Rhetorical Warfare
The Evolving Presence of Neocrusaderism and the Media Assault on IslamWritten by:Bruce Richardson As Western leaders attempt to forge the "New World Order" Islam has
increasingly come to be regarded as the new global monolithic enemy of the West.
To
some, particularly Americans searching for a new enemy against whom to test
their mettle and power, following the death of communism, Islam is the preferred
antagonist. Fear of the Green Menace (green being the color of Islam) may well
replace that of the Red Menace of world communism. But, to declare Islam an
enemy of the United States and the West is to declare a second Cold War that is
unlikely to end in the same resounding victory as the first.(1)
"There
are a good many people who think that the war between communism and the West is
about to be replaced by a war between the West and Muslims." (2)
In
"Islam and the West," The Economist, December 22, 1992, the
author attempted to put these issues into perspective using an imaginary
dialogue between two religious leaders, one Christian and one Muslim who spoke
as follows:
"It
distresses me that so many people seem to think that the next period of history
will be a fight between your part of the world and mine. It is true that we live
elbow to elbow with each other . . . it is also true that our elbows have banged
painfully together many times in the past. But almost 2000 years after the birth
of your Jesus, and more than 1400 years after the birth of our Muhammad, let me
start by asking whether it really has to happen all over again.
Are
Islam and the West on an inevitable collision course? Are Islamic
fundamentalists medieval fanatics? Are Islam and democracy incompatible? Is
Islamic fundamentalism a threat to stability in the Muslim world and to American
interests in the region? These critical questions come from a history of mutual
distrust and condemnation. For more than a decade the vision of Islamic
fundamentalism or militant Islam has gripped the imagination of Western
governments and the media.(3)"
More
often than not, media coverage of Islam and the Muslim world concludes that
there is a monolithic Islam out there somewhere, believing, feeling, thinking,
and acting as one. Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, for example, was one spokesman,
not (the) spokesman of Islam. There is no pope of Islam. Seeing all Muslims and
all events in the Muslim world through the prism of Khomeini and revolutionary
Iran has had profound effects upon American and Western perceptions of Islam and
the Middle and Near East. Thus, by the same measure, we should then view
Christians and Christianity through the prism of Serbian President, Milosovich.
All Jews and Judaism through the prism of the Israeli Defense Force's punitive
policies.
All
peoples, believers and non‑believers, Muslims and Jews, Christians, Sikhs,
and Hindus ... become enraged when their survival or interests are threatened.
Rage and hatred or the use of religion to rationalize and legitimate one's
actions, are not peculiar to Islam alone. In reality, most civilized peoples,
normally courteous and kind, accept rage against evil and hatred of enemies as a
normal response to heinous crimes, wartime enemies, hostage taking, and
terrorism. Have the lessons of the Christian inspired Crusades and the
Inquisition, of the waves of European imperialism and colonialism faded from
memory? Periods when popes and monarchs, clergy, civil servants, and soldiers
often legitimated their actions in the name of religion: God and country, crown
and cross? (4)
This
preoccupation with a monolithic, "militant" Islam, is obvious with
Western attitude towards the nuclear capability of Muslim countries such as
Pakistan and Iran. Characterized as "Islamic bombs," implying the
existence of a Pan‑Islamic world that threatens Israel and the West. Do we
characterize Israeli or American nuclear capabilities in terms of a Jewish or
Christian bomb? Some Muslims have described Israeli bombings of southern Lebanon
as the result of "Jewish boys" dropping Christian bombs, a description
which most in the West would find inaccurate and offensive. Moreover, would we
tolerate similar generalizations in analyzing and explaining Western activities
and motives? How often do we see articles that speak of Christian militancy or
Jewish fanaticism? (5)
Western
stereotyping of Islam is assured when uninformed and biased leaders present
myopic positions to the media and their constituents. Former Vice President, Dan
Quayle, once spoke of the dangers of radical Islamic fundamentalism, grouping it
with Nazism and communism in a speech given at the United States Naval Academy.
