April 10, 2007
COMMENTARY: Muslims Deserve Better Than Stereotyping
By Nick Patler
Staunton, VA (Special to HNN) -- I deeply appreciated the many responses to my recent piece, "Coming soon: Fear-mongering."
When compared with opinions nationwide, these thoughtful
insights and concerns seem to reflect, in some sense, a general perception
that many Americans share regarding Islam. Unfortunately, I genuinely
believe that many of us have a poor understanding of the true diversity that
represents the Muslim people and their faith.
We tend to make the serious mistake of stereotyping Muslims as militant or
in support of extreme fundamentalism and terrorist activities. However,
according to a careful study quoted in the Harvard International Review,
only 4 percent of the 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide are Islamic extremists,
and a meager .01 percent are militant jihadists. Although there are no
figures given for the number of extremists that actually carry out suicide
missions, the comparative percentage is so low here that it could hardly be
measured (other than in tragic human terms).
The percentage of Muslims who are more or less in support of terror is
higher in specific war-torn parts of the world, but even here most do not
participate in these activities and approve of them only as a desperate
response to superior and often oppressive military and state power
(guerrilla tactics, though dreadful, are nothing new).
Many Americans also believe that Muslims are largely synonymous with the
Middle East. They may be surprised to learn that Arabic-speaking people
represent only one-fifth of Muslims worldwide. Of the top 10 countries with the
largest Muslim populations, only one, Iran, is located in the Middle East.
India, Ethiopia and Nigeria all have more Muslims than any of the others.
And China, which may surprise many, comes out ahead of every country in the
Middle East, including Iran, with more than 80 million Muslims.
For more on the above, I strongly recommend John Kaltner's short book,
"Islam: What Non-Muslims Should Know." Kaltner is a Christian theologian and
an Islamic scholar who clears away a lot of the fog of misconception in
regards to Islam.
Kaltner is worth quoting here, I believe, because we tend to see Islam as
monolithic, when in actuality it is full of diversity. "[F]our out of every
five Muslims alive today," he stresses, "reside in a place whose language,
history, and culture have nothing in common with that of the Prophet
Muhammad." Kaltner goes on to say that "the vast majority of those who
follow the faith are from other parts of the world and they will never set
foot in the Middle East."
Indeed, like Christianity, there is not only much
cultural and geographical diversity among the faithful but there are also
many denominations in Islam and individually held beliefs within each, along
with different and often conflicting interpretations of the Qur'an and other
Islamic religious texts.
Even the 30 or so extreme fundamentalist groups, in contrast to popular
opinion, are often divided by ideology and their quest for power, which
brings them into ideological wars and skirmishes with one another. This all
strongly challenges the premise of the documentary, "Obsession: Radical
Islam's War Against the West," which portrays extremists as a united group
with shared goals and ideology.
Another popular myth that circulates over and over is that Muslims have been
silent in regards to the terrorism carried out in the name of Islam. Yet, in
the aftermath of 9/11, Muslim political leaders, clerics, academics and
others worldwide did, in fact, publicly condemn the attacks. The Grand Mufti
of Saudi Arabia (where 15 of the 19 hijackers were from), for example,
issued this statement: "Hijacking planes, terrorizing innocent people and
shedding blood constitute a form of injustice that cannot be tolerated by
Islam, which views them as gross crimes and sinful acts."
Many Muslim groups and organizations continue to condemn terrorism today and
work diligently to promote a better understanding of Islam, including
interfaith dialogue and efforts that uplift others, efforts that are
frequently overlooked by Islamic alarmists. Interestingly, the Nobel Peace
Prize in 2006 was awarded to a Muslim economist, Muhammad Yunus, who
pioneered a unique method of credit that has lifted millions of people
worldwide out of poverty.
We would possibly see more Muslims speaking out against terrorism, I
believe, if they weren't caught in such an unenviable position. Soumayya
Ghannoushi, a researcher at the University of London, explains the catch-22
for moderate Muslims: "The terrible irony is that Muslims currently find
themselves helplessly trapped between two fundamentalisms, between Bush's
hammer and bin Laden's anvil."
Perhaps the most dangerous and persistent American myth associated with
Islam is that we are simply victims of terror. However, Islamic extremists
are motivated less by religion, which serves as a powerful rallying ideology
(in its absence, another ideology, perhaps secular, would probably take its
place), than from a desire to rid their lands of U.S. influence and foreign
occupation. The main gripe many Muslims have with the West is the presence
of tens of thousands of heavily armed U.S. troops stationed along the
Arabian Peninsula. They consider this an affront to their faith and autonomy
and a continuation of the long history of Western coercion and domination in
their lands.
I wonder how many Americans are aware of the fact that by the early 20th
century every Muslim country was either a colony or protectorate of a
European power. Indeed, how many Americans know that after World War I,
Western powers carved up the Middle East in disregard of the culture,
aspirations and interests of the predominantly Muslim people living there?
All of this taken together must be challenging and painful for many Muslims
in the Middle East and infuriating for others. How would we feel if one or
more heavily armed superpower Middle Eastern countries had carved up the
Western Hemisphere and exploited our resources?
Finally, one of the main themes on the blog sites and in other forums of
public opinion is, I am at pains to say, the distorted correlation between
Islamic extremism and the fulfillment of Christian prophecy, good vs. evil,
etc. As I recently told one reader, I find it strange that so many of my
Christian brothers and sisters are obsessed with Armageddon. Like alarmists
throughout history, they interpret the challenges of their times as ushering
in the end of times.
Yet the message of Jesus and the thrust of the New Testament are about love,
the utterly redemptive, transforming power of love here and now. So powerful
is the love that Jesus presents us with that we are even encouraged to love
our enemies, pray for them and do good to them.
In short, Jesus is trying to help us to empathize with others (and to humble
ourselves in regards to our own actions) so that we may creatively help them
out of their suffering rather than to dehumanize them as worthless enemies.
Nick Patler is the author of “Jim Crow and the Wilson Administration: Protesting Federal Segregation in the Early Twentieth Century.” Check the HNN archives for David M. Kinchen’s review of this book, as well as his recent “fear-mongering” commentary that appeared on all three HNN sites March 20, 2007. Readers may e-mail him at nickpatler@hotmail.com This article originally appeared in the Staunton (VA) News Leader, and is reprinted by permission of the News Leader.
