Our Moral Authority and the Muslim World
In yesterday's posts, Professor Ish-Shalom pointed out the dangers of extremists to their own countries. That's invaluable, as we often reduce things to the simple Manichaen dualism of "Us Good, Them Bad." What do we do when "they" become "us"?--or to use Walt Kelly's famous phrase from Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us." One of the many reasons that I admire Prof. Etzioni's Security First is the insistence on our own morality. That's the theme that Professor Contarino stressed in his fine post yesterday. I'd like to pick up on that with regard to the Muslim world.
A great resource to understand the perceptions of Muslims is the recent book, Who Speaks for Islam? by John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed. The book is an analysis of the Gallup World Poll done between 2001 and 2007 in some 35 countries with a significant Muslim population. To quote from the book, "When asked what they admire about the West, the politically radicalized and moderates mention these top three spontaneous responses: (1) technology; (2) the West's value system, hard work, self-responsibility, rule of law, cooperation; and (3) fair political systems, democracy, respect of human rights, freedom of speech, gender equality." (p. 80). That belies the simple, and incorrect explanation that "they hate us because of our freedom." It is precisely our morality that is crucial, to the Muslim world, and to us.
it's a bit more complicated than that, because the Muslim world is over 1 billion people and not monolithic at all. Viewpoints in Malaysia will differ widely from Kuwait and Jordan.
All of us have a natural resentment of power and powerful nations like America make decisions that affect Muslims, and they have no say in our political process. One can understand that.
The real issue is they have no say in their own political process and this is the tragedy that must be reversed.
September 26, 2008 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink