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 4 of 15)
46. Why are there so many Dinesh bashers? This guy gets picked on so much? Am i missing something?
Joey at 2:08PM on Sep 15th 2008
47. [bump]
Mokele Mbembe at 1:54PM on Sep 15th 2008
48. Muslim opinions aren't what should scare us today.
While D'Souza ponders Muslim opinions, the US economy is in the process of collapsing like the house of cards it is. With the failure of the mortgage industry and the mounds of US debt, investment houses (Lehman Bro, and Merrill Lynch) are failing and now AIG (the largest insurance group?) is on the ropes because they insured all those failed mortgages. I wish that I liked pre-ground coffee so that I could have something to bury my money in...
Pliny-the-in-Between at 2:12PM on Sep 15th 2008
49. Seriously, Judy???
But most of us are not as enlightened as you are - we are not reading books about how maligned Muslims are.
----Hmph, maybe you should. It's not as if the resources are not available to you.
WHAT WE AMERICANS KNOW IS: We don't hear an outcry denouncing terrorism, from the 'so called' peaceful Muslims
----Actually, that is what YOU know. What I know, what my family knows, what my colleagues know, what my friends know is that Muslims do denounce terrorism.
SO . . . IF YOU AREN'T PART OF THE SOLUTION, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM!
----This saying applies to you as well. You are not exempt because you are not Muslim. I don't see you fighting for the innocent Muslims. (And, yes they DO exist)
YOU are here in OUR country - you are not a separate nation 'within' our country - you should let us get to know you - YOU MAKE THE EFFORT to reach out to us.
-----There are American born Muslims, which makes this country as much theirs as "ours." And, if you want to get technical this country belongs to no one except the Native Americans. And unless you are Native American this country is not yours.
And, why not grow a pair and get to know them. Why don't you reach out? I see Muslims everyday working with "US," riding the train with "US," serving food to "US," eating with "US," walking with "US." So how are they separating themselves from "US." If anything it seems you are separating yourself from "them."
YOUR SILENCE CONDEMNS YOU!
---And, your ignorance condemns you!
I am afraid of you - don't you see that?
---Your fault, Judy. YOU are choosing to be afraid. Everything you said was racist, and completely UNAMERICAN. And, I am afraid of you. Because if this is how other "Americans" are thinking, I fear for our future.
Dee at 2:33PM on Sep 15th 2008
50. "Why are there so many Dinesh bashers? This guy gets picked on so much? Am i missing something?"
Yes you are.
timbo at 6:22AM on Sep 16th 2008
51. It's a-me, Mokele!
xxxxxxxxx
MM, I have always had a hard time visualizing those digital images - do you have any portraits in a potato chip or cinnamon roll? That always works for me.
Pliny-the-in-Between at 2:47PM on Sep 15th 2008
52. 6. There are one billion Muslims in the world. Seven percent of them think that the murder of American civilians on 9/11 was justified. That's seventy million people.
-------------------------
And what about the other ninety-seven percent? Kill 'em all and let Allah sort 'em out?
Saint Brian the Godless at 2:56PM on Sep 15th 2008
53. THERE ARE AROUND 1.5 BILLION OF MUSLIM IN PLANET EARTH AND THE LOWEST NUMBER ESTIMATED THAT OPENLY,,,AGAIN OPENLY.. SUPPORT ISLAMIC JIHAD IS 10%,,,,, SO COUNT YOUR NUMBERS.....
http://foundation1.org/wp-en/2008/09/05/on-bombing-iran/
olker at 2:58PM on Sep 15th 2008
54. For future reference, my email address is
bacgems@aol.com
Anybody have any ideas yet where we might all blog when these blogs are discontinutd?
Saint Brian the Godless at 3:02PM on Sep 15th 2008
55. SBG- didn't Ada say something about some other people taking over their blogs, or am I mistaken??
Dee at 3:08PM on Sep 15th 2008
56. For God's sake how do we kill 60 innocent Afghan children? and the
Republicans and the false Christians, Palin, talk about abortion? We
are horrid people just horrid how come these attacks are just being
reported? As a Gentile every election I have voted for a Republican
who states they are Christians but not anymore I have had it with
these Fake Republican Christians who are war mongers and baby killers
and oppressors of the poor they can take Jezabel and King Ahab (Palin
and McCain) and shove them! And will the perverted can't get their
woodie down from lusting over Palin media ever give the other
candidates (Barr and Nadar and Paul) some darn airtime? America is
not a Christian nation we are Pharisee nation who now wants to elect
a war mogger woman who gives the world reason to mock Christ. As a
Gentile don't you fake Christians ever ask for my vote or ever talk
to me about Muslims again you who are so against abortion but have no
problem killing 60 children with stupid airstrikes. And hello there
are more candidates than Jezabel and King Ahab and Obama I would like
the media to do their job and allow us Americans to hear from Barr,
Nadar and Paul! that is of course when the media gets that nut out
over Palin and quit acting like scared bit*ches of Jezabel!
Nandi at 3:12PM on Sep 15th 2008
57. Saint Brian the Godless
We could become terrorist, and move in on a Christian blog or two. Just kidding.
Jerry Brown at 3:13PM on Sep 15th 2008
58. Well, I asked for a citation on the religious affiliation of abortion procurers and boy did I get one. I'll have to take a study of that. Good information and photos on the rest of that site to cry myself to sleep over.
And re, "No, guys: they don't all look alike and they don't all think alike." This comment was directed by DD to those right-wing pundits and "self-styled Islamic experts" he calls out for treating them that way. Not to you or me.
DD urges us to recognize the difference between Muslims and Islamic terrorists. The progressives who are reluctantly agreeing with him should read it again. He specifically wishes the West "would stop trying to launch the United States on a crazy secular crusade to undermine or transform the religious beliefs of Muslims."
And by "secular" we know what he means (liberal atheist). He means the United Nations and Western groups who are setting up offices in their countries and urging Muslim women out of their hijabs and into nascent divorce courts and abortion mills. Or even setting up Muslim girls in schools.
As jolting as these Islamic practices are to Western sensibilities there is also a near universal Western opprobrium for "forcing one's morality down another's throat." These ideals are in conflict in the idealistic West.
DD wants us to stop undermining the faith of Muslims and, as a separate issue, to kill terrorists. I would predict that many commenters here wish for the opposite.
GaryB at 3:13PM on Sep 15th 2008
59. Anybody have any ideas yet where we might all blog when these blogs are discontinutd?
---------------
You could write six NYT bestsellers and then any number of publishers would pay you handsomely to write an opinion column, probably syndicated on line.
I would be your very first commenter, urging the others to treat you with the respect you deserve! :)
GaryB at 3:22PM on Sep 15th 2008
60. I have a pic of a piece of toast with Eric Estrada's likeness in the burned parts.
America's Most Gangsta at 3:36PM on Sep 15th 2008