Consider the recent events of the Summer of Islamophobia:
Islam does have, and pose, major problems within our world today. But it's important to remember that these problems are cultural and situational, not an inherent result of Islamic doctrine.
That's why Bernard Lewis, the culturally and politically conservative historian of Islam, was intellectually honest enough to title one of his books What Went Wrong?, being intellectually honest enough to admit that much had gone right during a golden age in which he called Muslims more tolerant and progressive than any other civilization. Lewis added that the fact that Islam's golden age came not long after its founding confirmed that Islamic belief isn't inherently anti-progress or anti-pluralism.
Culture, not theology, is the major issue. Culture, within the Arab and South-Asian section of the Muslim world, is in desperate need of reform. The honor killings of the Taliban and the restrictions on women in Saudi Arabia are simple indigenous, nutty culture, which is why they're not issues for the Muslim populations of Turkey or Indonesia -- or Cincinnati, Ohio.
But cultural critique and resistance has to come from the inside. When the critique comes from the outside, via self-serving demagogues such as Gingrich and McCarthy, or the always-rabid Robert Spencer, the effect is only to polarize moderate Muslims right into the fundamentalist camp.
That actually plays right into the hands of Western and jihadist demagogues alike; they create a self-fulfilling prophecy of conflict that places themselves as heroes who mock "appeasers" within their own society. No two groups gained more from 9/11 and the symbolism of Ground Zero than the hawks of jihad and the hawks of America.
American hawks may claim they're critiquing Islam because the Muslims won't. They're wrong. Why else do you think nearly 6,000 innocent civilians have died as a result of resistance to jihadist forces in the past two years in Pakistan? Islamic historian Reza Aslan has noted that the war against terror has been mainly a war within Islam, fought by moderate Muslims against the extremists.
More can be done by the moderate Muslims, granted, and I'll discuss that further in the near future.
But Americans will need to be careful not to play the sucker for the power plays of would-be presidents such as Gingrich, who pick racism and bigotry up from the dustbin and place it in a showy new outfit.
You can't fault his choice of tactics. It beats having to defend his party's fiscal record. And in George Orwell's nightmare vision, the ruling party used daily Two-Minute Hate sessions and annual Hate Week festivals to grand effect. It works just as well in the real world: Americans marginalized Catholics a century ago as a threat to supplant the constitution with the Vatican. We marginalized Jews, rounded up Japanese-Americans, prevented interracial marriage and kept the Chinese at arm's length. And when we did it to them, we never claimed to do so out of malice. We claimed we did it with justification, out of a need for caution, to protect our traditions, our values, our way of life. We especially did it during the stresses of war.
Gingrich will in time be reduced to the mean and cheap little corner of history that he has earned for himself, serving as yet another cautionary tale for wiser persons. But we can attempt to minimize the damage that persons such as he do in the meantime.
Perhaps we can distract him by asking for a serious plan to cut the deficit.
Rob Asghar is author of Lessons from the Holy Wars: A Pakistani-American Odyssey, available in paperback and on Kindle at Amazon.
Follow Rob Asghar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rasghar
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"Muslim-Americans" need to concentrate more on the American part of their identity and less on the Muslim part.
I disagree.
Definitions of equality, justice and human rights have changed a lot since Judaism, Christianity and Islam were born in the Middle East.
The three religions are not equal in their ability to keep up with the changes. Islam is more change resistant and its laws show that. In the areas of gender equity, freedom of speech, political equality, separation of religion and state and the condoning of violence in the service of religion, Islam lags behind the other two.
It's always difficult to distuingish between culture and religion, but it seems clear to me that Islamic doctrine is due for a major overhaul.
Wahabbism and Salafism are not reformation movements. They are steps backwards
Rob Asghar,
Thank you for writing such a good & informative piece on what the American public is being subjected to, once again by hatemongers.
No justification exists for hate-mongering, bigotry against Americans of any or no faith, including American Muslims.
No justification exists for hate-mongering, bigotry against Americans of any or no faith, including American Muslims.
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/11/video-little-terrorists-born-in-the-u-s/
The philosopher Karl Popper explained it: "Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant society will be destroyed and tolerance with them."
Its peculiar that Muslim people around the world are DEMANDED by America's right wing to tolerate American military excursions, bombings, assasinations, extraordinary renditions, and torture, but they can't 'tolerate' a private mosque and cultural center.
There is no reasoning in this affair. BTW, how's the housing market? How's unemployment? How are your wars? How is the financial industry? How is the economy? How is the infrastructure? How are rightwing economic plans for America?
I thought so.
Wrong.
Yeah, they also invented the printing press, as Obama said!!!
And the 'majority of a people' who are largely ignorant of and easily swayed against a matter does not represent what is right or good.
This mosque and antiIslam hatemongering is the kind of distraction that Evil perpetrates to cause a people to correct the wrongs and bring justice to momentous injustices. Many economists estimate over $100 trillion dollars was 'lost' in the American financial crisis. A lot of that belonging to foreign nations and people who put their trust in America, but were defrauded.
There is a long list of chronic problems that America has failed to address. Scapegoating Islam and Muslims is the easy distraction. Many of the hatemongers feel weak. In actuality, Muslims are weak in America and weak in the world, and Americans who want to kill Muslims and demonize and destroy Islam are actually simply attacking people vulnerable and weaker than themselves.
It would be like wishing to go to Mississippi to hang out with racists but 10 times worse
Time to choose.
http://www.slate.com/id/2263334/
I wish we really could deport people for being unAmerican, this pile of garbage would be the first to go. I mean, look at all the hate he inspires in me!
There are over 2000 "intimate homicides" in America each year. Husbands, exhusbands, boyfriends, exboyfriends, lovers, exlovers, family members, murder women at a large rate within America's borders.
"Islam didn't cause that."
It didn't help.
"o1.2 The following are not subject to retaliation:
[...]
(4) a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring"...
Islamic law as of 1991.
The "stable families" of the Middle East you talk about are filled with women who are treated like cows, who have no idea of the American notion of gender equality.
Typical muslim argument. Bring sharia law to the US and you'll see your dysfunctional families suddenly marching in lockstep to the call from the minaret...
Gingrich has been trying to frame his warning about sharia law in such a way as to suggest that this was not only the goal of Muslims, but of the left in general; to see sharia implemented in the US. In the true spirit of "death panels", he is trying to incite fear of a situation that is non-existent. It's Willie Horton, 2010...
Rubbish. Jews have won 150 Nobel prizes. How many muslims have won.
The ones they didn't win would have gone to the Chinese.
Substitute Islam with Judaism, gays, blacks and you can see how many ills religious indoctrination has the USA been afflicted with.
For heaven's sake, muslims (in their overwhelming majority) are people who have 2 hands, 2 feet, a nose, 2 eyes and who are more preoccupied with making ends meet providing for their families and who aspire to live in a prosperous and peaceful environment. Is that so hard for Christian Talibans to understand?
Too many Muslims are sitting on a fence, waiting to see who is the strong horse.