While I hate to reignite the veritable fatwa which was issued on my head in the weeks leading up to Spring Break, two news stories happened to catch my eye (and mine weren’t the only eyes caught) in the New York Times which are perfect to introduce into this classic debate over the conflict between the Western cultures and Muslim world cultures.
The first was the legal case and near-execution of a 41-year old Afghani man who was involved in a custody battle over his two daughters. During this legal investigation, members of his family told authorities that the man had converted to Christianity fifteen years ago. Nearly every religious cleric in the country flatly declared that he should be executed for “apostasy,” and they would have executed him had not Bush intervened.
No one in Afghanistan made a stink over it, not even in the least. Why? Because the Prophet Mohammed states that anyone who turns his back on Islam must face death. This from an allegedly peaceful and progressive religion? This is not the result of Western imperialism or disrespect (as perhaps the Mohammed cartoons could have been regarded), but rather a brutal act towards one of their own citizens. Does this not ring a warning bell for anyone? Does this not reek of a Middle Ages mentality? How many other religions and cultures today do we hear of that execute a person for how they think? Afghanistan does have a constitution as of 2004, which allows for freedom of religion (or at least freedom of conscience), but also in the same breath says that Islamic law reigns supreme.
Is it any wonder why cultures with this sort of mentality cannot get out of their own way when it comes to progress and advancement into the future? Is it surprising that people who believe that a man should be murdered for how he thinks also stone women to death for adultery, hijack airplanes, self-detonate in supermarkets, and remain totally and completely impoverished and impotent?
This is not the Western world’s fault, not Israel’s fault, not America’s fault. This is the fault of a backward culture, a backward way of thinking, with backward teachings and distorted views of laws and “human rights.” So much for a religion of peace and love and justice.
The second piece that got my attention was first seen on the internet (http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=null), and then I saw an article in the Times about it (New York Times, March 11). Dr. Wafa Sultan, a psychologist who was born and raised in Syria (and now lives in L.A. with her husband), gave an interview on Al-Jazeera in which she confidently proclaimed:
“The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on other hand.”
Amen. Needless to say, not too many of her fellow Muslims thought highly of those comments, and accordingly bombarded her answering machine and email inbox with death threats— the old Salman Rushdie treatment. After all, isn’t that how civilized people rationally disagree with one another?
Keep in mind, this is not a white woman. She is not American, not rich and not privileged in the foolish way Wesleyan’s Left refers to “privilege”. She was born and raised a devout Muslim, in a major Muslim country in the Middle East, in the center of the conflict, until she abandoned Islam in 1979 after some terrorists shot one of her professors (during class) while chanting “God is Great!”
She made the keen observation that militant Islam’s main enemies (Jews, successful people, free-thinkers, Americans, any combination of the above) are the world leaders in scientific thought and human advancement, whereas the Muslim world has done nothing in modern day to earn respect from the rest of the world (unless firebombing KFCs count). Are we going to discredit her by accusing her of bigotry and racism, too? Do you think she got all of her data strictly from CNN and Fox News? Is she blinded by her rich white privilege? Hardly. She is an astute observer, totally and utterly embarrassed by her fellow Muslims, and not without reason. She claims that she could not adhere to a way of thinking that created this sort of blatant evil and barbarity, and accordingly abandoned Islam and ultimately the Muslim World. Today, she is a self-proclaimed “secular human being.” Perhaps there is a speck of lightness in the dark black caves after all.
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