In his piece on radical Islam, Wayne Atkinson argues that Muslims are about to overrun Europe, institute shariah government there, equates Islam with Nazism, calls Muslim immigration a ticking time bomb, writes that Islam contains an “evil element,” and rues the absence of moderate Muslims.
Where to start with all this nonsense?
Writing in this month’s issue of Foreign Policy magazine (“The Islamists are NOT coming“), Charles Kurzman and Ulal Naqvi at the University of North Carolina demonstrate that, with very few exceptions, Muslims seem to prefer democracy over shariah. And when Islamic parties do throw their hats in the political ring, they find themselves liberalized by the electoral process. Gee, it turns out that Muslims are just like us in this regard.
While Atkinson wails about Muslims overrunning Europe, perhaps he forgets that it was the French who colonized North Africa and the British who carved up the Ottoman Empire and invited former subjects to join their Commonwealth. Or that the Germans during the Wirtschaftwunder of the 60’s and 70’s imported huge numbers of Turks to sweep their streets and take out their garbage. Now, like every generation of immigrants, many have become doctors, lawyers, teachers, and members of Parliament. This is in a country where the ruling political party is the CHRISTIAN Democratic Union. Or in England where the official religion is Anglican Christianity. The irony of worrying about religion overrunning Western nations seems wasted on Mr. Atkinson.
Shariah courts in Western countries exist – but they have no legal status. It may surprise some that similar Jewish courts (battei din, “houses of judgment”) have existed for decades if not centuries in the West. And anyone who has watched Judge Judy or Judge Brown on television has seen that many times cases are settled out of mainstream courts when both parties agree. Poor Mr. Atkinson is afraid of … binding arbitration.
And what of the “mysterious failure of moderate Muslims” to speak out against extremism? When one has wax in his ears, he cannot hear. Countless organizations, from CAIR to the ADC, individual congregations, imams, interfaith groups, and individuals have spoken out constantly.
Mr. Atkinson seems to be pushing Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” theory, ignoring the fact that Muslims have as strong an attachment to democracy and kindness as anyone else. This “clash” is a view that Christian and Jewish fundamentalists love. It’s also pretty self-serving.
Yes, religion is constantly hijacked by extremists. Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and Christian extremism all exist. What does its existence say about the faith traditions they hijack? Nothing. Religions are all dialects which express similar human feelings and beliefs. But Mr. Atkinson sees one “true religion” at war with “evil” ones.
Rather than demonizing a religion and falling on simple-minded formulations such as “they hate us for our way of life” it would be more productive to study the politics of terrorist organizations. We might find out, for example, that terrorists tap into widespread resentment of Western nations which prop up kings, dictators, and generalissimos while historically undermining democracies. And uncritical Western support of Israel’s occupation of Palestine does not help either. Take away the itch, and the scratching will go away.
Want to end terrorism? Start looking at the political and historical realities instead of falling back upon ignorant theories regarding other’s religions.
This was published in the Standard Times on February 8, 2010
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20100208/opinion/2080323