Şener Aktürk and Mujeeb R. Khan, "How Western anti-Muslim bigotry became respectable," Zaman, January 3, 2010.

As scholars who work on the centuries-old Islamic presence in Europe and the continent’s first post-Holocaust genocide against, not coincidently, the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we were deeply disturbed but not surprised that an ostensibly tolerant and pluralistic Western democracy like Switzerland would vote by a margin of 57 percent to ban the religious symbol of 400,000 of its Muslim residents because they felt “threatened” by the grand total of four minarets that exist there.

While secularism and constitutional safeguards for religious freedom are seen as hallmarks of the post-Enlightenment West, Europe and the West have traditionally been far more hostile to religious-cultural pluralism than Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu and Islamic societies, which historically viewed religious and cultural heterogeneity and pluralism as the natural order of things.

The Swiss referendum was the tip of an iceberg reflecting both deep and age-old historic prejudice against a Muslim presence on the continent as well as a recent concerted ideological campaign to construct Muslims as the “other” on the part of rightwing racist movements in Europe and their fellow travelers in the neo-conservative and Southern Evangelical movements in the US. While secularism and constitutional safeguards for religious freedom are seen as hallmarks of the post-Enlightenment West, Europe and the West have traditionally been far more hostile to religious-cultural pluralism than Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu and Islamic societies, which historically viewed religious and cultural heterogeneity and pluralism as the natural order of things. This historic reality explains to a large degree why, in contrast to Europe, such religious diversity survived into the modern era in these societies, albeit not always harmoniously. Indeed, the famous thesis of the Belgian historian Henri Pirenne was that the very notion of “Christendom” or “the West” first emerged from the ruins of classical civilization in opposition to northern pagans and southern Muslim and Jewish infidels whose presence in Europe was actually coterminous with the spread of the Holy Roman Empire and Church in large areas of the continent.

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Şener Aktürk is a postdoctoral fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and a visiting lecturer in the department of government at Harvard University. Mujeeb R. Khan is affiliated with the department of political science at UC Berkeley and has published widely on Muslim-Western relations including in “East European Politics and Societies.”
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Karin Friedemann, "Islamophobia on American campuses," Letter from America/Khaleej Times, April 26, 2009.

Muslim parents from around the world once sent their children off to school in America with simple warnings against wine and song, but now Muslim students must be prepared to face Islamophobic incitement.

While political activism makes college exciting, Muslims need to be aware that autonomously managed local Muslim Student Association university chapters are outclassed by well-funded, hierarchically coordinated Jewish and Neoconservative organisations, which actively work to undermine Muslim student groups.

The Jewish Anti-Defamation League, which blacklists professors for failure to teach the Zionist version of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, labels MSA an “Anti-Israel” organisation and keeps detailed files on its activities.

Steve Emerson’s Terrorism Awareness Project published a “Student’s Guide to Stop the Jihad on Campus” manual for organising “Islam-Fascism Awareness Week,” whose stated goal is “to show the connections between the MSA and the international jihad.”

The Jewish Organisation of America in consultation with Hillel sued Michigan State University for permitting Muslim students to wear graduation stoles inscribed with the Shahada.

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Joachim Martillo, Review of Mahmood Mamdani's Saviors and Survivors," Ethnic Ashkenazim Against Zionist Israel, April

April 2, 2009, Cambridge, MA -- Columbia Professor Mahmood Mamdani, whose new book Saviors and Survivors has been just released, discussed his understanding of Darfur's local, national Sudanese, American, and international politics.

Mamdani began to look at the issue of Darfur in 2003 and was struck by the rapid globalization and the fact-indifference of the SaveDarfur movement, which consistently misrepresented the facts in a media blitz. For example, according to WHO the death toll was 50-70,000 while SaveDarfur claimed 400,000. SaveDarfur ignored drought and desertification, which were probably responsible for 70% of the mortality. A legitimate debate would ask how many could have been saved by timely assistance to the Darfuri population.

