Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 18:00:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Wolf Factory <wolf_factory-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Andrew Sullivan on Islamic & Christian fundamentalism


The argument Sullivan is making is certainly more
detailed than that made by Dawkins yet essentially
boils down to the same thing: 
A) Religion is to blame for this attack because it
encourages the false belief in an afterlife and hence
cheapens the life of the terrorist committing the
murder.
B) Islam is particularly prone to violence.

The trouble with this argument is that it focuses on
Islam (or any other religion) as if it exists in a
vacuum and refuses to acknowledge the effect of other
factors on how the religion is interpreted. This leads
to certain wacky explanations. e.g. Sullivan writes:

‘Thus the horror at the establishment of the State of
Israel, an infidel country in Muslim lands, a bitter
reminder of the eclipse of Islam in the modern world.
Thus also the revulsion at American bases in Saudi
Arabia. While colonialism of different degrees is
merely political oppression for some cultures, for
Islam it was far worse. It was blasphemy that had to
be avenged and countered’

This argument flies in the face of history. The
Palestinian struggle had a definite secular face for
many decades. The PLO, in the days when it engaged in
terrorism, was clearly a secular organization. This
also applies to all the Arab governments who fought
Israel and many of the movements that have supported
them. Naser in fact oppressed and imprisoned religious
fanatics yet undoubtedly, he was considered Israel’s
no.1 foe. The mixing of fundamentalism with the
Palestinian struggle is a more recent development. The
interesting questions to ask are what happened to the
secular face of Arabic struggle? What has lead to the
rise in fundamentalism? 

Sullivan nears the border of an explanation but then
refrains from crossing over:
‘But Islamic fundamentalism is based on a glorious
civilization and a great faith. It can harness and
co-opt and corrupt true and good believers if it has a
propitious and toxic enough environment.’

He leaves us non the wiser about this ‘toxic
environment’. 

He then goes on to repeat the ‘they must be jealous of
us’ theory: 

‘It has a more powerful logic than either Stalin's or
Hitler's Godless ideology, and it can serve as a focal
point for all the other societies in the world, whose
resentment of Western success and civilization comes
more easily than the arduous task of accommodation to
modernity.’

This theory is wonderfully convenient. It basically
says: the only possible explanation for what happened
is that these people are jealous of our success. Any
grievances they have, or think they have, are
completely irrelevant. This explanation shoves aside
moderate Muslims who have embraced modernity yet
continue to voice their resentment over western
foreign policies. 

Certainly the rise of Islamic fundamentalism is a
worrying development and must be combated. However, we
will fail to do so if we resort to this kind of
reductive argument that handpicks certain explanations
while completely ignoring others.

W.F.

--- Paul Brians <brians-AT-mail.wsu.edu> wrote:
> Andrew Sullivan's article on fundamentalism in the
> New York Times 
> Magazine goes beyond the superficial views being
> commonly circulated. 
> Thought-provoking.
> 
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/07/magazine/07RELIGION.html
> 
> -- 
> Paul Brians, Department of English
> Washington State University
> Pullman, WA 99164-5020
> brians-AT-wsu.edu
> http://www.wsu.edu/~brians
> 
> 
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> postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---


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