe arrived in the United States to complete his education
in the 1950s, Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian teacher wholater
became the leader of the fundamentalist
Muslim Brotherhood, thought he had entered Sodom and Gomorrah! Upon his
return, he wrote "Signposts" a book condemning the West and inviting
Muslims to wage a holy war against the West .
Already in the late
18th century Muhammad Abdel Wahhab, visiting Baghdad was appalled
by the "innovations" introduced under Ottoman rule. He returned
to his native Arabia and started preaching his puritanical doctrine.
He converted
the Saud tribe and pushed them on the war path. He didn't live to see
the birth of Saudi Arabia and the imposition of his doctrine. And now,
bin Laden is following in his steps and extending
his war into the heart of "enemy" territory.
It was also in reaction to the Shah's modernization that Ayatollah
Khomeini proclaimed "Islam in danger" and seized power in Iran.
He branded America the "Great Satan" and Western countries "small"
satans. But As a Shiite he couldn't win the following of the Sunni
majority,
though he was able to create Hezbollah in Lebanon and mobilize Shiites
elsewhere.
Now, in response to the 9/11 attack, America has launched an
all-out war against terrorism and invaded two Muslim countries,
in order to introduce democracy
in the "Greater Middle East". But to the likes of Khomeini and
bin Laden, democracy itself is in total opposition to Islam: indeed
only Allah
can legiferate. Humans must obey Him, period. Moreover the Almighty
has
already given the Law, the Sharia, which should be implemented
on the whole planet.
Americans and other Westerners consider bin Laden and Khomeini
as extremists who do not represent the majority of Muslims. This
is
true and false at the same
time.
True because the majority of Muslims do not espouse bellicose theories
and rather look after improving their own lives. And false because
12th-century fundamentalist interpretations of Islam have won the
upper hand and continue to constitute the basis of
meanstream
Islam.
Therefore, even if they are not ready to respond to extremist
appeals, Muslims find some familiar tang in their discourse.
As a result
they hesitate to cooperate with Americans and Europeans. Their
leaders,
for
their part, do not welcome democratic reforms that would strip
them of their privileges and
grip on power. They play a double game. On the one hand
they say that they agree with the necessity of reform, but on
the other
hand they
criticize
America's policy as an attempt to "dictate" change.
The long and short of all this is that Westerners and Muslims,
though living on the same planet and entertaining many contacts,
are not contemporaries. One is in the 21st century
while the other never left the 12th. As long as nothing is done
to fill this gap, America
and other
open
societies will be perceived by the latter as enemy of Allah.
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Author
Fereydoun Hoveyda was Iran's ambassador to the United Nations
from 1971 to 1978. He is the author of The
Broken Crescent: The Threat of Militant Islamic Fundamentalism (2002), The
Shah
and the
Ayatollah, Iranian Mythology
and Islamic Revolution (2003). He is a Senior Fellow
at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and
a lecturer
at Benador Associates.
To learn
more about the Hoveydas, visit their web site >>> Features
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