The 40 year Chad Civil war was subsumed into the Cold War during the 1980s. Libya and the Soviet backed one side while France, the USA, and Israel supported the other. Whenever one side had advantage, the other regrouped in Darfur, which by the late 1980s was awash with weapons.

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Ashfaq Yusufzai, "Culture:Pakistan: Artistes caught in crossfire," IPS, January 15, 2009.

[Notwithstanding the strangeness of "artistes" as an exotic item of vocabulary, the targeted group appears to be actors, dancers, singers, film makers, journalists, and girls' schools. The concern that what was formerly seen as tribal violence has spread beyond the FATA and into urban areas is confirmed here. The army's activities also seem to be a mixed bag. -jlt]

PESHAWAR, Jan 15 (IPS) - Arson attacks and killings have shut down girls’ schools and brought a thriving entertainment industry to its knees in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The government is engaged in fierce military operations with Islamic fighters in Swat and the tribal areas....Journalists are not liked by the army or Taliban

On Monday, renowned Pashto comedian Alamzeb Mujahid was abducted in broad daylight from the upmarket Hayatabad Township here in NWFP’s capital city by suspected Taliban gunmen.

The famous Pashto actor, who has been associated with national Pakistan Television (PTV) for the last two decades, has a fan following among the majority Pashtuns or Pakhtoons in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan.

"He had just left his residence for office when three armed men bundled him into a truck and sped off," says Tariq Jamal, president of the Artistes’ Welfare Association Zoom (AWAZ).

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Lahem al Nasser, "The Mortgage Crisis – An Islamic View," Asharq Alawsat, October 9, 2008.

...Islamic financial institutions have not been affected by the crisis.

...This crisis has broken many of the principles of economic liberalism that America has advocated just as it also proved that leaving everything to the regulations of the market without control and oversight leads to catastrophes striking the heart of the macro economy as a result of the unruly desires of greedy capitalists....There is no better way to describe the root cause of this crisis than with the term ‘gambling’...

...nobody paid attention to the fact that this boom was not based on a real economic product but on a series of inflated debts. Bonds, securities, derivatives, options and hedging contracts were being traded in the secondary market. So, could the same disaster occur in a market that is regulated by Islamic Sharia?

The answer is no; a disaster of this magnitude could not occur in markets governed by Islamic Sharia because transactions in Islamic Sharia are based on the real exchange of goods and utilities. Islamic law forbids usury and outlaws the selling of what you do not own except under strict conditions such as the selling of commodities where the full price is paid in advance whilst that which is valuated [the product] is postponed, which reduces the risks in the transaction. Islamic Sharia also forbids the postponement of buying and selling [forward contracts], which is the case with derivative contracts, and debt trading, except under certain conditions that prevent usury, manipulation and deceit. For these reasons, Sharia scholars have condoned trading in securities and derivatives of all kinds, which also explains why Islamic financial institutions have not been affected by the crisis.

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Andrew Wander, "Zawahri questions Hizbullah's 'victory' in 2006 summer war," The Daily Star, September 10, 2008.

Al-Qaeda's militant Sunni leadership is unhappy that Shiite religious leaders have not issued religious edicts declaring jihad against Western troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BEIRUT: Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahri launched a stinging verbal attack against Hizbullah and the Lebanese government in a video broadcast by Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera news satellite channel Monday. The senior jihadist commander, who is often described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, questioned whether Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was right to hail the 2006 summer war as a "victory."

"Hizbullah has not obtained any victory in Lebanon against Israel," Zawahri said. "The most bizarre and astounding thing is that Hassan Nasrallah celebrates a victory every year. For what? For making them retreat 30 kilometers, for the demilitarization of the region and the acceptance of 15,000 crusader soldiers that separate the mujahedeen from Israel?"

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Aijaz Zaka Syed, "Osama's war and Indian Muslims," Palestine Chronicle, August 11, 2008.

