It
is time to dispel the myths that conservative Muslims often propagate about
'the west'.
June 2007
My first foray under
the banner of the war on error provoked strong passions. Sadly, the
voices of moderation were more often than not drowned out by the fierce
exchange of fire which ensued.
This underlines
clearly just how polarised the debate about relations between the
"west" and "Islam" has become and how rigidly the battle
lines have been drawn. Despite numerous attempts to blow up the bridges of
understanding that were being constructed, it is important to push on with the
campaign to capture the middle ground.
In this second piece,
I will shift to the "eastern front" and look at a few of the common
myths and misconceptions about the west that are entertained by Muslims. I
should start making clear that I cannot speak on behalf of the entire Muslim
world and will limit myself to some of the fanciful ideas enjoying currency
among certain Egyptians and Arabs, particularly the more conservative ones and
those less exposed to the west.
Error 1:
There is a western "crusade" against Islam
Perhaps taking their
cue from Samuel Huntington's questionable theory of a "clash of civilisations" or drawing on post-colonial
distrust, quite a few Muslims seem to be convinced that the west is undertaking
a modern-day crusade against Islam.
They point to the
situation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine, the earlier ethnic
cleansing in Bosnia/Herzegovina and even Kashmir and the spat with Iran to
support their view. But what they overlook is that each of these conflicts has
its own peculiar geo-political dynamic which usually has little to do with
religion and more to do with resources, land, long-standing ethnic feuds or
arresting the disintegration of a crumbling empire.
If it is all about religion,
why invade Iraq, one of the most secular of all the Muslim states, and not
Saudi Arabia, perhaps the most oppressive theocracy in the world? The fact that
Iraq sits on the world's second largest oil reserves and threatened the
security of oil supplies is more pertinent than its religious identity. If it
were a Buddhist country, some apologist academic would probably be conflating
Buddha's eschewal of material ambition in his four golden truths and his
"middle way" with anti-capitalism and communism and depicting it as
the new "red threat".
Nudity is a
civilisational taboo and avarice is no exception. No society likes to see its
naked greed strutting around, exposing its vulgar parts. And so an ideological
cloak is always handy - and what could be easier to slip into than one that is
nearly a millennium and a half old.
It has always been
about clashes of interest, not civilisation: Christian lands conquered by the
Arabs; the early wealth and knowledge of Islam; the spice trade; the later
wealth and knowledge of Christendom/the west; mineral resources, etc.
In addition, for
Muslims, the idea of a new-fangled "crusade" helps to cloak the shame
at their own failure to match the west's levels of scientific and material
progress, whatever the complex reasons behind it are: from colonialism to
socio-economic and scientific stagnation.
Error 2: Muslims are a persecuted minority in the west
This relates quite
closely to Myth No 1, ie if there is a "crusade", then it stands to
reason that the west must also be fighting it at home. Of course, there is
quite a lot of Islamophobia and racism in the west, with Muslims in general,
and Arabs in particular, among the most despised minorities.
This is partly due to
events in other parts of the world: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war
in Iraq, etc. The Muslim minority has also fallen victim to the rise in violent
Islamic terrorism on western soil.
Then there is the
residual distrust of centuries of rivalry, with many Europeans nursing an
irrational fear of "conquest by migration"; that the Turks are
figuratively back at the gates of Vienna and the Moors have, this time, got
beyond Poitiers. European Muslims, particularly those from North
Africa, sometimes wonder if a new Inquisition, in which hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Jews
were expelled or forcibly converted, might be around the corner.
But this is mostly unfounded.
There are certainly European bigots, but there are also millions of Europeans
who do not discriminate against Muslims or Arabs. In addition, the protection
of minorities is such in western Europe that, sadly, many Muslims are treated
better here than they would be in their home country.
Error 3:
Families have broken down in the west
Conservative Muslims
are often horrified by what they perceive to be the degenerate and
dysfunctional state of the western family: alcoholic husbands battering their
wives; out-of-control youth disrespecting their parents and elders; rape;
teenage pregnancy and drug addiction.
What this simplistic
and warped view overlooks is that these issues know no borders and that the
differences between individual Muslim families are often greater than between
subcultures on both sides. For instance, conservative Muslim and Christian
families often uphold the same traditional values regarding premarital sex,
virginity and homosexuality.
Some conservative
Muslims confuse alternative models for the family with breakdowns in familial
ties. Just because modern families value individualism, independence and
relative egalitarianism, it does not mean they do not enjoy a filial bond and
take care of their own.
Error 4:
Homosexuality is a western invention
This is one of the
more absurd ideas around, not only because it ignores all the biological
evidence to the contrary, it is also completely counter to actual recorded
history.
Although Muslim
society has never had the kind of "gay lib" the west has enjoyed
increasingly over the past four decades, up until the 20th century it was more
tolerant than the west. The general Muslim attitude was "whatever turns
you on" and even kissing and telling was tolerated, particularly if the
teller was a talented artist. The homoerotic poetry of Abu Nawas, the 8th century court poet of Harun
al-Rashid, was freely available in Egypt until the first censored edition of
his work appeared in 1932. And the position of homosexuals in many part of the Muslim world has deteriorated,
although there have been promising developments in some countries.
When two cultures are
in conflict, they seek to depict the other side as being their polar opposite.
This is particularly so for cultures which are so similar that the competition
between their individual brand identities is all the fiercer - a bit like
washing powder.
Interestingly, the way
Muslims describe the "licentious" and "promiscuous" west is
recycling the same language orientalists once used to describe the Muslim
world. For instance, the celebrated British diplomat and orientalist Richard
Burton came up, in 1885, with what he termed a "Sotadic Zone" where, he claimed, homosexuality
was most prevalent. The globe's homo-erogenous zone supposedly covered most of
the Mediterranean and the Middle East, stretching all the way to the Punjab and
Kashmir.
The current Muslim
intolerance and puritanism also stems from the shallow Islamist discourse that
the reason for the relative weakness of "Islam" is due to the fact
that Muslims have deviated from the true morality of their faith. The fact that
the society they dream of never existed and that the Muslim world during its
heyday was nearer to contemporary western model than the one espoused by
Islamists. It did not stifle creativity; it tolerated diversity and valued
science and learning - something many modern Muslim countries have lost sight
of.
Read part 1
on errors about the west made by Muslims
This column appeared
in The Guardian Unlimited’s Comment
is Free section on 24 May 2007.
