MESSAGE
| DATE | 2001-12-02 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] When Civilizations Clash
|
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/02/opinion/02MEHI.html
BTW - I do not agree with this entire piece, especially this pargraph.
Hearts and Minds has never been successful unless followed by a complete
military victory and occupation
Winning a war, however, does not mean winning the peace. This war
can, in truth, be won only by winning hearts and minds. This
can be
achieved only by correcting the historical mistakes made by the
West, including the United States, in undercutting the
modernizing
forces of pan- Arabism - and by correcting the spectacularly
misguided choices made by Arab elites in their use of power and
of
politicized Islam as a way to keep it.
How Islam and Politics Mixed
By SAAD MEHIO
BEIRUT, Lebanon- So what comes after the Taliban and
Osama bin Laden are finished? Probably more Talibans and
new Osama bin Ladens. This is the sad and shocking reality that
we
must confront. It will happen apart from all the fanfare
surrounding
America's military triumph in Afghanistan and all the other
achievements of this so- called war on terror. Why? Because the
Taliban and Mr. bin Laden are not isolated cases but
manifestations
of a complex, and potentially durable, sociopolitical
phenomenon.
Basically, this phenomenon involves the immoral, unscrupulous
and
irreligious exploitation of Islam as a political weapon - by
everyone.
The West, the United States, Arab and other Muslim tyrannies
have
all used the weapon of Islam. And all are paying their different
prices for it.
During the cold war it was easy, and easily justified on
pragmatic
grounds, to enlist the help of political Islam in the fight
against
Communism. Yet this enlistment of Islam, which helped hammer
the final nails in the coffin of Communism by defeating the Red
Army in Afghanistan, led to catastrophe - first for the Middle
East
and later for America, as was so shockingly brought home by the
Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The policy of using political Islam as an anti-Communist tool
was a
crucial reason why so much of the Muslim world came to be
dominated by stagnant, undemocratic but stable (so it seemed)
and
adequately pro-Western governments, on one hand, and the
traditional forces of political Islam, reconfigured for the
latter half
of the 20th century, on the other. The crowning achievement of
such a policy was the defeat of the modernizing alternative:
those
movements that hoped to avoid aligning with either the Soviet
Union or the United States; to develop their societies along
secular
lines by, ideally, ever more democratic means; and to substitute
nationalism for colonial humility and Islamic traditionalism.
Such
movements were sometimes called Nasserite, after President Gamal
Abdel Nasser of Egypt. He struggled against the Muslim
Brotherhood for most of his political life.
The Nasserite space has been shrinking over the three decades
since
his death. The alliance between Western democracies and local
despots, whether Saudi royals or Saddam Hussein in his early
years,
had two results: the destruction of democratic openness in the
Arab
world and the obliteration of any chance for a liberal Arab
nationalist movement that could act as a bridge to the modern
world. State power may have been, in most cases, secular, but
political hope and political mobility were left in the hands of
God's
representatives.
After the cold war ended in 1989, and while the rest of the
world was
gearing up to join the march of globalization and making great
strides toward democracy, liberty and human rights, the Middle
East
looked like a bombed-out city. More political oppression, more
intellectual and cultural stagnation, more economic and social
despair - and an ideological void that only the fundamentalists
were
able or were permitted to fill, under the demagogic banner of
protecting identity and character.
Political exploitation of Islam continued, but the enemy became
simply Muslim peoples themselves. This was exemplified in the
financing (with petrodollars) of some 7,500 religious schools in
Pakistan, India and the Arab world, schools that taught only
isolationism, backwardness and hostility. Arab and other Muslim
tyrannies sought, by leaving the educational and cultural
fields to
Islamism, to acquire legitimacy at the cheapest and most
opportunistic price: by keeping the masses ignorant and
preventing
them from improving their lot, politically and economically.
Better
to direct their hopes toward the hereafter.
Where was America then? Where was the West? Cavorting with
tyrants on the sunny beaches of the Mediterranean. So long as
the
oil flowed at a good price, petrodollars were recycled in the
West's
arms factories and Israel was in no real danger, there was no
reason
to interfere in what America's moderate or even immoderate
allies
were doing to their own peoples.
Sept. 11 changed all that. The United States lost its
sovereignty.
Suddenly security in the streets of Washington, New York, Boston
and Los Angeles was inextricably linked to the curriculums of
schools in Peshawar, Mazar-i- Sharif, Cairo, Algiers and
Deoband.
And just as suddenly, the regional system that Washington had
nurtured during the cold war, then left to its own devices
after 1989,
was seen to have turned into a hatchery for human missiles and
suicidal rage directed against the United States itself.
Now we have a world war on terror. This war is already yielding
results: the prehistoric Taliban regime is all but finished, the
financial lifelines to fundamentalist extremist networks have
been
severed, Mr. bin Laden is on the run.
Winning a war, however, does not mean winning the peace. This
war
can, in truth, be won only by winning hearts and minds. This
can be
achieved only by correcting the historical mistakes made by the
West, including the United States, in undercutting the
modernizing
forces of pan- Arabism - and by correcting the spectacularly
misguided choices made by Arab elites in their use of power and
of
politicized Islam as a way to keep it.
Benjamin Barber, author of "Jihad vs. McWorld," wrote recently,
"In the long run, war cannot defeat terror alone because
violence
cannot defeat fear: only democracy can do that." Secretary of
State
Colin Powell seems to view matters in a similar light. In his
speech
of Nov. 19, which received careful attention in Muslim
countries,
Secretary Powell articulated his vision of a Middle East in
which "all
people have jobs that let them put bread on their tables and a
roof
over their head and offer a decent education to their children."
"We have a vision of a region where all people worship god in a
spirit
of tolerance and understanding," Secretary Powell continued.
"And
we have a vision where respect for the sanctity of the
individual, the
rule of law and the politics of participation grow stronger and
stronger."
For now these are just promises. It is extremely hard not to
question
the likelihood of their fulfillment. For much of the 20th
century,
excessive American pragmatism tended to stress short-term
interests, which often were served by tyrants like Saddam
Hussein at
the expense of the future of Arabs.
Nevertheless, Secretary Powell's promises alone may widen the
chasm between the United States and its regional allies, and
that is
to the good. Americans seem to be realizing that having
undemocratic allies - ones who manipulate political Islam for
their
narrow purposes - has been a pennywise policy, at best. The
stress
Colin Powell put on respect, dignity and the rejection of
humiliation
widens this chasm still further, for personal dignity is about
the last
thing Arab rulers have allowed to Arab citizens. Secretary
Powell's
emphasis makes the issues clear; it shows that the solutions
adopted
in ignorance by all sides, including America, have not worked.
The
Arab and Muslim worlds may yet sign on to modernity and
globalization - because they and the West may come to realize
there
is no other choice.
Through this window of hope, it may be possible to see that the
self-inflicted injuries in the Arab and Muslim soul can indeed
heal.
But until these promises and visions reach fulfillment, the
passions,
fears and hatreds of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden will remain
alive among us.
--
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