[Indian security expert Bahukutumbi Raman has also discussed the Muslim perception of Indian Islamophobia, the attitude of Indian Muslims toward the US-India nuclear deal, and concern that Indian Muslims may be implicated in attacks in Afghanistan and elsewhere. -jlt]

...in 2002, Muslims were raped, butchered and burnt for two months in Mahatma Gandhi's Gujarat as the world watched in morbid fascination.

When US President Bush visited India in 2006, a proud Prime Minister Manmohan Singh informed the Leader of the Free World that unlike in Pakistan and the rest of the world, there were no Indian Muslims in Al Qaeda ranks.

And a mighty pleased Bush had attributed this satisfactory state of affairs to the fruits of "democracy and human liberty." Although one never counted oneself among Bush's fans, as an Indian Muslim, one allowed oneself a brief pat on the back. And I am sure I wasn't alone in doing so. The Indian Muslims were somehow different — more progressive and more reasonable, all thanks to the great Indian democracy.

But I am not so sure now. The series of terror attacks in recent times, from Hyderabad to Bangalore to Ahmedabad, have not only shaken the Indian state but it has shaken the Muslim community as well.

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B. Raman, " Muslims & The Pre-Election Political Scene in India," South Asia Analysis Group, July 18, 2008.

[Muslim chat groups on the Internet] have noted that not only the leftist parties, but even the Indian political class as a whole and the Indian elite have maintained a silence over the recent public execution of two Uighurs, the arrest of about 80 others and the forcible closure of 40 mosques by the Chinese.... they have noted the energetic manner in which Indian public opinion reacted to the repression of the Tibetans, but maintained a discreet silence on the repression of the Muslims.

As the date (July 22, 2008) for the vote of confidence from the Lok Sabha in the Manmohan Government nears and as the possibility of a premature election to the Lok Sabha looms large, a question often debated is the attitude of the Indian Muslims to the Indo-US nuclear deal. Do they regard it as anti-Muslim because of the perceived anti-Muslim policies of the administration of President George Bush? That is the question which has been raised again and again by the critics of the deal and of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

In this connection, it would be pertinent to take note of the attitude of the Muslims in the Ummah as a whole since that could have an impact on the attitude of the Indian Muslims. The strongest criticism of India's developing relations with the US came from sections of the Muslims of the Ummah immediately after the visit of Bush to India in March, 2006. The criticism was not specific relating to the nuclear deal. It was more in relation to what they saw as India's co-operation with the US and Israel in the war against jihadi terrorism. They noted with anger and surprise the reluctance of different political formations in India---in the rulling alliance as well as in the opposition--- to criticise the allegedly inhuman conditions in which Muslims arrested in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other parts of the world on suspicion of belonging to Al Qaeda were kept in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba and denied the basic human rights and the benefits of the due process of the law. Even the former Tony Blair Government of the UK, which was very supportive of the policies of the Bush Administration, expressed its discomfort over the conditions in which the Muslim detenus were kept in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and in May 2006 publicly called for winding up the Centre and transfering the detenus to the custody of the American civilian authorities from the custody of the military authorities. A similar demand has been voiced by many other democratic countries, by the International Committee of the Red Cross and by all human rights organisations of the West without exception. India's silence in this matter as well as over the repeated air strikes by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, which killed a large number of civilians, was an important source of anger. This silence was seen as the inevitable outcome of the growing Indo-US strategic relationship.

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"Cultures of Resistance," Conflicts Forum, July 12, 2008.

Cultures of Resistance Activism Forum is a project that aims to address the Western hostile use of language intended to restrict debate related to mainstream Islamist movements and currents. The project will explore more effective means to respond to hostile use of language - as well as explore how better to insist on extending public debate beyond its standard focus on ‘Islamist violence’ - by launching a ‘positive’ (non-defensive) discourse on Islamism. In partnership with a wide number of social activist and public campaign groups, we aim to advocate for a shift in language from the defensive to the positive; to learn how others, in different struggles, have achieved this transition; and by this means, and by gaining greater critical mass, to open space in which a discourse of rebuttal and ‘resistance’ can be developed through visual and other means to imposed narratives and stereotyping. The aim is the change the terms of debate and to move to a more directly challenging, but more widely accessible, advocacy of understanding of Islamist ideology.

