28 Feb. - 6 March 2002
Issue No.575
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 Feb. - 6 March 2002 Issue No.575 |
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A hoax in holy mantle
Intellectuals are desperately rummaging in the wardrobe of Islam for anything with a Western cut. Galal Amin* explains why they can't find a thing to wear
A group of prominent Egyptian writers and intellectuals gathered recently in comfortable surroundings and set out to address the apparently urgent task of improving the image of Islam and Muslims in the West. A worthy endeavour -- or is it? Do we really need to put on our intellectual make-up, don our best evening doctrines, and stay up all night wooing the West?
Even during the times of our most cordial relations, we didn't worry much about how the West saw us, or how un- Western our ways and thoughts were. After all, volumes upon volumes have been written about Islam, in the West as well as the East, for as long as anyone can remember. Westerners who are seriously interested in Islam usually come to us, not the other way around. The reason is simple. Islam does not derive its status from the eyes of the Western beholder. Islam does not need to dress up in the latest European fashion, or wake up every morning and worry about its image. Age-old religions do not stand on street corners, chat with shopkeepers, venture into studios, and swear that they are just as good as the creed next door.
Yet the recent wave of Western accusations, indeed blatant lies, about Islam and Muslims, seems to have unsettled us, perhaps awakened some hidden insecurities. Still, do we really want to seek approval, even beg for it, from a West that has grown irrationally hostile, intentionally contemptuous, and obstinately biased? By prostrating ourselves, are we not actually helping those who wish to humiliate us?
This point was totally lost on our thinkers as they rummaged desperately in their collective Islamic wardrobe for a flattering bit of intellectual frippery. Something a bit modern, a bit Western, perhaps. That Egyptian intellectuals have actually bought into this charade, this cottage industry of "image improvement," is bewildering.
I'm not worried about those who seek to make a quick buck from the image business, though. Of course, there is money in any hocus-pocus, as long as the trick is big enough. It will not be hard to raise funding for the image industry. The intellectuals and writers who would venture into this field solely for financial gain are likely to be lightweights, perhaps under-employed. Forget about them. But what about the rest? How can a significant number of self-respecting intellectuals fall into this trap?
There is of course the notion that any effort to present Islam in a good light must be beneficial, regardless of the audience. But audience matters. Speaking to someone who is serious, sympathetic, and fair is totally different from speaking to someone who is irrational, biased, and contemptuous. If people are going out of their way to insult and vilify us, if they make a point of distorting our words and drowning us out, do we really want to engage them in conversation?
Let's now turn to the "image improvement" tactics on offer. A common tactic is to argue that the principles that underpin Islam are "similar" to Western values, or to Christianity: we are not that different after all. This tactic, however, is dangerous for one's identity. It can also blur the traits that distinguish Islam from other religions. Identity depends on specific, unique aspects. If one thing is no different from another, why should it exist? Lord Cromer, once Britain's high commissioner in Egypt, said aptly: "Islam reformed is Islam no longer." I am not sure what point the venerable man was making, but his statement fits perfectly here. To interpret Islam with a view to appeasing modern Europeans would be detrimental to the age-old faith.
Of course there are similarities between Western and Islamic values, but there are also crucial differences. This does not make Islam inferior to Western ways. Muslims should be proud of what they believe in, regardless of how different it is from other cultures. Sweeping the differences under the carpet is fair neither to Muslims nor to Islam.
Another tactic is verbally to excommunicate those Muslims who hate the West, claiming that they are not "true Muslims." This also is tricky. It takes a good deal of arrogance to claim a monopoly over this, or any other, faith. Of course, Islam, like any other faith, is open to all sorts of interpretations. But it is bad manners to claim that one's interpretation is the only acceptable one, and that others are totally wrong. It is patronising, to say the least, to call fellow Muslims fake or misguided. Not even Sheikh Mohamed Abduh, the formidable reformer, a man who offered revolutionary insights, dared to discredit his fellow Muslims. This attitude is as dangerous as it is unreliable, as far as the West is concerned. One's Western audience is quite likely to say: Maybe this is what you think, but what about other Muslims?
A third "image improvement" tactic is to recall Islam's contribution to Western civilisation. Arab scholarship, we all know, allowed the West to discover Aristotle and other Greek thinkers. Surely we should get some credit for that? I have one small problem with this approach. Yes, Muslims passed on Greek civilisation to the West; but the merits of Islam go far beyond playing the intermediary between one segment of Western civilisation and another. Muslims learned different things than Westerners did from the Ancient Greeks. Their outlook on Greek science differed from that of the West. Muslims chose what was suitable to their faith and inclinations. They integrated other cultures into their own. And they never thought of themselves as peddlers of ancient parchments to an up-and-coming Europe. To depict them retrospectively as such, is appalling.
Muslims have experienced a phase of decline after the rise of their civilisation. This is a historically common occurrence. And it came about with more than a little help from our European friends, who occupied Muslim land, carved it up, and have never ceased manipulating its politics. Besides, Westerners have abused much of the Greek science and philosophy that the Muslims passed on to them. In particular, they have perverted the values of freedom and equality, besides using science and technology in certain unsavoury ways.
A by-product of the image industry is the claim that US policy's absolute bias toward Israel caused the heinous crime of 11 September. This may sound like a fair statement on the surface, but it implies an unjustified admission of guilt. Since 11 September, US foreign policy has become more transparently ugly than ever. Washington has sent its troops across the globe not to capture Bin Laden, as originally claimed, but to implement dubious arrangements. Does this at least cast some doubt on how the 11 September attacks occurred, and on who planned them? If any image needs revamping right now, it is not ours. If some explaining needs to be done, it is Washington's turn.
Those involved in the image business need to consider the titles of seminars they are invited to: "The role of women in the Islamic world," "Islam in an age of modernity"... The inference is that Islam is incompatible with modernity on all fronts, that we have to dig very deep before we can find a redeemable element in it, anything that, brushed off and polished, might be presentable to the sceptical eyes of the West.
The implication is also that anything the West comes up with is worth adapting to -- that modernity is ideal, and we should just fall into line. Is that really the case? If not, why are we not inviting our Western interlocutors to seminars titled "women in modern US society," "women's portrayal as sex symbols in the Western media and its effect on women's dignity and self-respect," "the inherent contradiction between US policy and the ethics of democracy"...
In short, there are types of hostility and bias that Muslims should not accept, encourage or accommodate. Islam is our creed, and we cannot engage in self-abasement over its tenets. We cannot apologise for Islam to politicians who have never made the slightest gesture toward civility. We cannot excuse Islam to people whose claim to civilisation is questionable, to say the least. We cannot revise our values and way of life for the sake of people who have never acted fairly toward their opponents, shown magnanimity in victory, kept their temper under duress, or forgiven their enemies -- all of which, I recall, are perfectly Muslim values.
* The writer is professor of economics at the American University in Cairo.
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