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 3 of 19)
31. "Religion is about projecting conclusions onto the world and distorting what one sees to fit those conclusions."
Peter: Insert Randi in place of Religion and I think the same could be said. What you choose to call clear thinking is simply your favorite path to enlightenment. I'm living a great life now, with the hope of a greater life hereafter.
fanmanaf1 at 10:47AM on May 30th 2008
32. I found dimwits article mildly interesting until I got to his knee jerk statement 'in my book' Another shill for 'my book'
Geoff Barker at 10:49AM on May 30th 2008
33. Moke:
See my previous post #5 today. I was so blown aeay by the apparently open minded and conciliatory nature of DD's comments that I hesitated to insert the well learned distrust we may have of his real motives. By pointing out that we can try to get along without painting everyone who has differnet beliefs as evil, he cunningly implies that he has purposely not extended this understanding to people who do not believe at all. Ergo, it would not surprise me if your prediction turns out to be correct, or, at least, that his sycophants will find a way to do it for him.
Harvey at 10:50AM on May 30th 2008
34. And yet the great 11th century Catholic "pilgrimage" to "The Holy Lands" involved LOTS and LOTS of terror and killing.
Ryan Anderson at 10:50AM on May 30th 2008
35. Islam just like catholicism and the texas polygamists are cults and their members are brain washed from birth.
Geoff Barker at 10:54AM on May 30th 2008
36. "America's Most Gangsta" writes in #16 above: "Reaganite, you are displaying a gross ignorance of satire. I was being fascetious to make a point of how ignorant and short-sighted ..."
Actually, "Gangsta," I'm pretty good at spotting bad history which masquerades as satire. My advice to you: keep your day job and let the experts do satire. You might also go back to school (maybe high school) and review that 11th grade history course you were obviously sleeping through.
Reaganite in NYC at 11:15AM on May 30th 2008
37. 7. This is in regards to America's dumbest gangster. In 1941 after we were attacked by Japan what did we do? We attack Germany, so using your logic we still attacked the wrong country. What the left fails to see is the bigger picture regarding Islamic terrorism. The general consensus (much of which came from leftist leaders like Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright and even Ted Kennedy himself) believes Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The evidence was overwhelming. The left is so eager to accept the general consensus regarding global warming but mysteriously does not regarding Saddam Hussein.
Greg at 8:26AM on May 30th 2008
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After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the U.S. formally declared war on Japan. Upon doing so, Germany declared war on the U.S. whereupon the U.S. formally declared war on Germany. Thus, a formally declared state of war existed between the U.S. and Germany so in no way did the U.S. attack the wrong country by attacking Germany and subsequently Japan. Actually, even prior to the formal declaration of war between the U.S. and Germany, the German navy had been attacking U.S. supply ships headed to Britain in the north Atlantic.
Iraq did not attack the U.S.. Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks of September 11, 2001. Iraq had no ties to Al Queda. The "evidence" of WMD's in Iraq was anything but overwhelming. To call it overwhelming is pure spin and fantasy. The evidence was very loosely based and never followed up with proper verification. Logic dictates that there can be no evidence for something that simply does not exist. Unless, one simply relies on "faith" that that the WMD's exist or existed.
The phenomenon of global warming was established based on scientific method: observation, experiment, data collection, and analysis. Saddam Hussein, as much as a despot as he was, posed no threat to the U.S. nor really to anyone else. Saddam Hussein portrayed as an immediate threat to the existence of the U.S. or the world was based on George Bush and Dick Cheney's whim, period. The Iraqi army was decimated and demoralized going all the way back to the Gulf War of 1991. The ensuing 12 years of economic sanctions left Saddam Hussein little ability to rebuild his army at all. That is why there was so little resistance to U.S. forces that invaded in 2003 and allowed the U.S. to push into and occupy Baghdad in a matter of days with very few casualties. Unfortunately, many people here gave Bush and Cheney the benefit of the doubt and we have found out for some time now, and will continue to for a long time, that we were fooled.
Frank at 11:27AM on May 30th 2008
38. Oh Yeah Dinesh, when you attend The Amazing Meeting take your proof of god with you. There is a Million Dollar Prize awaiting anyone who can prove ANY supernatural claim!
Peter at 11:36AM on May 30th 2008
39. Frank; we know the WMDs existed, because we sold many of them to Saddam.
However, you are correct in that there was and is no evidence that Saddam had active WMD programs later than 1990.
Ryan Anderson at 12:47PM on May 30th 2008
40. A mild article by DD today. Where's the hatred of atheists and liberals that I've come to expect? Hmm... Maybe he's developing a conscience.
Naaaah... What am I saying? :-)
+++++++++++++
Two words to the neocons listening: Scott MacClellan
How's that make you feel? Or are you stupid enough to buy the white house line. As if they'd say anything else, I mean. What else can they say?
Your leaders have lied to you. So if you didn't know that, and never believed us filthy liberal atheists, shame on you, and LEARN FROM IT!!! Just because we're different, doesn't mean we're necessarily WRONG... And, wouldn't you like to know if your leaders are lying to you? Well, now you do.
Sctoo MacClellan is a decent man. I used to despise him, but I always thought that he seemed angry for soem reason toward the end, when he was always getting embarassed. Now I know why.
I've watched the interviews. I can spot a liar. If he's lying, is't minor embellishment, and I don't even think that. It rings true. Completely. And it's his words, too. He says so. It's real. All of it. And we knew it four years ago. Imagine for a minute how frustrating that was for us, being able to see it, but not enough people believing us. That's how I felt, and I know most others like me feel this way as well.
Godless Heathen Brian at 1:05PM on May 30th 2008
41. Sorry, lots of typos in that last. I got lazy and didn't check it before I posted.
Godless Heathen Brian at 1:07PM on May 30th 2008
42. Hello to Everyone,
I'm back on a break for a couple weeks to spend time with the beautiful wife and the three little turds, and I'm badder than ever.
Hope to communicate with all of you at some point while I'm here.
DD, good article. Now tell your followers to stop being judgmental bigots.
Botts at 1:08PM on May 30th 2008
43. Godless,
Don't lie dude, admit it. You're smoking some seriously good shit this afternoon.
I'm feeling you big time.
Long time, no talk..brother
Botts at 1:10PM on May 30th 2008
44. Hi Botts. Good to "see" you.
Godless Heathen Brian at 1:10PM on May 30th 2008
45. Hi Botts. Good to hear from you.
Botts, per my post, I'm not being a bigot about his blog: I am questioning the veracity of the study that he is touting, that's all.
As a clinical researcher, I'm always wary of studies that omit important data.
Stay safe.
Linda at 1:12PM on May 30th 2008