Cultures of Resistance magazine will be published twice a year by Conflicts Forum.


Volume One | Issue One [PDF]
Jihad and Terrorism:
A War of Words - Moazzam Begg
Talking About The Conflict - Mark Perry
The Paradox of Islamist Dialogue - Alastair Crooke
Brixton, Berkley and Other Roads to Radicalisation - Massoud Shadjareh, Arzu Merali
A Note — April 2008 - Tom Clark
The Islamic ‘Other’ in Film - Sukant Chandan
The Language of Oppression - Dyab Abou Jahjah
All is War - Aki Nawaz
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"Jamiat issues fatwa against terrorism," Times of India, June 2, 2008.

NEW DELHI: A day after the influential seminary of Darul Uloom Deoband and its political arm Jamiat-i-Hind issued a fatwa against terrorism at a large rally in Delhi, a gathering comprising largely of religious and political figures under the Jama Masjid United Forum (JMUF) denounced terrorist violence as un-Islamic.

The JMUF endorsed the formulation of ex-super cop K P S Gill that "a terrorist cannot be a religious person and a religious person cannot be a terrorist". Speakers like Hasham Baber from Pakistan’s Awami National Party opposed state support to terrorism and pointed out that madrassas in the north-west of Pakistan were a breeding ground for terror.

Participants included Tibetan religious leader the Dalai Lama, J&K CM Ghulam Nabi Azad, Assam CM Tarun Gogoi, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Avtar Singh, SP general secretary Amar Singh and Hasham Baber.

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"Senegal says Hamas, Fatah talks help restore trust," YNet/Reuters, June 8, 2008.

Statement signed by representatives from rival Palestinian groups says renewed talks in Dakar 'allowed them to discuss the fundamental interests of the Palestinian people'

Talks between Fatah and Hamas in the Senegalese capital Dakar this weekend had restored "an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect" between the Palestinian factions, a statement signed by both sides said on Sunday.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, offered his services in March as a mediator between the two parties, which clashed a year ago when Islamist Hamas fighters wrested power from Fatah in the Gaza Strip.

A statement following the talks, which began on Friday, said Senegal would resume contact with both sides to organize future meetings with the aim of "reconciling the Palestinian family".

"The Palestinian representatives ... thank the mediator for managing to restore an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect, which allowed them to discuss the fundamental interests of the Palestinian people," said the communique signed by Hikmat Zeid for Fatah, Emad Khalid Alamy for Hamas and Senegal's Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio.


'New spirit of dialogue'

Senegal's state news agency APS reported on Saturday that Wade had met individually with the Palestinian delegations. The mediation would take place in seven stages, it quoted a presidential spokesman as saying.

Hamas ended more than 40 years of the more secular Fatah's ascendancy with a victory in parliamentary elections in 2006. Hamas fighters went on to rout Fatah forces and take over the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

Yemen tried to broker a reconciliation deal between the rival Palestinian movements in March but efforts broke down after disagreement over whether Hamas should cede control of the coastal territory.

Arab ministers meeting at the Arab League have backed the Yemeni proposal, which calls on Hamas to hand over control of Gaza. Hamas says it is ready to resume dialogue but without preconditions.

Hamas's leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, called Syrian President Bashar Assad and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on Saturday, seeking Arab support for the renewed dialogue, Haniyeh's office said.

Haniyeh said last Thursday he welcomed what he called a "new spirit" of dialogue in a keynote speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah.

See also "Report: Abbas informed of Israel's plan to retake Gaza," Ynet Al-Quds Al-Arabi quotes Palestinian sources as saying that Abbas called for renewed talks with Hamas in effort to thwart Jerusalem's plan to launch broad military operation in Strip, gradually transfer control over to Palestinian Authority.

