Each year, some two million Muslims from around the world make a pilgrimage to the holy site of Mecca. For some in the West, nothing could be scarier than two million Muslims, all dressed in white, touching their heads to the ground and shouting "Allahu Akbar." Reading the usual pundits, you get the idea that Mecca is a breeding ground of Islamic radicalism.
To figure out if this is true, a group of American researchers surveyed more than 1500 Pakistanis who went on the pilgrimage to Mecca in 2006. They discovered that these men had overcome great obstacles to make the trip. It costs arond $2500 to go to Mecca, and that's three times the annual salary of a typical Pakistani. Still, nearly 140,000 Pakistanis applied to go in 2006. Only 80,000 visas were granted by the Saudi government.
Since the Saudis granted their visas based on lottery, the researchers had the clever idea of comparing the attitudes of those who returned from Mecca to those who didn't get to go. They wanted to see if the pilgrimage to Mecca strengthened or undermined Islamic radicalism. Incredibly, the researchers found that the Pakistanis who went to Mecca returned with attitudes more moderate and less sympathetic to Islamic fanaticism and terrorism.
But isn't Mecca dominated by radical clerics who, when they aren't eating or sleeping, lead chants of "Death to America"? This is the propaganda you hear from groups like memri.org that selectively publish material intended to give an exaggerated picture of the influence of the Muslim radicals. In reality, the overriding theme of the visit to Mecca is the traditional theme of universal Muslim brotherhood.
No surprise: pilgrims returning fro Mecca were 25 percent less likely to hold that different tribes or ethnicities could not live in harmony. Remarkably, pilgrims were also more likely to believe that all religions can co-exist. Moreover, the Pakistanis who went to Mecca were less approving of suicide bombings and other such tactics as the Pakistanis who stayed back.
Call this the Mecca effect. I predicted it in my book The Enemy at Home, in which I argued that America can find common ground with traditional believers and not just anti-Muslim activists like Hirsi Ali. The results of the Mecca effet, and the study cited here, are beautifully outlined in a recent article in the online magazine Slate written by Professor Ray Fisman of Columbia University. You can read the article here.
Yes, I know that the Islamophobes will come back with their regularly-recyled quotations from the Koran about "killing all the infidels" and so on. But equally alarming quotations can also be found in the Old Testament. The important thing is to see how those texts have been interpreted and how people have acted upon them. Muslims have had many empires through the centuries: the Ummayad, the Abassid, the Mughal, the Ottoman, and so on. Tens of millions of Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians have lived under Muslim rule. In any Muslim empire was it either policy or practice to systematically kill all the non-Muslims? No.
So we have to learn to think afresh and to take into account real evidence. Prejudice against practicing Muslims and against religious believers in general is rife in certain segments of Western society. But such prejudices should not be the basis of making public policy.
Reader Comments ( Page 19 of 19)
271. American Soldier,
An old friend of mine used to have a phrase "If you see a turtle on a fencepost be sure it had some help". All these years I thought he was the original quoter, but I guess HE had some help.
Mokele Mbembe at 3:26PM on Jun 2nd 2008
272. Tem - I know, but we think that most Americans appreciate what is done for them, by the blood of others. I would go as far as to say that most are proud of our country and how, what we do to help others. Being a soldier we have no problem defending our country against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Ex - it not about the money, but like everyone else we should be paid for the work we do. I do not defend our enemies, foreign or domestic.
Peter - you are a soul whether you like it or not. You are a pissant whether I like it or not.
So piss ant - We are not the criminals. Maybe you don't know this, but these comrades of yours are not iraqis, they are foreign fighters, al quada, syrian, and iranians. They do not wear uniforms, they look like the civilians. Many fractions with a tribal mentality. They stuff dogs full of explosives and send them out to the nice Americans. You sorry piss ant, why don't you join your buddies, so we meet you on the battlefield. Piss ant.
Mokele - it was an email sent to me. I do not know the origin. Sorry...
American Soldier at 5:05PM on Jun 2nd 2008
273. To those who yell "piss ant".
I'm not a "soul" and neither are any of you. Souls don't exist. They are delusions of faith freaks and delusional believers.
As for piss-ant, whatever.
Anyone who kills to solve problems OTHER THAN immediate personal self defense is a murderer NO MATTER WHAT THE REASON.
