Islam and the west: extremists in alliance.

• Author: Shaban, Fuad

FROM A PURELY PERSONAL VIEWPOINT, based on religious and logical principles, I did not subscribe to the view that a 'war of cultures' between Islam and the West is inevitable. I had been steadfast in this belief until I began researching world events and trends of thought that have risen during the last two centuries. This has given me some insight into the growth in power and popular appeal of certain extreme ideologies--religious, political and social--throughout the world. And this has caused me to pause and question somewhat my optimism regarding the possibility of a war of cultures.

I still think (or would like to think) that a cultural war based on purely religious beliefs is not inevitable, especially if the all-but-silent majority throughout the Muslim and Western worlds becomes active on the religious and political fronts.

Religions differ on some basic beliefs, and on many details of faith and practice. However, followers of many religions have actually lived in peace and harmony in the same communities or in contiguity for ages and have had amicable, indeed very close, relations.

Coexistence and peaceful relations among different faiths do not result only from pragmatic reasons and those of self preservation. A more compelling reason is the layers of common values and principles that are basic to all religious beliefs. The Ten Commandments have equivalents in Christianity, Islam and other systems of belief. Tolerance towards other faiths and the principles of human rights are also common to all religions, if to varying degrees as a result of the cultural and immediate social environments.

So what happened to change the friendly peaceful relations among religious communities to attitudes of belligerence and suspicion?

Let us consider the following scenes and events that have become rather familiar in recent years.

SCENE I:

On a clear serene September morning and just before nine o'clock, an American commercial airplane flew into one of the twin towers of the Trade Center in the heart of New York city, and a few minutes later, before people were able to figure out what was happening, a second commercial passenger airplane hit the second tower. Scenes of devastation and mayhem followed; the towers and another building eventually collapsed with indescribable speed. Three thousand innocent civilians, including policemen and firefighters, were killed. Another plane went down in Pennsylvania and another flew into the Pentagon.

The devastation caused by this willful act of terror can only be matched in its enormity by the gleeful boast of the Bin Laden camp over this 'act of martyrdom' carried out by its recruits 'in the cause of Islam'.

America was shocked and everyone grieved for the victims and their families and expressed anger and rejection of acts of terrorism. This willful act of mass murder was condemned by all peoples of the world. Yet, on television and on the internet, self-styled Islamic jihadists, described in Western circles as 'Islamic extremists' and 'Islamic terrorists', aired videos of turbaned and masked men chanting slogans in broken English and in Arabic:

Kill the agents of Satan! Drive the infidels out of our land! Declare jihad against the enemies of Allah! Death to America! And in some mosques in the Arab-Muslim World a few imams call for jihad against the infidels and excite young and old by trumpeting their distorted call for jihad.

SCENE II:

On a beautiful breezy summer day and in an outdoor interview open to the public hosted by Chris Matthews, an attractive young blond lady sat across from the host (Mathews 2007). The lady had on a casual-looking, rather revealing pink dress, her hair fluttering over her face and shoulders in the light wind. One could not in any way mistake Ann Coulter for a violent radical activist. Yet the words she uttered to the applause of some young men and women in the background are frightening:

Bomb their societies! Bomb their societies! Collateral damage happens in a war. Civilians get killed! Why are we afraid of killing civilians? Why are we afraid of collateral damage? We killed more people in the battle for Hamburg than we have killed in the whole Iraq War! I confess that I had some difficulty keeping tab of the number of times the attractive lady used the words 'kill' and 'bomb'; not only because of the speed with which she spurted them out, but because of the chill they sent through my being! I experienced the same horror which I had gone through years ago when I read over and over again Kurtz' dying words in The Heart of Darkness: "exterminate the brutes".

SCENE III:

On 25 February 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a retired Israeli army doctor, entered a mosque in Hebron, Palestine, and shot Muslim worshippers in the back during prayer killing 29 and injuring scores more. In the event, Goldstein himself was shot dead (Shahak and Mezvinsky 2004).

Two days later there were posters in the streets of religious quarters of Jerusalem and other Israeli cities and settlements praising Goldstein and 'his heroic act', expressing regrets that he did not kill more Arabs. His name became synonymous with martyrdom, and he was praised for "curing Israel of its ills". There were lengthy negotiations between the extreme religious community in Israel and the authorities over the official procession route of the cortege of this 'martyr'. The religious parties wanted to parade Goldstein's body in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem and Hebron. President Weizman advised that these wishes be respected. The Mayor of Kiryat Arbaa threatened that if these demands were not met the settlers "would make a pogrom of Arabs." Chief of Staff Barak's reasons for not accepting these demands were simple: "The army was afraid that Arabs would desecrate Goldstein's tomb and carry away his corpse." Kiryat Arbaa rabbi, Dor Lior, declared that "since Goldstein did what he did in God's own name, he is to be regarded as a righteous man". The army provided a guard of honor for Goldstein's mausoleum. At the funeral a number of rabbis eulogized Goldstein, and Rabbi Israel Ariel declared that "the holy martyr, Baruch Goldstein, is from now on our intercessor in heaven.... the Jews inherit the land not by any peace agreement but only by shedding blood."

SCENE IV:

On 16 July 2007, Christians United for Israel held their annual...