Mousa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, told Al-Quds Al-Arabi that Abbas had no other choice but to resume negotiations with the Islamist group "after realizing that all of his other options, such as the attempt to isolate Hamas and participate in the blockade on Gaza, had failed".Recommend this Post

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Tauseef Zahid, "Pakistan: Talibans and Geo-politics of Afghanistan," PakPoint Network, May 29, 2008.

The United States is approaching a paradigm shift regarding its policies toward Afghanistan and Pakistan because Washington has reached the conclusion that Pakistan is unable and/or unwilling to control the situation with the Taliban. The Bush administration is thus pressing ahead with a new policy of denying the Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan. This new policy is not constrained by concerns regarding Pakistani stability.

Background

Pakistan in many senses is an example of how absence of sincere leadership and solid vision results in loss of identity and direction for the nation. Once the direction is lost, outcome is the very purpose for that nation’s existence being lost. Quick glance at the history of Indo-Pak shows how Muslims of South-East-Asia are reduced to Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh etc from a position they collectively once enjoyed as rulers.

Whether Muslims acted at times as conquerors or governors when they made entry to the region from Sindh or from Khyber, with time the loss of direction open the way for the colonialism by Britain and other European powers, who divided the world into their sphere of influence, the continuation of their legacy meant creation of new nation-states out of Ottoman Caliphate, using vicious divide and rule.

The intensified movement for Pakistan by ‘Muslim’ League post-Khilafat movement was another attempt by the Muslims to make sense of their politics in the region and find that direction. The mixture of nationalism with Islam, demand of Kashmir as integral part of Pakistan but forsaking Delhi who until middle of eighteenth century was their capital and the division of India around artificial borders drawn in Whitehall in the form of Durand Line or Red-Cliff award made sure that the region will remain unstable strategically and politically artificial.

[...]

Last week, US in a bid to sabotage Waziristan Peace accord made a naked aggression by resorting to strike missiles on the Pakistani village of Damadola. As per the media reports more than 14 Muslims died while many were injured. America had committed such blatant aggressions more than three dozens times earlier within Pakistani territory killing hundreds of Muslims. In the last American attack on Damadola 80 students of the madressa died that also severely damaged the earlier Peace Accord. And at a time when again a Peace Accord is on card after the exchange of prisoners, America want to sabotage this agreement. However, after the martyrdom of our citizens, the masses strongly demand that the government immediately respond to this unprovoked American missile attacks in a blow for blow.

[...]

Now

The only way to stabilise the region in Pakistan favor is to expel NATO from Afghanistan. Islamabad then should work to help create a Pakistan friendly government in Afghanistan but unlike in the past, leaving Taliban government to its own devices, this time Pakistan should work to stabilise the government by taking part in infrastructure rebuilding, schools, training of civilians, bureaucracy and military. This would allow a long term partnership between the two countries. Eventually Pakistan should work to create a union between the two countries as fundamentally people of both lands share a common belief.

Islamabad must work to take leadership in the region moving towards Eurasia. A survey supported by the US Department of Homeland Security and conducted by the University of Maryland between December 2006 and February 2007, revealed that the majority of Muslims in Pakistan held a goal “to unify all Islamic countries into a single Islamic state or Caliphate”.

Countries bordering Afghanistan i.e. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are ruled over by the brutal dictators. Any sincere move by Pakistan which put forward the case for Islam is going to give Pakistan a leading role in the region. This would mean not only gaining leadership from Indian, Bangladeshi, and Chinese Muslims located in the Xingjian province and liberating the Afghan Muslims from occupation but also long term stability in the region.

Pakistan must move away from protecting her interests half heartedly. The policy of training militants in the region, ‘slow bleeding’ of India and supporting US and Talibans side by side is an outdated and dangerous strategy with no use in the present reality. With Khilafah system in place, the systems of Islam, will allow the Muslims of the region to unite politically, gain representative government which is only accountable to its citizens with independent judiciary and the ownership of energy and food resources to its people rather than to few capitalist.