Defense of your nation via offensive action is never justified. Invasions of other countries is against the UN Charter as well as being unobjectionable on moral grounds.
Your values that allow you to kill and kill innocents in the name of your imaginary country indicates that you are an evil and vile person. It indicates that you don't value life since you're willing to take it when it's not your personal self defense at stake. You're willing to kill just because you think you are right. You are willing to kill just because your boss - evil Bush and vile Cheney - tell you to. That means that you are not only not a free thinker but a cult member in the most horrific kind of cult, a mass murdering State killing machine hell bend on mass terrorism with weapons of mass destruction.
I wouldn't want to meet you anywhere. You are a dangerous person and should be tried for your war crimes against humanity. You are the problem and not the solution.
Peter at 7:10PM on Jun 2nd 2008
274. "Maybe you don't know this, but these comrades of yours are not iraqis, they are foreign fighters, al quada, syrian, and iranians. They do not wear uniforms, they look like the civilians. Many fractions with a tribal mentality. They stuff dogs full of explosives and send them out to the nice Americans." - American Soldier
They are not my comrades as they are evil and vile men as well as you.
Just because someone doesn't agree with your evil and vile war doesn't mean that they automatically agree with your enemy. Your form of thinking is black and white binary and is cult propaganda from the wonderful America promoters where everything is rosy even when people are being killed.
You invaded another country on false pretenses with Bush, Cheney, and company lying through their faces about WMDs.
While they stuff dogs you guys drop bombs. Killing is killing is killing. Your killing is just as much not the solution as their killing is not the solution. You are all terrorists to each other and to those of us sitting on the side lines. You are all dangerous men and women who are committing crimes against humanity daily.
I'm sure that your christian morals are helping you out with killing others too since the bible advocates that you do that. Really nice [vile evil] people christians are when it comes down to it.
Peter at 7:36PM on Jun 2nd 2008
275. "What is the measure of a god? Is it the scope of god's power or how god chooses to wield that power? Would a god who is prepared to lead us on the path of enlightenment so contradict the divine benevolence by destroying all those who refuse to believe in him? Why must those who refuse to believe burn in the pain of hell for all eternity? I understand how difficult this must be for you believers, you so desperately long for the enlightenment that we all seek." - Teal'c paraphrased.
Belief in god is not the way to save yourself; the mythical afterlife is too late as enlightenment is only for the living - for the dead know not of light or darkness for they known not at all.
Enlightenment is an issue of freedom, not just of choice, but of freedom to be who you choose in the here and now without bondage to endarkening fantasies. To be truly free is to be enlightened. To be free now in all senses of the word free is to be enlightened now in all senses of the word enlightenment.
Enlightenment may come but once to a life, but when it goes none would, if possible, be unwilling to seek it again lifting the clouds of endarkenment brought on by belief and leaps of faith.
Grounding oneself in the here and now opens the possibility of being enlightened; take the next step choosing freely and after consideration of ones life and that which is most important. Choose wisely and enlightenment in the here and now can be yours.
Some of you may comprehend this, if you are one who does not yet comprehend the time may come that you do see yourself in reviewing your inner life choices that lead to endarkenment; the choice is to let go of that which keeps you held back from being present in the here and now.
Enlightenment, endarkenment: choose and after consideration now in this moment - the only time that there ever is or ever will be, the present; be present here and now in the present. It's a wise choice.
Choose and after consideration.
The glass half empty? The glass half full?
I choose the empty - fully empty - glass! As I choose the path less taken, not for it's own sake, but simply for it being my path.
Choose enlightenment here and now, or not; but if you choose, choose and after consideration.
Be well.
Peter at 1:03AM on Jun 3rd 2008
276. Peter I am sorry you are not a piss ant, you are a dip shit. Ignorant one at that. I have a soul, whether you do or not is up to you. Personally I do not care. You are an enemy to the country you yell for freedom in. I do not have a problem in allowing our enemies maxium opportunity to die for thier mis-guided cause. So come to the front of the line dip shit. I'll stand before God and give an account for the taking of the lives of the not so innocent comrades of yours. Sorry suckers will even use children with explosive vests against us. No, you and yours are a sorry lot. And deserve death now, and in the life to come. You do not deserve to be among the living. Dip shit. Your rhetoric about no God, and no soul shows us your ignorance. You will give an account to God about your deeds and your ignorance, you are without excuse dip shit. Now nations are delusional, no you are the mis guided delusional soul.