And when a respected national newspaper, The Boston Globe, runs a
four-part series on Islam whose general tenor is captured by the title of
the piece, "The Sword of Islam," it becomes difficult to know where
reality ends and myth begins. (6)
Are
we so arrogant as to believe that the common Judeo-Christian cultural
tradition of the West provides a more accommodating ideological soil, and is
more inherently democratic? Sadly, we are saddled with a combination of
ignorance, stereotyping history, and experience as well as religious-cultural
chauvinism, that often blinds even the best-intentioned when dealing with
the world of Islam. (7)
Muslim
historians view the history of Islam and of the Muslim's world dealings with the
West as one of victimization and oppression at the hands of an expansive
imperial power. Thus, many counter that it is "militant Christianity"
and "militant Judaism" that are the root causes of failed Islamic
societies and instability: the aggression and intolerance of Christian-initiated
Crusades and the Inquisition; European colonialism; the breakup of the Ottoman
empire and the artificial creation of modern states such as Iraq, Lebanon,
Syria, Trans-Jordan, and Palestine; the establishment of Israel; Israeli
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and its invasion and occupation of Lebanon;
and the extent to which oil interests have been the determining factor in
support for autocratic regimes. The reality of colonialism and imperialism,
although overlooked or conveniently forgotten by many in the West, are part of
its living legacy, firmly implanted in the psyche of many in the Near and Middle
East. Moreover, the Western governments do not condemn the mixing of religion
and politics in Israel, Poland, Eastern Europe or Latin America, yet a
comparable level of discrimination is absent when dealing with Islam. (8)
For
the past 30 months Islam has witnessed the insensitivity of the Christian world
to the horror of Bosnia where a genocide is being perpetrated on the Muslim
community. Time after time the West has promised to intervene only to back away
and watch the slaughter continue. To the Muslim community this is inexcusable. No such procrastination was
present when the oil supply of the Western world was challenged by Saddam
Hussein. Led by the United States, the West moved multi‑laterally to
protect their interests. And where is the outrage over the punitive operation by
the Israeli Defense Force in southern Lebanon
which displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians and killed hundreds of women
and children? And where is the concern for a nation that defeated communism and
the Soviet Union on the battlefield at a cost of two million lives and a
shattered infrastructure that will require twenty years to rebuild? Yes! where is the concern
for Afghanistan? (9)
Is
it any wonder then, that the Muslim world views the West
with cynicism, suspicion and contempt?(10)
The
solution? We must move beyond facile stereotypes and ready made images
and answers. Just as simply perceiving the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
through the prism of the Evil
Empire, had its costs, so too the tendency of American administrations and the
media to equate Islam and Islamic activism with Qadaffi, Khomeini, Saddam
Hussein or the World Trade Center bombing and thus with radicalism,
terrorism; and anti‑Americanism has seriously hampered our understanding
and conditioned our responses. (11)
Our
challenge today is to appreciate the diversity of Islamic actors and movements,
to ascertain the reasons behind confrontations and conflicts, and thus to react
to specific events and situations
with informed and reasoned responses, rather than predetermined presumptions and
reactions. Moreover, we must address the horrors of Bosnia and Afghanistan and
seek justice for our Muslim brothers and sisters, speak out against Israeli
brutality in the "Occupied Territories," speak out against repressive
regimes that stifle democracy and human rights no matter that said regime
supplies the West with oil, speak out against a biased and inflammatory media,
and make a collective yet determined effort to render aid to the people of
Afghanistan who have been abandoned, dehumanized, and dislocated while assuring
the West a victory over Soviet communism. Humanity
and the continuation of civilization demands no less of us.
NOTES
-
"Is Islam an enemy of the
United States?," Patrick J. Buchanan, New Hampshire Sunday News,
November 25, 1990
-
Ibid.
-
Ibid.
-
"Help Algeria's
Fundamentalists," William Pfaff, The New Yorker, January
28, 1991
-
Ibid.
-
The Boston Globe, July
27, 1991
-
The Islamic Threat, Myth or
Reality, John Esposito, Oxford University Press, 1992
-
Ibid, (see CNN Broadcast, Afghanistan,
Terror‑Nation, U.S. Creation, 1/94, 8/94, example of
extreme bias).
-
Ibid.
-
Ibid.
-
Ibid, (see also CNN Broadcast, Afghanistan,
Terror‑Nation, U.S. Creation, 1/94 and 8/94, example of
extreme bias).
Table of Content |