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Faris Ali, "Pakistan signs peace pact with militants in Swat," Reuters, May 21, 2008.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan's government promised to "gradually" pull out troops from the northwestern valley of Swat after signing a peace agreement with Taliban militants on Wednesday.

The deal was done a day after the United States advised its ally against negotiating with militants, saying it could give them breathing space to plot attacks in Pakistan and abroad.

Authorities in North West Frontier Province also agreed to enforce sharia, Islamic law, in Swat in return for assurances that militants led by charismatic cleric Fazlullah will cease attacks, allow girls to go to school and stop carrying weapons in public.

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Egyptian government arrests opposition candidates

Reuters Africa (Apr 4 08) reports that Egyptian security forces have detained 30 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood just days ahead of Egypt's local council elections.

More than 300 members of Egypt's largest opposition group have been detained since last Tuesday (April 1, 2008) in the run up to elections on April 8.

According to Egyptian security forces, the men were accused of belonging to a banned group and possessing anti-government literature.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in 1924 by Hassan El-Banna, has officially been banned since 1954. Nevertheless, it operates openly and holds a fifth of the seats in the lower house of parliament through members elected as independents.

According to Amr Elshoubaki, a political analyst with the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, the Brotherhood "seems determined to reach power by promoting itself as a peaceful political force aimed at bringing about reform through gaining public support." (Al-Ahram 28 Feb-5 Mar 08).

Mohamed Badia, one of the detainee who sits on the 15-member executive committee of the Brotherhood, says that the group seeks an Islamic state through non-violent and democratic means.

Seats on local councils are important because independent candidates for the presidency need endorsements from 140 members of local councils as well as support from members of both houses of parliament.

Elshoubaki says, "While the clampdown might have dealt a heavy blow to the Muslim Brotherhood's hierarchy and disturbed its finances, the group has managed to utilise its ordeal to gain public support through its media campaigns."

Human Rights Watch, which has called the recent Brotherhood arrests a "shameless bid" to fix the upcoming elections, estimates that more than 800 members of the party have been detained without charge in recent weeks.

Amnesty International expressed concern that “many of those arrested and detained may be prisoners of conscience held for the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression and association” (IHT Apr 4 08).

Egyptian courts have issued hundreds of rulings in recent weeks obliging the government to accept the candidacies of Brotherhood members, but authorities have ignored the rulings. Amnesty also criticized detention of supporters who protested against the authorities’ refusal to implement administrative court decisions

The Muslim Brotherhood's commitment to democracy and nonviolence has been challenged; the Islamic Action Front in Jordan and Hamas in Palestine are generally understood to have been created and to some extent staffed by Brotherhood members.

On the other hand, just two weeks ago, AFP reported that the Egyptian government released 33 members of Hamas who had been detained after crossing from the Gaza Strip. (AFP Mar 23 08)Recommend this Post

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André Carrel, "Audi Alteram Partem: The Archbishop's Sharia Law ," Democracy & more, March 20, 2008.

We need a fair amount of ‘deconstruction’ of crude oppositions and mythologies. — Rowan Williams

If the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, intended to open a debate on civil and religious law in England with his February 7th foundation lecture at the Royal Courts of Justice, he succeeded, but not in the way he intended. Politicians, pundits, and editors throughout the western hemisphere reacted immediately and forcefully to the Archbishop’s suggestion that the time has come for Britain to engage in a dialogue with Muslims about the role of sharia law in British society.