American Soldier at 10:48AM on Jun 3rd 2008
277.
American Soldier,
I ask of you to honor your name...STOP being just like your enemies, be better.
mac at 2:34PM on Jun 3rd 2008
278. Those who believe in the notion of the "soul" are delusional. There is no evidence to support a soul existing.
"What is the measure of a god? Is it the scope of god's power or how god chooses to wield that power? Would a god who is prepared to lead us on the path of enlightenment so contradict the divine benevolence by destroying all those who refuse to believe in him? Why must those who refuse to believe burn in the pain of hell for all eternity? " - Teal'c
So you American Soldier will kill for your country and your delusional god concept. That shows how evil and vile a person you are.
By the way your enemies also have god on their side, so when you end up before god and standing next to you is one of your enemies what will god do? He sided with both of you pitting you against each other to the extent that you'd both give your lives and take other lives in his name. I guess is that he'd punish both of you to burn in your hell forever killing each other over and over and over in the most horrific ways. That's what hell is isn't it?
Your god is a myth with no evidence. Any who believe in god are delusional. Jesus didn't rise from the dead since dead bodies just don't do that, and as a soldier you'd know that.
May you learn the way of peace before you commit any further war crimes American Soldier.
Peter at 5:16PM on Jun 3rd 2008
279. Peter I will fight for my country to defend our constitution and our way of life. Even for idiots like you. We have enemies, that will kill you and other Americans for the very freedom you have to bash those who will stand up for you. That is why I named you dip shit. You are being one. Sorry, but it seems fitting.
Mac, I am sorry if I seem to be acting like our enemies, I am not, I am far from being like that. However unlike some I have no tolerance for the anti Americans that want thier freedoms and want to destroy the very government that has given them that freedom.
American Soldier at 5:31PM on Jun 3rd 2008
280. Peter don't join the military. Good, bad or indifference... our business is war. Every soldier that has ever served to give you your freedoms have done so to prepare for the worst. None of us like it, but it is a necessary evil.
American Soldier at 5:31PM on Jun 3rd 2008
281.
American Soldier,
We may have different political and religious beliefs, but I, too, have served in the ARMY.
I offer this poem as a peace wish...
-----------------------------
I have fought when others feared to serve.
I have gone where others failed to go.
I've lost friends in war and strife,
Who valued Duty more than love of life.
I have shared the comradeship of pain.
I have searched the lands for men that we have lost.
I have sons who served this land of liberty,
Who would fight to see that other stricken lands are free.
I have seen the weak forsake humanity.
I have heard the traitors praise our enemy.
I've seen challenged men become even bolder,
I've seen the Duty, Honor, Sacrifice of the Soldier.
Now I understand the meaning of our lives,
The loss of comrades not so very long ago.
So to you who have answered duties siren call,
May God bless you my son, may God bless you all. -Lewis Millett
---------------
Remember,
Old men start wars,
Young men fight and die in them.
mac at 7:16PM on Jun 3rd 2008
282. Nice poem Mac....thanks. I will keep this at the forefront of my memory.
American Soldier at 8:57PM on Jun 3rd 2008
283. An American Soldier fulfilling his duties.
WARNING EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT of a us soldier trowing an innocent puppy off of a cliff killing it. WARNING.
http://www.idkwtf.com/videos/latest-videos/us-soldier-throws-puppy-off-cliff
The morals of the sick soldiers in this video demonstrate many of the points that I've been making. Horrific if it's real.
Peter at 9:09PM on Jun 3rd 2008
284. Peter reference to your 283 - We are not perfect. We are human, some are more cruel than others.
Our enemies will behead you if you do not convert to islam. Now, put it in perspective, dip shit. We as a Nation, or a military force condone what an individual here and there does. The shooting of the the Quaran was a stupid act, so was the puppy deal. But these are individual acts. Our enemies will stuff explosives in those puppies send them out to greet us, and detonate them. Put it in perspective dip shit. Under the dictatorship of our enemies they would hunt you down and kill you for talking bad about thier leader. Put it in perspective dip shit. Well you get the idea... you are so far off base that you do not have a clue.
American Soldier at 5:15PM on Jun 7th 2008
285. American Soilder, um...I mean DIP SHIT - two wrongs have never made a right - DIP SHIT.
NewYorker20014 at 8:57AM on Jun 14th 2008