14 - 20 February 2002
Issue No.573
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 14 - 20 February 2002 Issue No.573 |
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Democracy, American-style
The idea of a war between Islam and the West is as convenient as it is fictional. Awatef Abdel-Rahman* explains
The uncomprehending hatred of Islam unleashed by the Western media in the wake of 11 September may prove to be the gravest of that day's repercussions. The flurry of accusations became topics for study by academic circles and decision- makers in the United States, as the so-called war on terrorism -- on the verge of expanding -- is meant to punish several Islamic countries, even those that condemned the events of 11 September vehemently as contrary to the principles of Islam. It would have been more relevant for the US to seek answers to questions that became apparent in the aftermath. Its national security system (said to be impenetrable) and global intelligence system (said to be omniscient) were revealed on that day in all their ineffectiveness. What ever happened to democracy and its lofty principles of accountability, which give the American people the right to prosecute their presidents if they fail? Who is accountable? Instead of addressing this pressing issue, the US turned its vengeance against the weakest members of the world order: the Arab and Muslim countries.
The US is attempting to impose American-style democracy on Arabs and Muslims, forcing these countries (conveniently depicted as backward) to apply the social and economic policies it dictates; an American prescription is the remedy for the terrorist germs we breed. Western civilisation, it is true, has provided individuals with many beneficial amenities -- the fruits of scientific, industrial and technological progress -- as well as with the concepts and values that go with them. On the other hand, for the past two centuries, the forces in control in the West have been intransigent in maintaining and exacerbating political and economic backwardness in Arab and Islamic countries and asserting Western domination. Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 opened a colonial era that delivered Arabs and Muslims gagged and bound to other Western powers; these, in turn, ushered in the American imperialism of the post-World War II period.
Under American hegemony, the Arab and Islamic countries endured political, social, and economic repression, not to mention the depletion of their natural and human resources and the suppression of their attempts to gain independence and liberation. The American response to nationalist endeavours took on two forms. First, America overtly interfered in the affairs of the Islamic world by imposing and supporting authoritarian military and civilian regimes, corrupt governments that acted against their own people's interests to serve those of their accomplices in the West. Second, the West exported its crises and misfortunes to Arab and Islamic countries. The most flagrant example is no doubt the Jewish problem, to which no solution was envisaged on Western soil. The Jews were simply exported to the Middle East under historical and theological pretexts trumped up for the purpose.
Just as the Arabs must not be made to pay the price for the West's crimes against the Jews, we must not be the scapegoats for the intelligence and security failures of 11 September -- not to mention the West's utter failure to predict the results of its oppressive policies. Hatred for the West did not arise sui generis among the Arabs and Muslims; indeed, many peoples around the world share this hostility. Even countries that adopt Western patterns of behaviour differ with its policies at more significant junctures. The conflict is not a religious one. It has far more to do with politics, economics and civilisation.
Conflicts have abounded throughout history among peoples of the same faith, whether Muslim or Christian, within Eastern and Western churches, and between members of different denominations in Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. Political factions that raise the banner of Islam enjoy no monopoly on violence. The West has long fanned the flames of religious, ethnic, political and social conflict in all the countries it has occupied in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Yet since the Iranian Revolution, designating Islam as the enemy has been one of the West's principal concerns. Yet to believe that "Islam" poses a threat to "the West" is to misconstrue a civilisation common to several nations and reduce it to certain factions that advocate policies designated as Islamist or fundamentalist. That few Muslims adhere to such factions is deliberately obliterated. Islam is not a single, cohesive, lifeless entity.
During the capitalist and mercantilist period and before (from the seventh to the 15th century), religious objectives seemed to prevail over political considerations with regard to Europe's presence in the Islamic world. Colonialism flourished with the rise of capitalism as a secular movement buttressed by few religious justifications.
Simplistic theories of the West's endemic hostility to Islam -- like those that argue the opposite -- are given the lie by the many alliances created to serve American interests, such as that against communism. To rid Afghanistan of atheists, Arab and Islamic regimes encouraged the mujahidin (also known as terrorists) to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Yet their victory was America's alone. In the war against Iran, Iraq was used to fight and win a war in America's service. And how must we classify the alliance for the liberation of Kuwait? A battle of Islam against Christianity, perhaps?
The US, however, takes a pragmatic approach to knowledge, and applies double standards in politics. American society, like its Israeli counterpart, developed over the years as a coalescence of fragmented nations and conflicting interests. In times of external threat, both tend to withdraw in a bid to maintain political and social cohesion. In the absence of any unifying threat, both resort to creating enemies.
Thus, many Western thinkers ignore historicity and culture in their approach to Islam. Yet without such dimensions, it is impossible to understand contemporary Islam as different communities practise it today. Perhaps this is why American decision-makers are so signally incapable of understanding Islam. Even run-of-the- mill expressions and cultural quirks fuel this incomprehension, as in the case of the EgyptAir flight that crashed over JFK airport: American analysts took the pilot's prayer (in which he placed his trust in God) as conclusive proof that he was committing suicide and taking the passengers with him.
Two Qur'anic verses indicate the way we should deal with the West: "God forbids you not with regard to those who fight you not for (your) faith nor drive you out of your homes from dealing kindly and justly with them: For God loveth those who are just. God only forbids you with regard to those who fight you for (your) faith, and drive you out of your homes, and support (others) in driving you out from turning to them (for friendship and protection). It is such as turn to them that do wrong."
The West, on the other hand, seeks to impose its ideas, values and image on the rest of the world. The media's greatest achievement is its success in eliminating the need for central government in the propaganda war. Criticism of others is permissible, but self-criticism is a crime. This is the standard the West upholds in dealing with Islam. Francis Fukuyama compares Islamism to fascism, basing his statement on the intolerance common to both. It is in the United States, however, that we find fascism -- not only the fascist policies it adopts in the Arab and Islamic countries, but elsewhere as well. It is an axiom of civilised life that people are free to choose their own cultural, political and social identity (as opposed to Bush's totalitarian "those who are not with us are against us" philosophy), but the West denies Muslims this right, including the right to interpret Islam. Instead, it dictates its own interpretation of Islam to perpetuate Western supremacy, exploit the Islamic world and manipulate the implications of its people's beliefs.
* The writer is professor of media studies at Cairo University.
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