In my article, “How to Understand Islamism: Read What Its Leaders Actually Say,” I wrote about how Sunni Islamist leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi:
“Does
not talk about the need for urbanization, the equality of women, modern
education, and greater freedom as the solution. Indeed, his view is
totally contrary to a leftist or liberal or nationalist Muslim who would
stress the need to borrow any ideas and methods other than purely
technological ones, from the West in order to gain equality and even
superiority. Think of how Asia has succeeded–Japan, South Korea,
Singapore, and now even China–through eagerness to blend borrowings,
adaptation, and its own historic culture. No, for al-Qaradawi the issue
[of why the Muslim world hasn’t done better] is completely one of the
abandonment of Islam."
A
reader pointed out that in the West, it is assumed to be obvious that
Arabs understand that material advancement is necessary for progress and
power. For example, Tom Friedman talked about the UN Arab Human
development report written by Arab liberals. In other words, the
Arabic-speaking world is shaped by the failure of leaders to understand
that Western pundits know far more about their society than they do.
Understanding
that Friedman doesn’t understand the Middle East, though he has
persuaded a big audience otherwise, is the beginning of wisdom on the
region. He still insists:
“Read
the U.N.’s 2002 Arab Human Development Report about what deficits of
freedom, women’s empowerment and knowledge did to Arab peoples over the
last 50 years. Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and Syria are not falling
apart today because their leaders were toppled. Their leaders were
toppled because for too many years they failed too many of their people.
Half the women in Egypt still can’t read. That’s what the stability of
the last 50 years bought.”
But
this is not the real issue. It is because—as happened in the USSR, Nazi
Germany, and elsewhere in history—the problem is radical ideology in
command on the sides of both leaders and the masses. As a result, the
masses of the Middle East don't care about deficits but mainly about
conformity, hatred of the "Other," killing, revenge, and--to borrow a
term--what is Politically Correct, not Factually Correct. As for the
rulers, they know how devastating in terms of stability the kind of
policies naive Westerners are.
Remember,
the West saw the fall of Communism as the blooming of democracy; the
Middle Eastern leaders see it as the wilting of empires. The West
remembers the passing of the Soviet bloc as the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Middle East leaders saw it as the fall of their counterparts, and
the putting of Romania's dictatorial couple, the Ceausescu's, in front
of a firing squad. Now, 20 years later, Mubarak is in prison and Qadhafi
was killed.
Is
Syria in a state of civil war because the regime failed its people or
because it tried to ride the tiger by toying with the promotion of Sunni
Islamism? Perhaps the regimes inevitably must fail their people because
of a lack of resources, the state of their societies, the nature of the
dominant ideas, and the era of anarchy that would have to be unleashed
by even the best attempt to address the "deficits."
And
perhaps there is a Western"deficit" in understanding the Middle East, a
failure to take religion, ideology, and radicalism seriously; the
inability to grasp truly that one is dealing with a different history
and culture.
Often
in this case I think of an incident that happened shortly after the
U.S. overthrow of the Taliban regime after September 11, 2001.
Pro-Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners rioted and an incredibly brave CIA
man went in to try to deal with the situation. He said to one of the
Arab al-Qaida volunteers, "Why did you come here [to Afghanistan]?" It
was the typical Enlightenment question, an attempt to gain knowledge,
the belief that dialogue leads to better understanding.
The
al-Qaida terrorist replied, "I came here to kill you." He knew what he
wanted and would not be reasoned with or dissuaded by an explanation
that his real enemy was a deficit of women's inequality. The mob
preceded to murder the American brutally.
Now,
the United States is still trying to negotiate with the Taliban, to
find its moderate wing; the Taliban and al-Qaida still want to murder
Americans. And they do.
Think
of the perfect symbolism of what happened on February 18, 2011, in
Cairo’s Tahrir Square which shows where the locals think the West can
physically insert its deficits. President Husni Mubarak had just been
overthrown in the “Arab Spring.” There was the huge rally to greet
al-Qaradawi with an estimated one million people, ten times what the
“moderates” (many of whom were Muslim Brothers in disguise) had been
able to muster.
Wael
Ghonim, an executive of Google on leave who had been a leader of the
revolt, a young man of about 30 and married to an American convert to
Islam tried to get on the platform. He was thrown off. Since then,
Ghonim has been a political zero.
And so Ghonim, the 30-something hero in the West, got to be in Time Magazine’s
list of the world’s 100 most influential people; was presented by the
JFK Profile in Courage Aware (whose name was based on a book that had
Kennedy’s name on it but was written by my PhD advisor, Professor Jules
Davids) by Caroline Kennedy on behalf of “the people of Egypt.” He was
listed as the second most powerful Arab in the world by Arabian Business
magazine for leading Egyptian youth.
Yet
perhaps it would have been more appropriate if the award had been given
by a hijab-wearing Caroline Kennedy to the Muslim Brotherhood
leadership, who really represented "the people of Egypt."
What happened to the 80-something al-Qaradawi? Oh, he didn’t get any Western awards or plaudits. He just got Egypt.
Perhaps
you remember the old joke about two guys fishing. One says: "I know
everything about fishing because I've read all the books about it."
To which his companion replies, "But have the fish read the books?"
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