Do Muslims around the world back Islamic radicalism and terrorism? We've been hearing a positive answer to this question for seven years now from a slew of right-wing pundits who seem to be making a very good living as Muslim-bashers. These pundits are big on anecdotes but small on data. Fortunately we are now in a position to answer them with the facts supplied in John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed's important book Who Speaks for Islam? If you haven't read this book, you cannot consider yourself properly informed on the topic.
Esposito and Mogahed cite Gallup data that shows that only 7 percent of Muslims consider the 9/11 attacks to be justified. The authors don't think that even 7 percent of the world's Muslims are ready to sign up for jihad. Yet any group of Muslims who approves of 9/11 is a group that I think we should worry about. These are the political backers of Bin Laden and his cohorts. Undoubtedly Al Qaeda hopes to recruit from this pool. We should be monitoring this group closely.
But let's at the same time recognize that this cohort is a tiny minority. Images of Palestinian activists celebrating 9/11 or radical Imams leading chants of "Death to America" are not representative of Muslim opinion. There are right-wing pundits who have been trying to foment a clash of civilizations by proclaiming typical Muslims to be radicals, but next time you hear this ask for convincing evidence to back up such allegations. Most likely you will get unrepresentative anecdotes.
The larger concern for Esposito and Mogahed is Muslims who reject terrorism of the 9/11 type but nevertheless hate the United States. This hatred, however, is not mainly derived from American support for Israel or America's alleged imperialist history. Nor is it because, as President Bush once put it, "they hate us for our freedom." Rather, Esposito and Mogahed trace Muslim anti-Americanism to the belief that the West in general, and America in particular, are conducting a "war with Islam." And when Muslims are asked why they think this, they point to three things.
First, they cite America's support for secular Muslim despots. Second, they point the finger at what they view to be anti-religious and immoral values disseminated through American popular culture abroad. Finally, they seize upon the statements of inflammatory Americans who say, as Lawrence Auster recently did, "The problem is not 'radical' Islam but Islam itself, from which it follows that we must seek to weaken and contain Islam." My former colleague at the Hoover Institution, Victor Davis Hanson, seems to share Auster's view.
One wishes that self-styled Islamic experts like Auster (an attorney previously known for his efforts to reduce immigration in America) and Victor Davis Hanson (actually an expert on classical antiquity with excellent books on topics like the Peloponnesian War) would stop trying to launch the United States on a crazy secular crusade to undermine or transform the religious beliefs of Muslims, a group numbering well over a billion people. These pundits' analysis would be greatly improved if they learned to distinguish among Muslims.
No, guys: they don't all look alike and they don't all think alike. There are Islamic radicals who are our sworn enemies, and there are other Muslims who are being alienated from the United States because they want to rule themselves, they want to affirm traditional Islamic values in their countries, and also because they are disgusted with the anti-Muslim sentiments exhibited by people like Auster and Hanson.
Reader Comments ( Page 14 of 15)
196. 194. I think people would like spiders more if they were spray painted pink and made to wear Richard Simmons masks....or maybe not...
Clif Kuplen at 5:55PM on Sep 18th 2008
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The people or the spiders?
Saint Brian the Godless at 7:51PM on Sep 18th 2008
197. I really hope to keep in touch with some of you so for those that do not wind up coming to my blog or Bott's, here's my email address. Drop me a line sometime so I can put you on my list and keep in touch, okay?
Saint Brian the Godless at 8:32PM on Sep 18th 2008
198. Uh, and here's my email address:
bacgems@aol.com
Duh.
Saint Brian the Godless at 8:33PM on Sep 18th 2008
199. The people or the spiders?
Saint Brian the Godless at 7:51PM on Sep 18th 2008
xx
the spider pigs...you want flies with that?
Clif Kuplen at 10:49PM on Sep 18th 2008
200. Once I loved a spider
When I was born a fly
A velvet footed spider
with gown of rainbow dye
She ate my wings and gloated
She bound me with a hair
She drove me to her parlor
Above a winding stair
To educate young spiders
She took me all apart
My ghost came back to haunt her
I saw her eat my heart...
I forget who wrote that but it always reminded me of my first wife. A lot.
Saint Brian the Godless at 12:04AM on Sep 19th 2008
201. Or conversely...
Busy, curious, thirsty fly
Drink with me and drink as I
Freely welcome to my cup
Wouldst thou sip and sip it up?
Make the most of life today
Life is short and fades away
Much alike are mine and thine
Hastening quick to their decline
Thine's a summer; mine's no more
Though repeated to threescore
Threescore summers, when they're done
Will appear as short as one
Another one I can't recall the author of. My head's filled with stuff like this...
Saint Brian the Godless at 12:10AM on Sep 19th 2008
202. My wife and I love spider pig. We even sometimes sing the sing to our dog, only with him it's "Spider pug, spider pug..."
He doesn't like to walk on the ceiling though.
Saint Brian the Godless at 12:12AM on Sep 19th 2008
203. We spammin'
We spammin'
We spammin it for the Lord...
http://saintbrianthegodless.blogspot.com/
(Apologies to Bob M.)
Saint Brian the Godless at 12:18AM on Sep 19th 2008
204. I forget who wrote that but it always reminded me of my first wife. A lot.
*******
It reminds me of someone in my past too. She just "past" by me about 15 minutes ago.
Oh, no... I dih-undt!
I'm in trouble. Muslim terrorists. Disney. Now... oh, "Hi, honey!"
That was a close one.
Should anyone find my body... I'll try to write the culprit's name in my blood.
torquemada at 8:44AM on Sep 19th 2008
205. It is easy--and tempting--to believe that events on the other side of the earth are no concern of ours. It might even be true in a world without the internal combustion engine. But, unless we are willing to reject technology and live like the Amish, the global economy is a necessity. Thus, we have a legitimate interest in the peace and stability of regions all over the world.
Keith J. Mohrhoff at 10:06AM on Sep 19th 2008
206. "I'll have the entrecotes marchand du vin, champignons provencale, haricots verts en beurre, a bottle of '64 Chateau Lafite Rothshild, and bring some shit for my fly."
-Bob Kliban cartoon (approximately)
Clif Kuplen at 1:48PM on Sep 19th 2008
207. Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds and whey
Along came a spider
Who sat down beside her
And said, "Yo, whatcha eatin' bitch?"
Clif Kuplen at 2:06PM on Sep 19th 2008
208. You damm right they do.
James Geigle at 7:37PM on Sep 21st 2008
209. I believe by being transparent about our problems is an answer to everyone who tries to hold Islam accountable for the deviant terrorist mentalities -or as she puts them: the politically radicalized-, at the same time; it is the best approach to start building and correcting where we in our societies have gone wrong.
Fargad al-Madhi
Transparency - a dangerous notion - with transparency comes change - it is a must. It is only when we look at ourselves without blinders do we see all we hate and love about ourselves. It lends others to see us and our weaknesses. It has the potential to ruin or save us all.
TJ at 12:32PM on Sep 22nd 2008
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swzncqybic at 11:39PM on Jan 23rd 2009