Many of the reactions to the Archbishop’s lecture implied that he considered the adoption of sharia law as a parallel legal system in Britain to be inevitable. It was as if Dr. Williams had said that Britain should allow the stoning to death of women for infidelity. The full text of the Archbishop’s lecture can be found on the Internet (http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1575). It is a 6,200-word essay, carefully researched and thoughtfully reasoned. The purpose of the lecture is, in the words of Dr. Williams, “to tease out some of the broader issues around the rights of religious groups within a secular state.” The Archbishop’s lecture is about the juxtaposition of political philosophy and political theology. It is about the role of religion in family relationships and cultural communities. And it is about the boundaries of discretion and tolerance that should apply to the separation of church and state, no less a pivotal principle of a modern democracy than is respect for the fundamental right to freedom of religion and worship.

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Notes: Mark Perry and Alastair Crooke, "How to lose the war on terror, Part 4: Acts of faith," Asia Times Online, June 6, 2006.

A newly elected conservative government in Canada has reinforced its commitment to America's foreign policy, and neo-conservatives are now among the most influential voices in the French cabinet.

[That sentence is just a passing observation in Perry and Crooke's detailed, article-length discussion of neo-conservatives beginning with Leo Strauss, ending with Bernard Lewis and including reluctant neocons Paul Wolfowitz and David Horowitz. Names, publications, think-tanks, intellectual roots. Presented, not as a rogue movement that has hijacked the American conservative movement, but as an important and legitimate side of today's historical dialectic. That, of course, is how they see themselves.

Perry and Crooke dismiss those who believe "modern Western political thought has been unduly influenced by the writings and teachings of University of Chicago Professor Leo Strauss" as "followers of Lyndon LaRouche, anti-Zionists, marginalized libertarians, irritated conservatives and a range of conspiracy theorists that span the political spectrum." They then go on to describe Strauss and his disciples as if they were legitimate conservatives. The problem once again is with the two-part dialectic. -jlt]

[...]

Hitler did not come to office as the result of an election. In fact, he was soundly defeated in Germany's presidential election of 1932, but was appointed chancellor in 1933 by Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler took dictatorial powers in 1933 as the result of a "soft coup", when the Nazi leadership engineered the Reichstag fire, blamed the communists, and suspended all future elections. (Weimar official Franz von Papen was later tried at Nuremberg for his role in engineering Hitler's appointment as chancellor of Germany - and was acquitted.)

[...]

In driving Islam from the state bureaucracy, the Kemalists rooted it more firmly in the street and mosque. Kemalism thus created the conditions in which Islamism transmuted and evolved, giving space to generations of new thinkers who have challenged Islamic orthodoxy. Islam's response to Kemalism included the articulation of a politics of discontent that opposed the liquidation of Muslim identity and rejected an Ataturk-imposed Western world order.

The new Islamism refused to accept that universal values could only be imported from the Western historical narrative. Instead, they searched for universal values derived from Islam, with an emphasis on the Koran and the seed community of Muslims at Medina - an alternative historical perspective outside the Western narrative. Thus was born a decades-long hostility that has shaped the character of modern political Islamists.

[...]

we are reluctantly forced to acknowledge that the words of our most important allies, those secularized pro-Western leaders of the region - Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, President General Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan and the young King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia - mean less to the vast majority of politically engaged Islamists than the words of two Islamic leaders, dead now, with disparate beliefs and followers.

Egyptian Sayyid Qutb and Pakistani Maulana Maududi explicitly rejected Ataturk's conception of a national state as a rejection of Islamic law and culture and, in the process, freed political Islam from the constraints of clerics and scholars. Qutb argued in Milestones that Muslims do not need an Islamic hierarchy to tell them how to live; all they need do is treat the Koran as both a practical personal guide as well as a political manifesto, while Maududi (Qutb's progenitor) urged Muslims - who saw their community divided by successive generations of Western diplomats - to rediscover their common political and cultural roots in Islam.

Qutb wrote that the Koran was accessible and understandable by all, a statement that is as influential in Islam today as Martin Luther's theses were to Christianity 500 years ago. Qutb and Maududi speak to Muslims across the ages, their words repeated in sermons and books throughout the Arab world. It is their vision for the future, and not Ataturk's, that remains vibrantly alive in the Muslim world today. Recommend this Post

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